Your last sentence is gutwrenchingly depressing but also quite true.

I missed the old Anne too. Her marriage to Gilbert was just so boring at the end, but I've always loved the joy she had in her children. I couldn't bear to think of her having nothing happy in her life. Even though the kids seem to steal her vitality, she was at least in love with them.

I cannot watch the Anne of Green Gables series without bawling my eyes out at EVERY SINGLE MATTHEW SCENE! He just breaks my heart in a good way.

I remember in the books that Marilla had been in love with Gilbert's father (or was it Diana's?), and had been too proud to take the chance at a life with him. I believe she even gives Anne advice about Gilbert from that perspective.

A lot of that was that LM Montgomery was sick of Anne. She wanted to move on, but Anne was so popular that she relied on her for income to support her sick husband. The reason Anne becomes drained of passion is because LM Montgomery became drained of passion for her, and was faking it.

That should be Michelle Obama's next campaign slogan.

I mean.... talk about how we'd treat the conversation differently if Jay had hit Solange. Talk about how celebrities are just as badly behaved as us. Talk about how odd it is that Bey didn't come to either of their defense.

My husband is German and also liked* to wear taller socks with shorts. However, he always wears black socks, nary a white sock in the drawer.

Ahh yes, my SO is also fond of this "look." I call it the "German Tourist."

maybe the star she's talking about is Gwyneth Paltrow, who tells nothing but salubrious stories.

I love this one particularly because it suggests an alternate universe where farts are sentient beings who...also fart? Maybe farting is how they reproduce? I don't know.

Serious question: is a melody always inextricable from one of its many social contexts? Does being used once in a way that we now find distasteful mean that it can never be used again? "The (Old) Rose Tree" became "Turkey in the Straw" became, unfortunately, "Zip Coon," and "Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" …

The trucks that scream "HELLO" scare the shit out of me.

Two words: Public domain.

The one that roves my parent's neighborhood plays "pop goes the weasel" - over and over and over. Even my nephews wanted to make it stop (after they got the ice cream, of course)

I honestly don't know what mine plays. But it does talk. It says hello and it neighs like a horse.

Auctioneering is pretty heavy stuff. The auctioneer is creating legally binding contracts in seconds in front of a huge room of people. And they have to be engaging and exciting and tell jokes. Watching good ones work is pretty amazing.

Yes, and the Africans were allowed to witness the greatness of auctioneering first hand.