My apologies. I've seen the "why did you read this?" comment employed as a kind of us-versus-you dismissal before, and incorrectly assumed yours was similar. Short answer: I read through this because, first, I found the header unintelligible—I had no idea what the piece was going to be about. I don't like these kind…

Wow. Snappy retort. As one of those you're questioning, I feel put in my place. Seriously!

Do you just ignore everything that you find off-putting? Not a big fan of things that challenge your aesthetic? Not up to the task of analyzing and articulating why you find it off-putting? Just complacent?

If I may ask (wink,…

Why not use the cash that would have been used for your wedding as a down payment instead? Problem solved, no etiquette breach. I suspect it'll balance out financially unless your parents are paying for the wedding, in which case you'll automatically come out ahead. Mine paid for our wedding, but we had planned to get…

You neglected to mention her sparkling sense of humor.

Maybe it's just because I've seen too many people die or be physically hurt, or more likely I'm in the wrong demographic, or I'm just not that easily amused by someone's facility with Google, but I really don't see how a gif is an appropriate response to violent death. People who, e.g., put up gifs of one of the Jays…

Findlay. I taught community college classes in Findlay for one semester years ago—it is a shithole.

Yes, it's truly an honest mistake. But it's still pretty bad.

After a J Crew vanity resizing about 5 years ago, I now wear a size 0 pant. I am 5"-7" with a 31" inseam, at the low end of but within healthy BMI for my height, and the regular inseam is so long I need to wear a bit of a heel. It's getting to the point where—if I didn't freelance and live in pajamas—I'd be paying to…

I live on a street which a large group of Hassidim pass on their way to services at the Chabad House on the campus a couple of miles away, and I look like my forebears who left the shtetl 30 feet ahead of the Cossacks. If I'm working outside on Friday evenings or Saturday afternoon, one guy chats me up and tries to…

Her decision to lose weight and have her body scrutinized is a business decision. How is that "sad" when she has agency and profits from it? I think there's a general consensus on Jez that we don't sneer at a low-profile woman in who chooses to support herself by, e.g., working in a strip club or doing porn if she's…

Yeah, I hate that spray too. Mix salt, water, a little conditioner, throw it in an atomizer. Play around with the proportions until you get the effect you like. Unscented, silky waves for pennies.

She's brilliant. Her Calyx disappeared when Prescriptives stopped doing stores, but it's back under the Clinique label—with the same horrible huge plastic cap. I wore it throughout my twenties. I'm reading the Luca Turin/Tania Sanchez Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, and it's one of the few scents that gets the full five…

Sure thing. Also, the best insight I got from a therapist: When he asked how I felt when flattened by a panic attack in public, I told him I felt like I was going to die. He told me that since I'd had many panic attacks where I'd felt like that, to hold on to the fact that I hadn't actually died all those times, and…

CBT helps. And if you need some help with physical reactions, there are alternatives to psychoactives like benzodiazapenes. If you have to go somewhere or do something that can be a trigger, consider an RX for a low dose of a beta- or calcium channel-blocker for those predictable yet panic-y times. Unlike benzos,…

Big bags of unsweetened frozen fruit—the strawberries are a great deal, and the cherries are amazing. Cases of fresh mangos. Fresh haricot vert.

I used to read Jez regularly, but I think there's been a shift in style over the last 18 months or so. I don't look at the change in tone so much as bad writing as what I believe is a PTB decision to broaden readership by pitching to a younger audience.

Ooooh, you "used" scare quotes in your "criticism"—way to prove your "style" is "witty." Were I a writer for a website that seems to require interspersing random capitalized phrases and multiple explanation points throughout its postings, along with regular injections of "derp, derp," I don't think I'd feel qualified…

It's like "Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam something something....umm .... err ....om mani padme hmmm....err..shel Shabat!"

The Unintelligible Cantor. And yes, I am Jewish, and I mumble. Well done.

I think womens' blouses and sweaters generally skimp on length (the low-rise jean years were a perpetual embarrassment for me). There are plenty of "cropped" length jackets and sweaters around for those who want that look, so why not throw 3 or 4 extra inches on the bottom of regular tops?