His sister, Caroline Herschel, was also an accomplished astronomer, responsible for the discovery of several comets. I wrote a weird little story about the two of them a few years ago: [www.norasawyer.com]

I'm a 34-year old woman, and realized a few years ago that my fashion sense (long coats and scarves, frilly shirts, vests) was set early on by repeated childhood viewings of Doctor Who. So yeah: I pretty much would like every last one of these outfits. Particularly the steampunky corsety #5 ones. Yum.

Yeah, at least do it someplace classy, like the tomb of Abelard and Héloïse.

Oh, and 'After Tupac and D Foster' by Jacqueline Woodson. Very well written, and one of the best evocations of 13-year-old-girlhood I've ever read.

I'm a huge fan of E. Lockhart's books, particularly The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks. They're laugh out loud funny, and wicked smart. I wish they'd been around when I was a teen.

This is why I was always more of a Gonzo gal. Not only is he a wackadoo dreamer, he is devoted to Camilla.

Ding Dingley Dick. Now that's a name.

I heard a few good woman in white stories in college. The first was about a young woman who had lived on the farm that eventually became the college campus (this was Marlboro College in Vermont). She fell in love with a traveling salesman, but he left her pregnant and heartbroken. Humiliated and bereft, she hung…

That preview was too darn short. :/

I am so sorry for your loss.

I think I get where you're coming from. Because I occupy a place of privilege I never asked for (I'm white, straight, and was born into a body that, for the most part, matches my self-image), I've often been frustrated, confused, and even hurt by the way others read that privilege and the ways that I embody it. But…

You've got to try Truffle Tremor (by the same creamery). So. Effing. Good.

Didn't the Abiocor (the artificial heart implanted in 2001) also have a whirr instead of a beat? I remember reading an interview with the first recipient in which he said that was the hardest thing to get used to, after so many years of being hyper-conscious of his heart beat.

I can remember being just as "omigod get it?" as a 12-year old girl. Maybe I just had a testosterone engorged brain. Heh. Engorged.