Oh yeah. Anyone who thinks this "destroyed" the town is delusional. One of the worst places I've ever been in the first world, easily, and I've been a lot of places. I have to travel there a fair bit for business reasons (I live in Pittsburgh), and I dread it each time. It's just so fucking bleak, dirty, and hopeless.…

There are literally tens of millions of indoor-only cats (and hopefully their percentage will only increase, outdoor cats are an invasive species). Cats who are never put outside typically don't crave going out. They don't know what they are "missing" and do just fine with an indoor life, especially if their owner…

Elementary education? Are you kidding me? Maybe if you're willing to move to North Dakota. There are few jobs in large swaths of the country, there are tens of thousands of unemployed teachers, and none of this is likely to change anytime soon because of budget cutbacks in more places than not. Teacher pay and job…

"2. Woman gets raped, begins to enjoy it (Straw Dogs) - Is this the accepted interpretation of that scene?? Because that's not how I read it."

Yeah, she's 19. Time has flown by :( Seems like yesterday that that terrible I Am Sam movie came out.

Through the magic of pharmaceuticals.

Obviously it'll be tamed down, but I imagine it'll be sort of like the Diane Lane movie Unfaithful. It had a lot of sex, some of which was rough, it still got an R.

How the hell is Amy Adams a "poptart"? She has four damn Oscar nominations, in movies as diverse as The Master, Junebug, Doubt, and The Fighter, and only the latter was a particularly "commercial" film. Tearing down a talented woman for no reason makes you an asshole.

"All restaurants would have to do away with it at the same time. How wonderful would that be, just to get rid of whiners who still believe tipping means "I'm being so generous, giving my waiter a little extra money treat.""

The reason they do it this way is because of the psychology required for dealing with simple-minded customers. They need the psychology of keeping the menu prices comparable to competing restaurants. The average person doesn't go through the mental process of thinking "well, this price includes the full cost of…

I remember there being a rather huge penis on Rome once, when Atia gives a male slave to Servilia for purposes related to said penis. It awkwardly stayed on the screen for a long time if I remember correctly, but that was like 7 years ago now.

I imagine they are. There was that recent story where a lot of witnesses said some paparazzi cursed out Suri Cruise, calling her a 'little bitch.' Kid's like, what, a first grader?

You don't? I see links to articles about them relatively regularly, insipid titles about them being photographed out with a nanny at whatever location, stuff like that. I think they often live in Europe and stuff like that rather than LA, which might affect it. I'm not sure though, I'm ashamed to even be aware of that…

"my favorite is Spartan."

My Dad is the same way, though he's starting to "get it" now, finally, at 60 years of age. He worked for a privately owned business for 30 years and helped make the owner a rich man. He had a fairly good job security, but at the same time, he consistently worked 60-80 hour weeks 51 weeks of the year (and often…

Yeah, I can easily believe that Oprah experienced racism in Switzerland. Racism against blacks is widespread and western Europe can be pretty damn racist. However, she was kind of full of shit on the Hermes thing, so I'm not inclined to just take her account on this at face value like I would many other people who…

Yeah, my parents are both chainsmokers, and I was pretty used to it as a kid. Very irresponsible about it, like smoking in cars in Canadian winters with the windows up (because of the cold), I'm sure my brother and I have some lingering permanent damage to their lungs. But I'm ten years removed now from living with…

The nasty pictures do help a bit, according to a recent personal anecdote. This is in Ontario, where they have similar packaging. A close friend of my parents had some kind of sore in his mouth that he thought was a bad canker sore or something like that, and being the type to put off going to the doctor, he just…

Where's the evidence that it's quality?

I've paid more for plus size clothing at a ton of places, even Walmart on occasion (and don't mind/care either, it's fair enough and better than having nothing to buy). The idea that a retailer can't get away with this is just a complete load.