My father is on the autistic spectrum. Super-high IQ engineer. Extremely controlling, judgmental, hyper critical, self centered, obsessed with following rules and making other people follow them. He’s my father and I love him, but he never should have had children TBH. He regularly had meltdowns where he would scream…

Prop. 13 was passed by angry middled aged and retired California homeowners, which in the 1970s, means people born in the 1930s and earlier. The whole thing was about retired people on fixed incomes (allegedly) losing their homes because of (allegedly) skyrocketing property taxes. The hippies were still hippies then,…

I knew a woman from Germany who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa and lived illegally in the U.S. for several months after it expired. She even went to Mexico at one point and a border patrol officer let her cross the border back into the U.S. even though he noticed, and remarked, that her visa was expired. She told…

Actually from post mortem studies of his brain, it turns out that Aaron Hernandez had one of the most severe cases of CTE ever seen by medical science in someone so young. If this had been known at the time of trial, he might have had a decent chance of an insanity defense.

I’m a 50-ish lawyer with an undergrad degree in English literature and I only recently (two weeks ago) learned that “fete” (celebration) is not pronounced “feh-tay”.

I’m a white person and I don’t think most white people would be insulted by being called a colonizer. The WASPy ones who are into family history will think, “well, yeah, that’s accurate, my family came here in 1640!” but as a slur, it would just make them feel kind of puzzled. The ones who came later (like, Irish…

I agree, I found the performances technically stunning but kind of boring. I went back and watched Brian Boitano’s 1988 gold medal performance on Youtube and it still gets my heart pounding. Not so much because of his artistry (I recall Boitano was known more for his athleticism) but because he put his whole heart and…

Why should taxpayers foot the bill for Olympic training? Don’t we have much much higher priorities as a society than Olympic medals? I’m not saying that the Olympics isn’t fun to watch and all, or that the athletes aren’t deserving on an individual level, but basically it’s an orgy of nationalistic hoopla +…

I’m white and I don’t understand the urge some white people have to be “allowed” to say the N word. It perplexes me. It’s unnecessary. Even if you love rap, not being able to say the N word is not going to ruin your life. I have a friend (white) who is a lifelong fan of rap and also loves karaoke (she organizes…

I am significantly older than you, and I find also find the world described in this article to be incomprehensible and weird. I played WoW casually for years so I’m not completely ignorant about gaming culture, but I don’t get this at all. Paying for “friendship experiences”? It all seems terribly sad. [Old lady yells…

I work for a public entity in the Bay Area and it’s well known that “soft story” buildings are extremely hazardous in eathquakes, such as all those apartment buildings built in the 1960s over parking garage on little stilts or the houses built over garages in the Marina Dist. in SF that collapsed in 1989. They can…

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I thought Catholic hospitals already refuse to provide birth control or abortion services. My sister was involuntarily hospitalized a number of years ago (during the G.W. Bush administration) at a Catholic hospital for 3 weeks after a suicide attempt. The hospital wouldn’t let her take her birth control pills which…

Oops I think I need new material! :-)

Well duh, everyone knows (or should know) that tracking your fertility, even with an app, is an unreliable method of birth control. Back in the 1980s this was called the rhythm method. There was a joke, “What do you call people who use the rythym method?” “Parents.”

I’m 51 and I for one am glad women are not putting up with the shit we had to put with. I admit to sometimes feeling a little ... bemused, I suppose... because it seems like suddenly everyone is shocked that there are these men out there who behave disrespectfully and are capable of treating women like sex objects for…

Accidents can happen to anyone. Toddlers naturally want to copy adults and if they see mommy turning the dials on the burner every, they will want to copy it. It only takes a second. I always try to remember not to use the stovetop as storage space but it’s really hard in a small kitchen. That’s probably a factor here…

Update: since posting this last night, I’ve read more about the controversy and Cher’s tweets. I totally get why Native Americans are pissed at her. It’s not really an excuse to say that misappropriation of Native American culture and clothing was seen as okay and even celebratory 45 years ago. I’m not sure that…

So, I’m old enough to remember the early 1970's, though I was just a kid, and I totally loved the Sonny & Cher show and adored Cher when I was 7. Yes songs like “Half Breed” are offensive by today’s standards. I wish Cher could acknowledge that and explain herself better. But also want to point out that to white…

mmm but so hard to wait a year to enjoy it! :-)