I think Voyager suffered a little too much from trying to be respectful to various characters. Later Vulcans also make it clear just how good Leonard Nimoy was at imbuing Spock with humor and life. Oh, Harry Kim was another dud—that was the actor. I wish they'd kept Jennifer Lien and dumped him. Seven of Nine was,…

Oh, most of those just sort of made me cringe. Chakotay ended up with Seven of Nine never worked for me either. Actually, the less Chakotay the better—boring character. Janeway was okay, but Kate Mulgrew's a lot more entertaining in Orange is the New Black.

I'm older—so the Iron Curtain was still up when I saw this in middle school and learned that animation could be really, really depressing—and banned. This is the last film Jiri Trnka ever made. The authorities weren't too happy.

I had the same reaction—I had to double-check where I was reading—a clear article that was actually debunking bad pop science. Between that and the thoughtful review of Lena Dunham's book on Gawker by the new features editor things are feeling oddly grown-up around here.

Ooh, boy, a sports parent—they're all sorts of levels of insane. My kid does theatre and a sport—there are some stage mothers I've met, but sports parents are actually worse. Or maybe it's just that the theatre group my kid does stuff with bans parents from attending rehearsals and auditions. The sports team on the…

"Read to me as a choice to return to work" is an assumption—you admit you read her initial comment one way—i.e. you made an assumption about it. Given that many readers did not read it the same way, the assumption-making is on you.

Oh, been there done that—she's old enough that it's going to be the other way around.

Well, my kid's in middle school and, yes, no one cares about early parenting because you realize, looking back, it was all more of a crap shoot than you originally thought. There's still a large amount of insecurity and humble-bragging, but you're a bit more up against the wall because at that point, your kid's…

Everyone with a toxic parent needs an SO like that.

Thanks for writing a thoughtful critique of Dunham's book. While I don't think I'll bother reading it, I get tired of kneejerk Dunham slamming, this was actually a thought-out critique.

Wow. And you know her circumstances because? Maybe she'd like to actually be able to pay her mortgage. Maybe there are long-term repercussions if she doesn't go back to work. I changed careers when I had a kid to accommodate being a parent—years later, I'm feeling pretty serious financial repercussions.

Choices…

well, there's that too.

Hey, at least you never think what a great grandmother she would have made. Stay strong.

Yeah, it's worse—plastic doesn't reject other plastic with its immune system.

Depends where you are. Sweden has a low birth rate. Africa still has an issue with a high birth rate, but with other places, the problem isn't the current birth rate, but the past one combined with increased life expectancy. As a planet, we're kind of screwed, but not because someone had a baby in Sweden.

Thanks—oh, I think I've gotta go do something parental.

Now, that's an awesome reply to an asinine question.

And, you, yourself are coming off as incredibly judgmental and intolerant. You are aware of that, no?

It didn't strike me as super-judgmental and massively privileged—some of the responses on the other hand. God forbid anyone ever be at peace with how she mothers her child. God forbid that other people don't assume their style of parenting is being judged.

The amount of maternal insecurity these days is just…

I'm just glad I put off piano lessons until she was willing to practice on her own—I'm way too lazy to manage proper helicopter parenting.