Exactly. There are so many things worth getting uppity about in the world… but this one would never, ever occur to me.

Blimey, I never thought about that. God, I love blackboards. My friend has an entire blackboard wall in her kitchen; I'm envious.

I throw things sometimes when I'm alone; my relationship with myself is clearly immature.

I read it that way, too.

It could be new and unused, perhaps?

This is the first dick story I've seen recently! But handily it summarised all the dicks I missed. Hurrah.

Yep! He can totally be in my British-people-in-Los-Angeles gang.

(I should add that I am currently IN AMERICA ABOUT TO DO THANKSGIVING! And my American in-laws are actually Mexican-American and maybe that makes it different, but it is always BRILLIANT!)

My British-person take on Thanksgiving is that it's Christmas without presents, timed perfectly so that whatever issues come up that day can fester for three weeks and then resurface at Christmas proper.

My husband's sister totally said "TAKE YOUR BABY BACK!!!" to their mum!

THANK YOU.

They are both SO GREAT. They make me really happy.

What does it mean when your dad says it? I only know it to mean "dick" (or, you know, an actual door knob).

"Do you even bow-hunt? Do you understand the physics of a compound bow?" is going to be my new best thing to say in every argument, ever. Thank you for inspiring it.

I'm pretty sure that if I were on the programme long enough, I would develop an entirely unhealthy reliance on my teacher and at the point of getting kicked off or winning would just dissolve into hysterical tears and the poor bloke would have to hold me up.

I just can't accept it as singular… I always recast to avoid it because you're right, "he/she" is wretched. (Luckily, no one in my department would stand for "he/she", although they're less determined to rid the world of the singular "they" than I am; generally they recast, too, so I'm not entirely alone — I'm just by…

Oh God — I would be a MESS. I wouldn't have said anything! Full credit to her for actually saying something really great… the problem was just that I read it repeatedly before seeing it and so was entirely desensitized, somehow. (I cry *every week* on Strictly when people leave, even when I didn't like them, and the…

Hee; it's the best. It just means "wow", really — it's very old fashioned and nowadays unusual, but it's like "well, blow me down!" or "knock me down with a feather!" or "slap my ass and call me Sally" or however that one goes. It's just an expression of surprise/amazement/delight: "well, pickle my walnuts!"

I forgot about the 4th of July — I wasn't able to work that one, either! When I was new in America and didn't really have anyone much to spend holidays with, they were depressing because I had to hang out alone on days that everyone kept telling me were super happy, AND I was losing money.

It's been around for a million years and I still try to sub it out every time I see it! I have a problem. (That, and insisting that "an" goes before "historic".)