There’s also the issue of “birth tourism” where wealthy parents (generally Asian and Nigerian) come to the US to have their babies, recover, get their kid’s US passports, and then go back home. This is done largely to facilitate possible future emigration to the US but for wealthy Chinese couples, also a way to…

My current job hired me because I was observant, polite, and had problem-solving skills. You can’t underestimate polite. Half the challenge of an interview is seeing how well you’ll fit into the office environment.

Oh, he was an ass. Lied like a rug, mistreated people, kept his romances dangling on a string like a catnip mouse....never really figured out his problem, except that I just wanted nothing to do with him.

Some years ago, I met a guy, went out on a few casual dates with him, and decided not to pursue anything further for various reasons. No biggie. A few years later, I’m at a gathering and there he is! After a bit of mingling, I have a chance to say hello to him and ask how he’s been doing, reminding him of how we went…

The actual clinical term for that, used among dentists and other medical professionals, is “pizza mouth.” No lie.

I have to confess to a certain fondness for the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza kits, mostly nostalgia. In the rural area I grew up in, there was no delivery, and no local pizzeria. You wanted pizza? You drove into the city to Pizza Hut or you made Chef Boy-Ar-Dee because you can be damn sure there was no pizza sauce or…

OK, I kinda see where you’re coming from, but I find your viewpoint limited and myopic.

Although now it occurs to me to wonder if you’re trying to do a parody of the smug, shallow, trite advice that silly people trot out when sentiments like these are expressed. Is this a parody?

You’re not her therapist.

Just when you ACTUALLY let it go, love will be there waiting for you,

Wow. OK, let me explain a few things.

I appreciate the dismissal of the “You’ll find someone when you’re not looking!” myth. That fairy tale is responsible for far too much loneliness, hurt, and frustration. I’ve had friends discourage me from trying to look because they found their partners by chance...but they refuse to consider that maybe they are the…

Often, when I asked Mom why I had to do so much work, I got the reply, “You get food on the table! You get a roof over your head!” They made our family life very transactional; I had to do certain services to get room and board, period. It was a difficult time. They had a huge vegetable garden and grew all sorts of…

I remember my mom gave me a huge list of chores to do when I was a teen. It was above and beyond the usual thing, and annoyed, I asked what was in it for me. Rare for her, she acknowledged that her demands were above and beyond. I could see her desperately trying to think of some reward she and Dad could give me.…

I was in a play over the summer where we had to spend one of our rehearsals going over stage slapping and choking. We found another video that calls for the victim to slap their hands while the aggressor mocks the move...it worked well. I had to stage-choke another actor in one scene, and I remembered a technique a…

I nervously explained to a friend recently that I had gone into therapy, and he said, “Don’t blame you, you’ve been through a lot.” I stopped and thought...in the last 5 years (almost exactly), I moved to a new city, my father died (THE SAME DAY I MOVED), I lost the job I had moved to the new city for…

Jab a large, clean nail through your potato before putting in the oven. Cooks faster that way. Do not use in the microwave, or obvious reasons.

I’m rather oddly fond of Weather Underground’s app for weather. Hard to say why, except part of me loves the connecting to local backyard weather stations.

This is how I feel. I had an email for years through Verizon, which I thought would be good and stable....NOPE. A few years ago they suddenly announced they were discontinuing email service. I’m fine with Gmail for now but I would want something more secure...and I want something with some permanence...and, frankly,…

One proposed idea is to insert such a culture into a baby’s mouth at birth. So many of our body’s microbes are passed on to us from out mothers....the birth canal swarms with microbes during pregnancy, and there are suspicions that the upswing in c-sections has led to an upswing in assorted chronic syndromes....again,…