I hate American Beauty too - it seems like a soap bubble of a movie. Taken at first glance, it can pass for intelligent, but then it doesn’t withstand any real scrutiny, and its whole world view is mean and cruel.

She might’ve lucked out in the details of the case, but they previously showed her getting a really good lsat score, answering questions well in class, holding her own in a study group of intelligent peers, and earning a prestigious fellowship. She studies a lot and works hard, but that’s how smart people get smart,…

Well, did you actually read the article, because it lays it out pretty clearly - maybe respond to that? In short, she starts out being motivated to get a man, and then learns and grows and ends up doing what she’s doing for her. It is entirely feminist. I don’t know why starting with un-feminist motivations but…

The problem is not that she changed some things, but that she didn’t change the stuff she *should have* changed - the specific town name, and other real world identifying details. All those things could easily have been changed without impacting the story at all.

Do you think a support group would help? NAMI runs family support groups in lots of locations - I find it helps to have someone to talk to who’s also been there.  I totally get it though - it sucks when it feels like your partner isn’t *your* version of them.  

Like most people said, an established relationship can usually withstand a temporary separation, but it’ll still strain things. I do know a few people in long distance, long term relationships within academia, though - folks who couldn’t get professorships at universities in the same cities/states.  It seems to work…

Yeah, that’s what would happen when my husband took it - if he went to sleep right away, then he might go downstairs and eat a jar of macadamia nuts, but nothing else.  If he stayed awake, he’d be this weird sleepwalking version of himself and wouldn’t remember a thing the next day.  My mom was visiting once and got…

I forgot to say - the other thing I do, is where appropriate I use the bigots as teaching points for my kids (really just the older one at this point, but eventually both). I don’t get into anything too ugly, because they’re not old enough, but I talk about racism, sexism, etc in kid-friendly terms.

Overall, if they seem happy, then let them do them. And yeah, they might be closeted, but assuming that someone *must* be gay because they like musical theater or whatever it was (he doesn’t list his evidence) is pretty limiting in its own way.  This all screams of a ton of projection - they’re making choices he…

Right - he’s especially attracted to women with a particular physical characteristic, but that’s not unusual. Some guys like big breasts, some like red hair, etc.

First, I think it’s important to not let bigoted statements or actions stand unchallenged - I try to be as polite and calm as I can manage, because that gives the best chance of people hearing what I have to say, but I make sure that people know I don’t agree/that wasn’t right/I’m not ok with that.

The unnecessary secret-keeping was the main reason I stopped watching the show. I intensely dislike it when I can see characters doing something that doesn’t make sense because that’s what the writers needed to make their plot work.  It was also what drove me away from Grimm - all the “let’s keep so and so in the dark…

If you don’t work in computer security research, you’re probably safe (from that guy, anyways)

Happy birthday!

If hard floors bug her so much, I wonder if she’s aware of these things called rugs and carpets?  I get that they aren’t as trendy, interior-design-wise, but really....

That movie had some potential, but the leads had absolutely zero chemistry or charisma, and no ability to sell the romantic plotline they were supposed to have going on.  

I was so glad to leave that job - sadly, that whole interaction wasn’t even the top reason I wanted out.  

Related: *do not* tell the young woman in your office that you noticed her engagement ring because you always check for a ring before fantasizing about coworkers, to make sure  you aren’t fantasizing about someone who’s “taken.”  She doesn’t need or want to know that (speaking from experience)

Yeah, the weird look could’ve been entirely “wtf, who kisses on the mouth?  there’s still a pandemic” and had nothing to do with dick breath.   

Some (very literal-minded) people really took those aphorisms about “honesty is the best policy” to heart, when the truth is really that most of the time honesty is best, but you shouldn’t be honest to the point of cruelty. Kindness is much more important. Telling the gf about every little mental transgression turns…