Jephte's Daughter is a story, at its heart, of a woman in a domestic abuse situation. It really has nothing to do with religion or Judaism, just a man with control issues. Let me know when you get to the end.

News flash: California cut funding from literally every area of education that you can have. I'm not crying over the specific plight of pregnant teens when high-IQ children, special needs children, and basically everyone in between has been on the chopping block.

I love Woodbury Commons and can't get there. I wish there was a comparative place in LA.

No one shops at Needless Markup. No one.

Same here! I always get glance in their window, say, "ooooh!" Then I go in and try it on, and it looks like an ill-fitting sewing project from when I was in middle school.

Well, my first child's labor was about four hours long, and the second about three.

It's possible. But notice how women who are more likely to go into pre-term labor, or are on bedrest to avoid preterm labor aren't in this study. It's possible that sex doesn't induce labor, but that the strenuousness/muscle spasms/sperm might tip someone over the edge.

This will probably be scarier than the Halloween posts.

Doesn't the pith make it a bit bitter?

I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS RECIPE. Sorry for the all caps, but I just saw this expensive little plastic container of cranberry orange relish at Trader Joes, and was aspiring to make it myself on the cheap.

I never like cooking poultry at high temperatures for short amounts of time. I like the low and slow methods, and I cook my turkeys at 350 for hours and hours. I only use those Turkey breast roasts and I still cook them for five plus hours. Basting a lot towards the end. It's how you get soft, moist meat.

I've never used a cooked carcass for making soup. Isn't all the flavor cooked out of it already?

Did you buy her latest cookbook? I NEVER buy cookbooks, but for some reason, I took a chance and bought hers, and I already made the cheddar rolls, the avocado/cucumber toasts thing, her BANANA CREPE CAKE, her sugar snap pea salad, and I'm eyeing that french toast thing.

Can I just arbitrarily be pregnant every year and get this tax credit? It's not like there are any Pregnant Certificates awarded with Social Security numbers for the unborn.

I find this weird. I'm happy for her and all that, but modelling is just become bizarro world where no one looks like how people actually look.

Also upside: Women don't have to worry about smarmy pharmacists refusing to sell it to them. Another upside: Catholic Institutions can have a collective heart attack.

I'm not Christian, but I don't understand this:

It amazes me about how many random events are considered obvious indications of "war crimes" and "breeches of international law", when they're nothing of the sort.

Hee. You're funny. No, I read Good Omens and was crazy about that book, so I pulled some Terry Pratchett books to read, and those were the ones I found. Haven't read anything else.

Is it just me, or is most of Terry Pratchett books very overlong books that essentially repeat the same detail for most of it? I felt like I was getting hammered over the head with Going Postal and The Long Earth.