I had a housemate once who went through a bad break-up and went from party girl to alcoholic. In the process of doing so, she drank *everything* in the house. I'm not much of a drinker, so I didn't mind that much when she dusted a nearly full bottle of amaretto. But I was pissed when she drank both my vanilla and…

Mine is a little lighter in flavor than commercial, but the flavor is good. You do need a source for cheap vanilla beans—I ordered a bunch online. Basically, you use the inside of the vanilla beans and then stick the pod in vodka. I just keep adding pods and vodka as a I go. A couple of weeks go by and you have…

Don't drink and drive. Don't drink and tattoo. Otherwise middle-aged types like myself get to gleefully tut-tut over kids today.

I think there's more competition on Amazon—for the reviewers. People are encouraged to review the reviewers and if you, say, write a review that gets a lot of helpfuls, Amazon starts sending you requests to review things. I assume if you respond and you do a number of reviews, you get offered the Vine thing, which…

Wow, you guys sound nice—even your comment is that of an inherently nice person.

I've used Yelp, but I read pretty deep into it if I'm going to do so. For restaurants, I prefer Chowhounds—less moderated, more back and forth, posters are a little more accountable, so you don't get the same burn for no good reason issue.

My favorite pizza joint (in the Sierras) has a very quirky owner, quirky…

Funny, I used to turn over imaginary action movie scenarios in my mind—and one of my most out-there ideas was using a kid as a potential suicide bomber just because it was so purely evil.

I have two relatives with honest-to-god celiac disease and even they wonder about the fad for gluten-free.

Oh damn it, I'd finally gotten to the point where I wasn't thinking about ASOIAF and wanting to see Winds of Winter RIGHT NOW, and now you pull me right back in again.

Oh I'm with you. I saw the film before the series and I got no sense of the characters. I've finally seen the series and I'm curious to the movie again because I don't really recall what happens in it or why I should care. I thought it was cool looking and the basic universe concept was great, but I didn't get a…

It's weird—back in the mid-70s or so it wasn't that big a deal and then, whoosh, it became a big deal with a Time magazine cover on it and people bemoaning their fate. I think with the arrival of AIDS on the scene, which was truly a big and scary deal, all STDs became big black marks.

If they shared a bed, I really don't think the couple was celibate. I know bed-sharing for warmth and such was a lot more common then than now, but when you combine it with running away together twice and the open adoration/romantic gestures, I just don't see it as BFFs or asexual. Sharing a bed says they wanted…

Interesting. I'd heard of the murders, but know very little about them. So possibly both compartmentalization and empty moors.

I have not. Well, at night once, but not in any way that counts.

Piper doesn't know what she wants. Larry's a philandering shlub, but Alex is actually worse. She and Piper are kind of terrible for one another. Piper kind of needs to back of relationships for a while.

Yeah, but Litchfield's already got a high percentage of babes for a women's prison, though the shapeless khakis don't look great on anyone. Still, the show did give us an awesome set of old ladies last season, so I'm hoping the show will keep its balance—i.e. better looking than reality, but not so much so that it…

Yeah, I have a real soft spot for Poussey, I always have—there's this vulnerability to Samira Wiley that pulls me in and then when she smiles, she just kind of glows. I also love the ease with which she and Danielle Brooks play off one another. They're both young, relatively inexperienced actors and you can see how…

Why did she not simply remember, I wonder? Did she just completely compartmentalize the murders?

Poussey deserves a hot girlfriend. Actually, that's about the one way I want to see this actress. She's a little too hot—what I like about OITNB is the variety of women in terms of age, body types and backgrounds.

Sure, but that would be all the more reason to develop deep friendships—your life may well depend upon them.