One year we had an Aladdin themed recital and the costume for my tap dance was a camel. Does that count?

This was my last one before Serious Ballet time en pointe et all. I wish you had a princess class so you too could dress up as whatever the eff you wanted that day in ballet.

ETA: In hindsight, this may have been a “subtle” way to hint at wanting a puppy to my parents.

DONALD TRUMP BLOCKED ME ON TWITTER!!!

I remember hearing about a father whose child had been murdered by another man in cold blood. Really chilling murder. The father shot and killed the murderer in the courthouse at some point during the trial. He (the father) went to trial as well (separately, of course) and was acquitted by the jury. Have to say I…

Yeah. A good friend of ours left school in freshman year to get married because she was pregnant, and her parents would have had to sign for that as well. I didn't see her again until graduation, which she came to yay! with her four children. The next time I saw her was at her little sister's funeral, and by then we…

This guy’s lawyer says: “It’s very rare that someone is involved in a homicide case with someone they just had a baby with.”

Gawd, right? It’s like we don’t even need to quote her anymore. Just shorthand her name and we ALL know what’s being said.

Margaret Atwood.

Don’t do it Jane, he is already married! His wife is in the attic!

I like skinny bookworms (aka Aethelstan, and Frank on Outlander). Too many muscles make me uncomfortable. Uncle Benjen’s just fine, though.

“My daddy thinks I’m fine” wasn’t a good reason for Amy Winehouse not to go to rehab, and it isn’t a good reason for you to marry the guy who molested you.

No rape involved, but when I was 17, I got my also 17 girlfriend pregnant. Being two immature teens, we decided to marry, because “love trumps everything” and all that bullshit, even AGAINST the will of our parents! I got a court order (because we’re minors) and, long story short, two years later we’re divorced…

Just wanted to add that Faecal Occult Blood Testing in my country is not done by a dr inserting his finger up your bum. We give patients 2 little vials to take home with instructions and they bring them back to us and we send them off to the lab. It’s easy and non-invasive, and less daunting than what was described…

I had a friend my freshman year (we were both 14) who was dating her 20-something-year-old youth pastor. And her mom was totally OK with it. He went along on family outings and, once or twice, came along to events with all the 14-year-old girls. I remember, even then, thinking it was the creepiest thing ever.

Yes, in Missouri being married to someone at the time of the offense is an affirmative defense for statutory rape. edit: Missouri’s age of consent is 14 if you’re under 21 and 17 if you’re over 21.

Think of it this way...this is an unusual story, people were punished for harming this girl, and the general consensus of people reading about it is one of disgust. That was not always the case. That is not the case in some parts of the world right now. Things are getting better, but slowly.

When I was in high school, a girl in my freshman gym class was married. Apparently her mother had found out that she was sleeping with some 20something dude the summer before high school started and insisted that they get married or she’d have him arrested. The girl seemed cool with it at the time, and we were all in…

Wait wait wait but I think you’re hiding the silver lining of this news story here... the man was also sentenced to jail time? For rape? For 15 years? I mean, that’s something.

“’I always say, start with your books,’ Erica in the House advises. She recommends stacking the books in different ways—”

Exactly. One of my very cynical great aunts used to always say that everything is selfish, including charitable work/giving. Her line of thinking was that even if we aren’t lauded or otherwise compensated for it, we do it out of an innate, insidious need to feel good about ourselves. When I was young, that was a huge…