Unfortunately, sometimes the pushback is really, really bad. In 1930, Berlin was probably the most LGBT- friendly city in the world, and had been for years.

Yep, any surgery carried with it a very high likelihood of death in those days, because of a lack of both anesthetic and antiseptic practices, and it was horrifically agonizing. People usually only consented to surgery if the alternative was certain death or possibly a lifetime of agony. Even then, sometimes, they…

I think that’s where museums can play a good role. Put everything in context. “Here’s this guy, he discovered these important medical breakthroughs, but he did it in this way that was really reprehensible”.

Did you ever try making up your own Game Genie codes? I never found anything useful, I don’t think, just comical weird game-breaking errors, but I used to waste some time doing that.

Yeah, it was one of my favorite games as a kid, I think largely because it was the only game we had where you could actually play as a girl. I’d always give Link or Ness or whoever my name anyway, leading to dialouge like “you’re such a nice young man, [my girl’s name]”, but Super Mario 2 let you actually play as a…

Not too surprising. I’ve known a few au pairs, and they seemed to have some very... mixed experiences. Some good and what being an au pair is “supposed” to be (a few hours a day of childcare in exchange for getting to see the world, become fluent in English, take college classes etc), and others.... not so much. One…

I’m not sure where the line should be drawn, but if someone has the mental capacity of a toddler, there’s no way they could have a consensual sexual encounter. I’d think the tricky part comes with folks who have more moderate intellectual disabilities, where they could understand and desire sex, and communicate…

You answered “where all the horrified [aka decent] men were” with

The relationship between feminism and sex work is..... .complicated, for sure.

Plenty of shy, reserved guys are weirdo assholes who treat women like shit, too. This idea that shy guys are all “nice guys” who are hidden gems, and all handsome confident guys are assholes, is a stupid myth made up by shy guys who resent everyone around them for the fact that they’re not getting laid.

There’s a huge amount of sex trafficking going on in the US, too, unfortunately.

Yeah, the cartilage peircings I got done at Claire’s as a teen in ‘01/’02-ish got infected so often that I gave up on them after a few years. One of them still hurts and oozes... something?? now and then.

Yeah, the cartilage piercing I got there in like.... 2001, 2o02? When I was in high school anyway. Was awful. Still is awful. I haven’t worn an earring in it in probably 10 years, and it still randomly hurts and starts oozing stuff maybe every 6 months or so. A lobe piercing, honestly, probably no big deal, but…

My cat runs down the steps to greet me when I get home from work (admittedly, some of that may be because I feed him dinner right away... ;) ), is constantly underfoot, and is always bothering me to play. His idea of “play” tends to involve a lot of play-fighting and pouncing on my feet and hands, lol, but he’s…

I heard a thing on NPR a while back about how the KKK supported the women’s suffrage movement - because they wanted more white voters, of course (and I guess they already had a pretty good handle on the whole voter suppression thing). Strange bedfellows.

The peaceful protesters were backed up by the militants, leaving the powerful with two choices - work with the peaceful protesters, or deal with years of violence in the street and newspaper photos of cops shooting down women & young boys. The only example I can think of that didn’t rely significantly on militants was…

The right is in a bizarre place right now. A few weeks back, I was out at a bar that had Fox on, and saw Laura Ingram and Tucker Carlson trash-talk federal & local law enforcement for like 20 minutes straight. They’re attacking their own base to protect Trump & the NRA. Very strange.

And you’re much more likely to be shot by a family member than by a stranger anyway. So yes, a homeschool kid is almost certainly in more danger from the gun in their house than a public school kid is from a school shooter.

Ugh that sucks.

I mean, there’s some pretty parks and all. But just the other week, Linganore High in Liberytown was playing basketball against Frederick High and some of the Linganore parents were yelling racial slurs at black Frederick players. There was a fuss and the school apologized and all, but.... ugh.