Bingo! Just because this woman wants a relationship with you on her terms doesn’t mean you have to give it to her. If you’re upset about this, say so: “When you and Fergus were so unpleasant during my wedding, it made me feel like you didn’t respect all the hard work that went into making it a celebration.” Then…

That is so freaking cool!

This Unitarian Universalist will gladly buy the second round!

Precisely! The Order of St. Beryl Articulata of Krakow. They used to run a maternity home near Tadfield, in Oxfordshire. Their abbess was Sister Mary Loquacious, though a Sister Grace Voluble also used to serve there.

This has Michael Shannon and true believers. I’m sold. (Only way this could be better is having Michael Shannon as a conflicted true believer, a la Nelson Van Alden on Boardwalk Empire.)

This is horrible, and seriously so gross. On a brighter note, I encourage all of you to check out Natalie Morales in one of the greatest one-season wonders of all time, The Middleman. Crime-fighting! Camp! A pancake shop called “Batter of the Bulge”!

Shoutout to Jewish college roommates! Mine once held a mini-Shabbat in our dorm room, and I was stoked to get all the free food.

I used to joke threaten my mother with it when we’d spend an hour in the grocery store with her going “I want something different, but I don’t know what it is!” In my defense, I was twelve years old and very hungry.

I never had gefilte fish until I graduated college—I was working in higher ed, and I volunteered to be the office representative at the Hillel Passover Seder. I actually really like gefilte fish! Luckily for me, lots of people RSVP’d that didn’t show, so I got extra helpings, and plenty of extra horseradish. But I…

The perils of an ever-growing to read list! You have my sympathies.

That’s true. I’m thinking more from my own perspective, where my family—even my extended family—are all several states away at least.

Same with my sister—I think she was back the next day with hers (she likes sleeping the night because her husband brings her McDonald’s the next day, plus they live in a small apartment). But the midwives are the shit—I got to go with her to the weighing clinic at the parish hall, and it was so nice! They know the…

God, that sounds awful. So often people say “As long as you got a healthy baby, that’s all that matters!” which, no. The mother’s health and well-being also matters, and even a challenging birth can be mediated by doctors and staff who treat mothers like people and try to help them feel reassured and cared for. I’m…

That sounds like it could be kind of lovely, but I’m sure it could also be quite challenging, especially for women who have other children at home.

Gosh, that’s really a shame. It seems like this might be a reason to increase training for midwifery—the proper kind, with nursing qualifications (I have a sister in the UK and both of her kids were delivered by midwives; the doctor only popped in once because it was her first). A battalion of qualified nursing…

Oh, and just another recommendation if anyone’s looking for sci-fi/fantasy written by women/WoC: NK Jemison’s The Fifth Season. I just bought the audiobook last night on the recommendation of a friend, and holy fuckballs it is good!

I literally came to the comments section just to talk about that, so well done! Enjoy your star!

I’d prefer to keep ASP distracted with other shows so we don’t have to see The Continuing Adventures of Disappointing Asshole Rory.

We’ll go to their offices with an interpretive dance!

This is an entirely reasonable reason to be procrastinating.