Wow. Just - wow. A writer I know once told me that some of the HarRo writers were actually men using pen names. I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse about this book.

I sort of love Lil Mama, mostly because of America's Next Dance Crew and how totally insane she sounds when she's critiquing the crews. My friends and I were going to play a drinking game where we take shots if we understand what the hell she's on about. I never knew somebody could sound so encouraging while at the…

My sewing skills are a lot like my foreign language skills: I know enough to be functional, but not nearly enough to do anything actually impressive. But my advice is, if you can learn how to sew buttons, adjust straps, hem, and take in the (insert problem area here; for me it's my bust), you've covered 75% of what…

@PetiteGal: My thoughts exactly. There are more colors in the rainbow than black and white. And on top of that, I'm torn whether this is actually a step forward. Is it just another example of tokenism? "Look, we did the black issue! We're not racist!" is pretty similar to "But I have a black friend, I'm not…

Isn't this basically Maslow's hierarchy of needs? I know that as long as I have the basics down - food, shelter, health care - I'm pretty happy, no matter how much money I'm making. The problem in this country is that for most of us these things are so precarious, even if we are middle-class. It's crazy that in…

I second the people who are asking whether the depressive disorders thing is biological or environmental. Children of color are also more likely to be depressed than white children; is this biological or a result of societal inequities? (My instinct is societal.)

For a while i was obsessed with buying property, especially since I live in SoCal so I feel like if I don't get in the market now, I'm going to be shut out again for ten years. But this article on the nytimes made me feel better: Is It better to Buy or Rent?

I think having overeducated parents (and grandparents) has definitely helped me escape this, despite the whole immigrant thing. I have never been asked the marriage question; however I am asked AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK about when I'm going back to school - anything, even a master's, although a law degree would be nice,…

@Inkymonkey: Your pseudonym comment reminded me of Andre Norton. There was a big brouhaha when people found out she was a woman. Like, "How dare you fool us into reading your books! I would never have enjoyed it had I known you were a woman!"

@sacapuntas: A friend of mine got doored the other day, and the driver got out of the car TO YELL AT HER. My boyfriend gets embarrassed when we bike because I always yell "ON YOUR LEFT!" at the top of my lungs when I pass a car about to pull out of a driveway. I think I nearly gave a woman a heart attack, but she…

I can't even be home for more than 24 hours, let alone live there. I moved out at 17 and have NEVER moved back, not even for the summers between semesters. I'm trying to save for a down payment, and I know I could save almost $10,000 by living at home, but even $10K is NOT WORTH IT. And the "murder/jail" thing? I…

for everyone who is saying that we won't be seeing Social Security money - don't buy into that bullshit! The government keeps caterwauling about how SS is in the dumps, but if you investigate it, it's not. It's a ploy to get the younger generations to disinvest from it, so that when they finally take away the last…

@hamburgerhotdog: "You can keep your jobs and pay more for insurance or you can not have your jobs." - That's a false binary if ever there was one.

@TheFormerJuneBronson:I think in many fields it's not uncommon (and sometimes very common.) I worked at a hospital where none of the nurses knew what other nurses were making, and would GET IN TROUBLE with their supervisors if they tried to find out. After a long fight to win a union, they found out that there were…

I love it when science backs me up. My parents actually told me once that they didn't hit my younger sisters because "we found out it didn't work after trying it on you."

My old Catholic school had a spare skirt for girls who had rolled up their kilts too high - and on the butt, in bright yellow, the administration had spray painted "LOANER". Still didn't stop the wannabe babymamas at my school from rolling up the kilt.

This is coming from the same man who refused to stop using the term "gook" in 2000 ([www.sfgate.com]), so really, I'm not all that surprised.

All I can think is, if you're planning on having kids with someone, wouldn't you sort of want them to think of incest as KINDA NOT NORMAL? That's the part that weirds me out the most - knowingly raising a child with someone who is willing to breach those sexual boundaries.

@Kataluna: In a way our taxes do support some celebrity shit: how much did the most recent gargantuan police escort for Britney Spears' hospitalization cost? Or the fire stations in Malibu that can only feasibly protect 3 celebrity mansions because the houses are so huge and a fire breaks out EVERY YEAR (not to…

When I read "separated at birth" I thought that they had been conjoined twins *literally* separated at birth. Ha.