I am enjoying it, but I’m getting very uncomfortable with the fact that they’re expanding so many minor characters’ stories while ignoring the impact of Offred’s mother from the time before. So much about the book had to do with the rift between young women and old (often feminist, radical, strident) women—the young…

Dick move indeed.

Timmies in smaller towns seem to have the coconut ones more than Timmies in big cities. We often get them on road trips.

Austen doesn’t address rape, at least overtly (although there is some really dark stuff regarding Col. Brandon’s ward and her mother, his beloved who was “ruined” when forcefully separated from him—you have to read between the lines to understand that the mother was passed from man to man and died horribly from what…

I wonder if any of the “haven’t met a gay person before” people knew that they had, in fact, likely met several gay people who no way, no how, would let them know they were gay? Or have met people in deep denial about their sexuality because, oh, systemic heterosexism?

Cloves and chili powder are gay anyway. Cloves=cloven hooves=the devil. Chili is spicy and might lead to spiciness=sex.

That book, and its sequel, were fantastic little subversive things (you’re right—not exactly revolutionary, but quietly undermining the status quo)—both practical (in an era when making food with canned soup was just peachy, the whole point was to put together a few easy, reasonably tasty recipes that your family…

Here’s the thing—when I invite people in, I can ask them to leave. I have never been an actual host in a situation where someone can force his way into my house and be allowed to stay, or where I am forced to tolerate guests for three weeks if we had planned on a weekend.

Oh yeah, the advice. I get that it comes from (or can come from) a loving place, but I’m with Barbara Ehrenreich on this—in Bright Sided, she argues that we live in a culture that firmly believes that we can overcome anything, even cancer in the case of this book, with the right attitude. And it’s to our detriment,…

Hell yeah, and the attachment is mutual. My previous cat and I actually startled our vet—I got upset in an appointment, my cat reacted, and the vet’s comment was something like, wow, that’s a blood connection. This current cat is closer, if possible. My cats are my babies—and my husband’s babies—but we’re not stupid…

Hell yeah, I’ve loved Good King Wenceslas ever since I was a little kid. That and We Three Kings (I was a terrible kid; I would belt out the part about suffering, sighing, bleeding, dying). I like Christmas music with some darkness and sorrow in it—something that reminds us what Christmas is up against (this is also…