I was going to chime in about the whole ESA thing. I know of a guy who was quite ill and suffered from depression (who wouldn’t) and he had a Pekingese. Nobody believed that little yappy dog was a service animal but he was, it was like the only thing the guy had to live for, he used to bring it everywhere. But I…

My previous dog HATED the car; she’d practically go into convulsions. I think the feeling of movement while she was stationary freaked her out. Our latest beast is more typical, we throw him in the back seat, he sticks his head out the window, panting away, smelling all the smells, his ears flapping the breeze. When…

Wasn’t it on Jezebel that I read about a land dispute among some members of one of the First Nations out west and there I learned that land passes down through women, not men? I’m sure I’m not making this up.

Is that true about Quebec? I wonder why?

Did you watch “Mad Men”? Maybe the air conditioner salesman will pay you a house call.

I like my last name but it’s very common. I love my mother’s maiden name so I use it as a pen name, plus it’s a little more distinctive and people might remember my writing a little more easily.

If something funny goes on with the next Presidential election you might get your chance!

My mother was a huge dog lover and sane, like I am, and I used to tease her by referring to my dogs as her grandchildren, which drove her nuts. To no one else have I ever referred to my dogs as children.

We used to own a second home where tons of the homes are second homes. On every flight there’d be lots of animals in the cabin and then when we landed there would be lots of larger animals (dogs, not livestock) being taken out of the cargo hold. I must have done this flight 30 times and all the animals always seemed…

When I was in college I somehow screwed up and ended up flying home on Christmas Day. Best flight ever. Plane was pretty empty, the crew was determined to make the best of a bad situation, one of them sang the most obscene rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas I’ve ever heard (I was the youngest person on the…

Around the holidays you see chocolate “coins” wrapped in gold foil. They can be repurposed as participation medals.

I have young relatives that play all kinds of sports and they never officially keep score, it’s a participation thing. I went to a softball game once and met a lot of parents and got distracted so I said, “Where are we in the game?” And every single parent said something like ‘it’s the bottom of the 7th and we’re…

Oh I envy you! I love children’s theater. There are lots of kids in my building and I’m friendly with all the parents so when I get wind of some production I always volunteer to go. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of original pieces, stuff written by the music teacher or some parent. Let’s just say I’ve been Waiting for…

Starring because of name. I’m going to name my next dog Fleanardo.

Maybe Trump is right. Maybe we should send Piyush back to the Punjab, which is where his parents emigrated from.

You should read news sites coming from outside the big cities. Any news site covering a string of suburbs is a good place to start. We are becoming a nation of Thomas Pynchon characters.

Zimmerman got tons of donations, didn’t he, many more hundreds of thousands of dollars than his legal representation would cost? Isn’t that what he’s living on now? This is a strange country when people open their checkbooks for him and are screaming for the defunding of Planned Parenthood (they’re probably the same…

When I was laid off and had to put a resume together I thought about putting in (under “Other Interests” or whatever I called it) all this organizational work I do that’s kind of like Neighborhood Volunteer, except I’m not armed and don’t drive around looking for black teenagers to shoot at. I was advised against. It…

As if I didn’t need another reason to regret that I’ve never been to Thailand.

I wonder if the dudebros have ever met Israeli women who have served in their military. A couple of my friends did. I wouldn’t mess with them.