This was my doomed 80s adolescence. I was thin and lithe and just the right balance of lanky and curvy. and all the fashion was oversized, baggy and shapeless. I really hope this trend doesn't stick. I mean, I've been wearing boot cuts all the way through the skinny jeans trend, so it won't affect me— I'm just…

Exactly! And it concerns me that as a society we are becoming less and less skilled at calm debate, and more predisposed to sling insults. Another commenter asked if I had ever tried to persuade an anti-vaxxer. I have, but not parents, so maybe my success there doesn't count (which is why I shared my friend's story…

Thank you! Living in New York for a decade, and being a journalist, I have dozens of stories of interactions with celebs. But I shared this one exactly because it best fit the criteria of insanity.

Fear *is* irrational, though; it's not an intellectual response. A friend of mine actually persuaded a friend of his by being calm and patient and listening to her side. He talked her through why he still thought it was important, and she ended up doing an extended vaccination schedule, because it turned out that most…

I'm all in favor of legal intervention. Keep unvaccinated kids out of school, require doctors to vaccinate before giving any other medical treatment, hell I'd even support full-on criminalization, classifying non-vaccination as child abuse. But until we pass such laws, in their absence, persuasion is the only tool we…

Except that it's not the way to change minds. If you yell at someone and make them feel defensive, they're only going to dig in their heels more. There have been tons of psych/behavioral studies that show this. During the Portland water fluoridation debate last year, I watched several otherwise smart, rational and…

I used to wonder the exact same thing...

Thank you! It has definitely become legend, oft retold and passed down in the years since it happened, among my friends. (There were a lot of us out that night.)

I'm sure there's *some* context where that could be sexy, if done right. This was not it.

Is that a selling point, somehow? They'd probably smell bad too!

Late '90s, driving a rental car full of IKEA through NYU, trying to make a left onto Third Ave. Except I can't because there's this idiot in a long leather jacket with a Caesar haircut standing in the middle of the crosswalk, fiddling with his cellphone and NOT MOVING. "Get the fuck out of the way, you goddamn Rob…

Cheesy.

Oh, those famous people out of context. I once served Julia Child in a store and didn't know it was her. Julia Child! Ten feet tall with the most distinctive voice ever! I thought it looked like her, I just didn't expect Julia to be buying thread in a suburban strip mall. I even remember thinking when she spoke,"Huh,…

That was my first thought, too!

Direct quotes, I promise. They're seared into my memory. I was all, what are we, 12?

Oh yeah, he's the worst like that. I stopped the story at the punch line, but it didn't actually end there. Later in the evening he grabbed my tits while I was looking away and didn't see him coming, and stuck his tongue in another friend's ear. Eater once ran a contest similar to this one, except specific to…

While at the bar in the front room of the Tribeca Tavern, I noticed Mario Batali talking with a small group. As I rejoined my friends in the back room, I mentioned this sighting to my foodie friend.

I think she might do secret things to him with the ukulele.

Not even anchovies?!

Pineapple/banana peppers/ham, or spam if you want to make it Hawaiian.