Hang in there. It does get better. The first year is the hardest. Her birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas—the first one of everything without her there was really tough. I learned from watching her grieving process for my stepdad that it helps to do things to acknowledge those tough days, rather than trying to ignore…

I definitely understand the comfort of knowing that the person is at peace. I'm agnostic myself, but my mom was deeply faithful, and I know she went in a way that would have pleased her, with most of her siblings at her side, after receiving last rites. Knowing that makes me happy.

Doug, thanks for using "fame sponge" instead of "fame whore". I hate the latter term, and the former as an alternate is a lot less anti-woman. Much appreciated.

Yep, mine went from being totally easy to HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY BODY when I was about 28. I asked a couple of my aunts, and they had the same thing—theirs got worse at that age. So I don't know if it's purely genetic, or if there's a broader age component in play, but I am not a fan of it in the…

As someone whose mom died 4 years ago, if I can offer a piece of advice: give yourself permission to move through your feelings in any way that feels honest. If you want to eat nothing but ice cream for a week, do it. If you want to take off to someplace you've never been before for a weekend, do it. If you need to…

Ugh, seriously? I thought minimum wage was minimum wage, period :( It should be. It's not like minimum is a ton of money.

Ok, fair. She's definitely done some shitty things, and I wish she'd learn from them and get her shit together. For me, partner abuse _is_ a bridge too far.

...did she ever beat up her partner?

Chris Brown comes off like a spoiled asshole who expects to get away with everything. Fuck'im. I suspect more celebs could use that kind of reality check.

Likewise. She's nothing to me; I've never seen any of her movies. I just want her to do well because it'd make me happy to see her pull through. Addiction to anything is tough, and if she's really making an effort, then she deserves to do well.

This article is pretty US-centric in its focus, so I just want to give a perspective from a country that actually pays its servers minimum wage, at minimum.

In Canada, waitstaff are paid at least minimum wage if not more, and minimum is just over $10 in Ontario, if I'm not mistaken. Whether that's a living wage depends on the city or town, but it's definitely more than servers in NYC and most of the US make, from what I understand, and I think that's fair. Nobody should…

So I'm learning! Just reading the wikipedia page on Spivak, I've had to open two links to understand things her work references :)

Thank you for such a thoughtful response. My first (and rather selfish) thought was "phew, I'm glad my gut instinct of 'stfu, self' wasn't off-base"; my second thought was "I should google some non-Western feminists and do some reading". I'm definitely going to look up Spivak. Thanks again :)

Which they'll have to pay taxes on, no doubt.

Yeah...Bill Cosby wants his sweater back.

Every time someone tells me that I shouldn't use douchebag as an insult because feminism!, I reply that a douchebag is a hateful symbol of the patriarchy that not only says the vagina isn't good in its natural state but also disrupts the natural workings of the vagina through its application and is therefore, by its…

And servings were way smaller. I'm always boggled when I look at recipes from the 50s—a batch of cookie dough should make 2 dozen, according to the book, but when I make them, I get 12 or 13.

I guess basically the question I've been trying to puzzle out is this: Where does the line lie between respecting cultural differences, and just being lazy about fighting for or supporting the needs of women from other cultures? The specific example that made me think of it was a discussion about niqabs and whether or…

Was your father really tall?