Stupid sexy Flanders.

I'd be tempted to try it, or try just using initials or something, just to see if it works.

I would expect a teacher to recognize that the fact that she still believes herself to be right doesn't negate the fact that she was engaging in the fallacy of increasingly diminishing the group of which she was speaking in order to be able to ignore any contrary examples.

"TRULY" feeling good about oneself is a pretty obvious True Scotsman fallacy. Try again.

I think people may just be getting the cause and effect mixed up. Many people who hate fat people are afraid of becoming fat, because they know they'd feel a terrible sense of shame to be what they hate. People often confuse it with hating fat people because of that fear, but it all comes from the same place of awful…

my solution to the B-list thing is, if we have extra space at the end I'll call up some people who originally did not get a +1 and ask them if they'd like to bring a date.

I've been wondering about this. We wanted to invite 100, got conned by FMIL to making that more like 115, and we're sort of counting on that effect to get us within bounds we're more comfortable with. But try as I might I can only think of about 8–10 people who would conceivably not show up (and that's including those…

On the other hand, odds you might die during your day of coal-mining > odds you might die parenting your child.

"It's harder than being a dad, that's for damn sure."

This is happening more and more, but people aren't talking about it a ton because one or both still feel the need for the ring-pop-moment to make it "official" and/or feel like they've done it "right." So those talks happen over a period of time, then you enter a state of sly secret knowledge coupled with overwhelming…

You know, I'd love it if there was recognition by all those beauty mags that white girls have different textures of hair too. I have extremely thick wavy red hair, and as I've gotten older I seem to be developing a kitchen... which still dismays me a bit. As you might be able to tell, I've had more luck learning about…

This. It's lazy work habits. Did you know that type designers use a "multiple master" system so that when you set a word at 8pt, 24, and 12", it's usually actually sampling from a different drawing that's optically adjusted to keep it looking the same at those different sizes? Same thing that fashion designers are…

see to me this is the problem. In other design disciplines, there is a line between art and design. Art is self-created, you are your own client, you do what you want. Designers have clients, and the needs of those clients are valid—whether they need more space in their building to house the number of employees in…

But what if the guy was also 14, ergo equally incapable of consent?

I never would have come up with "don't worry" meaning, "don't worry, I won't rape you." That sort of statement is usually followed more like, "don't worry, it doesn't hurt," or, "don't worry, I'll be gentle," or "don't worry, I have a condom." All of those would come to mind before "don't worry, I won't rape you"…

I'm actually completely with you on this. A lot of the people responding to my original comment seem to be interpreting it as saying she should just let it go, and that's not my intention at all. Just because you listen and learn more doesn't mean you don't still protect your kid.

I think she can still say, I can't involve myself while you're with him because my child needs to come first. But when you're ready to extricate yourself from this situation, then I'll be here. Knowing you have people who'll support you getting out of the crazy is so much better than thinking you have to go it alone…

I never said that it was an illness. I'm just saying, the OP is calling out the author for making some assumptions based on what she reads into the letter, which she herself is making some equally big assumptions. Abuser =/= mentally ill, but assuming abuse seems equally presumptuous as assuming mental illness.

Exactly what I was thinking. You don't want to dump someone because they're getting abused. Keep it all away from your kidlets for sure, but listen and use your judgement about whether either of them still need your support as a friend.

There's something a little ironic about saying she shouldn't bring up mental illness as a possibility and then deciding it's obviously an abusive relationship in the same breath... clearly everyone reads into the letters a bit.