I have long-term-care insurance that will pay someone to quit their job (if they so choose) and be my in-home caretaker.

Oh, here's another. Frank Lloyd Wright, after his intended was killed in a fire by a crazed cook, married a woman who'd begun writing to him in an "oh, you poor thing" vein. She was a morphine addict and jealous maniac. He didn't stay with her long, though.

Oh here's one so close to home I forgot to mention it. My mom abuses my dad. She's certainly verbally abusive and I've seen her get physically abusive at least once. I don't even want to know more. He's had plenty of opportunity to leave. They belong to a religious sect that does not countenance divorce. Some of…

One of my biggest heroes, John Wesley, was a battered husband. He dithered around and twice or more let good women get away. He dithered around about marriage vs. commitment to his life's work. He and his brother made a pact that each had to approve the other's choice of spouse, and Charles met someone first and…

I'm 57 and feel the same way about the Beatles. They're for people older than me.

In my younger days in KC, I got some calls like "I love redheads" and "You're pretty" while driving in my car, and once in a while I still catch someone looking when they don't think they'll get caught, but even when I would get called at, there wasn't nearly the sense of menace or threat behind it as other places…

SECOND AMENDMENT WOMAN IS NEVER WITHOUT HER FAVORITE LIPPY

I got a nose job in 1975. I had two black eyes and a cast on my nose for about a week. During this time, I went on an errand to the store. A man came up to me (I was 17) and demanded to know who had done that to me, so he could teach him a lesson. I said "No, no, I had an operation," but he said "Don't give me…

I live in KC, didn't grow up here. I have always said there's much less catcalling in KC than a lot of other places. In 1990, for instance, I went to much-ballyhooed Santa Fe, NM, and there was wall-to-wall catcalling. I still say there is very little catcalling in KC compared to a lot of other places.

Well, my neighbor was an unmedicated wrist-slashing alcoholic suffering from mental illness, who was having an affair with an abuser who would come over and beat her up, and she would leave the kids in the middle of the night alone so she could go stalk him, and yes, she did get a visit from CPS. I figure it was her…

That's the first thing I thought, too. I know a woman who, by law, had to send her kid on visitation with her ex, who drove drunk and the boy was killed.

And here I was, wondering if it's one of my friends, who is also like that!

The least you could do is hit up an international jewel thief before you call it quits.

Not for me! Spinning was the first paying job single women could get and move out on their own. So for me it means independent and making our own way! happy and free!

Well OK since you asked. I started going to a new discussion group that had recently started, met someone during the first three months, and we've been together nine years, got married in July. Never hurts to change up your venue.

I honestly don't think it's a marker for race. I think it has more to do with television, movies, and pop culture—where for probably 200 years +, anytime a "dumb" character speaks, it's in a Southern "hick" voice.

I'm originally from the South, never lost the accent because I didn't give a good goddamn. I've done more with the English language than a boxcar-load of my social betters. One time I was on Australian radio (because despite my being dumb, inbred, and toothless, I managed to create something that ended up being…

Yeah, every time some commenter celebrates a tornado outbreak with "Good, nuke the entire South and get it over with," I wonder if they know how many African-Americans they are wishing to be killed.

I think a lot of people seem to need someone to feel superior to. I look at them and think "you're fine; why do you need this so much?" It's the same people who used to hate-watch Jerry Springer and openly admit it was because they wanted to feel better about themselves. I never felt like I needed that. I feel…

I'm originally from the South, and I have a saying when I encounter tired stereotypes. This is best said nice and languid-like a la Diana Scarwid in Silkwood: "You know, I can always tell the really intelligent people, because they don't think in stereotypes." And it's true. I have a creative job, so I am usually…