I think it would be plausible if someone pushed MRA Mel out of his job and hired someone else (of any gender) to do the thinking, but that's less "sexual caste system" and more "he doesn't seem to be very good at it."

Yeah, my SIL had a baby last year and her doctor actually told her *not* to quit smoking, because of how bad her withdrawal had been when she tried to quit (pre-pregnancy, several times, some of them with medical help). She was just supposed to cut back as far as she could (and she did—from 1 or 1-1/2 packs a day down…

A small glass of wine with dinner every day = 7 drinks a week, and doesn't exactly ring my "heavy drinking" alarm—and I say this as someone who drinks maybe 10 drinks a *year*, married to and descended from similarly infrequent drinkers (so it's not just that it's what I'm used to seeing other people do).

I did marry my best friend. She was my best friend for quite some time before she was my girlfriend, then my fiancée, then my wife. :) I don't go around calling her my best friend, though. (And I very determinedly use "wife" instead of "partner" just to hammer it in to thickos' heads—even here where we've had marriage…

Mine has (my father also has) but that's because at the time, the thought of making a phone call sent me into panic attacks (I'm much better now). My wife also talks for me a lot at doctor's offices, because my assorted mental health issues sometimes mean I really can't do it myself (especially if I can't get an…

A lot of evangelical Christian fundamentalists (note: I do not know if this is true for the Duggars) are opposed to adoption because you might be getting some child with "bad blood"—you know, the idea that if a kid's parents are, for example, criminals, the kid's automatically tainted no matter what. I have a cousin…

You know, I'm not a big fan of leaving babies in playpens for long periods of time (short ones, yeah, because sometimes you just have to go and do something, like shower, and toddlers can wreak havoc in a very short period of time) but at least the playpen method doesn't require you to hit your kid.

Either your dad's friend used to date my father, or there are two of them. This woman (who was, overall, very nice, don't get me wrong) used to *suggest* going to Italian restaurants because my father likes them (even though he assured her that he and I would go to them on our weekly dinner out together, and he…

Ferrets are very high-maintenance. I have a friend who's had ferrets for almost as long as I've known her (about 20 years), and while I love them, I would never have the patience. They are into *everything* and can figure out how to get past most attempts to "ferret-proof".

We have four cats and four rabbits. We don't let the rabbits run loose when we are asleep/not home, so there's that, but our cats could quite easily get into two of our three pens, and they don't. Mostly, the rabbits terrorize the cats. Our Molly (rabbit) and Fred (cat) are good friends; Molly likes to throw catnip…

Rabbits are not really great pets for small children (they can be, if the parents are "bunny people" and the pet is a family pet, but they are prey animals, and children can frighten them easily). But we have four rabbits. One is sleeping (she's also over 8 years old, which is pretty elderly for a rabbit; she used to…

That's not the rabbit's fault. The owner needed to clean that area more often, especially since it sounds like he didn't supply litter boxes.

Or when they're frightened—such as a rabbit who is rarely handled, and then is handled improperly when someone does try to "play" with the bunny. They are not as "easy" of pets as cats and dogs (I think because people in general have a better idea of what cats and dogs need), but I know mine are never boring, and we…

Yes, pet store rabbits tend to be from breeders analogous to puppy mills, and also taken from their mothers too young (technically old enough to be weaned, but an extra couple of weeks makes a huge difference). Add to that the fact that the food,e tc., your average pet store recommends for a rabbit is often not that…

Oh yeah. The only trick (other than that sterilized rabbits are often easier to train) is that rabbits often have Very Definite Opinions about where the litter box should be. Basically, if you put the box where the rabbit thinks it should be, s/he will use it most of the time. (Ours tend to be about 95-100% for pee…

I had more grey hair than my mother by the time I graduated from high school—I take after my dad's family, where it's not surprising to find your first grey hair before you can drive. I almost never got carded for *anything*, ever.

In the US, at least, it's illegal to put anything in the mailbox unless you are (a) the person whose mailbox it is (I'm thinking here of mail to be picked up by the carrier, specifically), or (b) a USPS employee. The lack of postage isn't even the issue. You could put a stamp on it and it would still be illegal.

What do you do in the winter? Do you have an indoor clothesline (or really big drying rack—I'm doing laundry for a family)? The snow was with us until late March or early April, and since then it's rained nearly every day. I'd love to go out and use my clothesline, but I'd also love my clothes to dry.

I remember that from when I lived in Georgia. In the winter it rained, in the summer clothes mildewed before they dried. In the spring and fall we could hang stuff out (and then we ran a clothesline on our screened-in back porch, so we could do it in winter, too), but in the summer we went to the laundromat to dry our…

No, you're not. I mean, yes, I have some Walmart stuff that didn't hold up, but I also have some that looks practically new that I've been wearing for ten years.