Yep. I actually found the map really interesting that way. I had never really thought about the blockades, though I knew they existed. I hadn't realized just how extensive and comprehensive they were from early on. I think I always thought of them as just blocking key harbors, but it looks a lot more extensive…

Actually, the little thread of blue down the Mississippi is what really struck me—that's your main inland waterway right there—that and New Orleans made me think, wow, the South never had a chance—the North had its main thoroughfare and bisected the South in two pretty early on.

That and how Sherman's March through…

Sounds like she *did* plan out her options, but didn't realize Uber did things like jack up the price 900 percent late in the evening. No one defending Uber here has managed to justify or rationalize that kind of a surcharge.

I see, so it's either/or with you—government run or unfettered capitalism. That doesn't even begin to make sense.

Sorry, Uber isn't a *luxury* service. Those of us with some money own cars or arrange for limos or whatever. Uber's a competitor with taxi cabs, as you say, so why shouldn't it be subject to regulations…

But I'm not a gay man, though I do like Jane Austen, and I've guilt-read my share of trashy romances. I enjoyed *Outlander*. My friends enjoyed Twilight as a good guilt-read, which is how I ended up with a copy (loaner). But I *still* couldn't take it. I just found the writing so clunky that I was bored. It sat…

No one's forcing me. I don't take Uber. BUT I have issues with a company that creates a situation where someone could be stranded in an unsafe area unless she coughs up 9 times the standard rate.

People forget that private businesses can and should be regulated. Free-for-all capitalism has never cut it—or would…

Yep, I kind of read this to see what it was about and I like Charlie Jane's writing, but I actually don't hate-watch. Life really is too short and there really are other more interesting things to do. I've hate-read a couple of things—*Twilight* being the example that springs to mind. But that was mostly because I…

Yes, I know that. But, again, they're nowhere near a 900 percent mark-up AND you can lock in the price ahead of time. This apparently isn't an option on Uber, so you're stuck with a huge surcharge v. being stranded. It's an ugly business. I'd hate to think of my daughter hanging out in the middle of the night on a…

I get that. BUT if you expect to take Uber round trip, you're pretty much stuck unless you accept the surge charge on the return. And, yes, there are peak charges BUT they're not a 900 percent mark-up. And you can book ahead and fix a price, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

So, I'd say that this kind of…

A 900 percent mark-up? Show me. I've seen prices bump up, but not nine-fold.

No, everyone doesn't know. I drive my own car—and I'm stunned that any service would charge 9X normal during "surge" hours—that's a hell of a mark-up and I don't think it's reasonable. I can't think of any other service that has a 900 percent mark-up on price. Hotels don't. Taxis don't. Airlines don't. It's…

Okay, that makes total sense. Flies, dung. Phew. Well, I suppose this is all, er, natural in that sense.

I figured it would be funny, but it's also sweet and charming. I used to have to write the occasional obituary when I worked weekends at a newspaper (this was longggg ago kids, when such things still existed) and none came even close to anything like this. There's much to be said for a well-done obit.

This is what I want to know about—the original food source here—oh, and why did no one do anything about this in the plant in the first place. No one ever sweeps or hoses things down?

Now, see, that's how I think I'd like to be with a haunted house, unless the spirit involved were strong and malevolent, I think I could deal with flickering and such for a cut in rent.

Right. When reasonably well-off women were advanced in their pregnancies, they pretty much were expected to stay at home. Also, early in the pregnancy, corsets could be worn, but the stays (laces) were loosened. It wasn't expected that women who'd had children would have 18-inch waists, though they'd still be…

Yes, she achieved it. She wasn't huge, but she was 5'4". I'm quite a bit taller, but my natural waist when I was 18 was 23 inches, so I don't doubt that with boning and "training" I could have gotten it down to 18 1/2 inches. And promptly fainted.

First, I'm not a dude. Second, I've given birth and when you're nine months pregnant, it's actually impressive just how pushed up and moved around your internal organs are.

Women died of infections, hemmorhaging, eclampsia, etc. They died that way before corsets were around and after. They didn't wear corsets during…

Corseting in the 1500s smashed the breasts, but didn't do the waist squeezing of the 19th century. And, yes, not all women squeezed into 18 inch waists, it was the fashion and prevalent enough that my grandmother coming of age in the 1910s wanted a corset for her 18th birthday and it was a big deal to her to get her…

Pregnancy has its own way of pushing around the organs. Sort of the original corset discipline as it were.