So I am confused as to how people know they are grey. I frequently see commenters lamenting that they are 'in the grey.' How is it they can see their grey but I can't see my own grey?

Huh? You don't look grey to me. Is it different for different viewers? I've never seen my own comments as grey I don't think, I figured your own were always shown as black for you? It's a confusing system.

Sure, I totally agree that language is a tool to be used in a community of speakers. What struck me was your statement that "you don't really need to know the language to understand the culture." Which to me is just... huh? How could it be possible to understand a culture without knowing the language??

Good luck! (I spent a lot of time thinking about this when I was single because I knew I wanted kids and had doubts about meeting the right guy in the right timeframe. I'm married with two kids now but I think if I hadn't met my husband I could have been very happy with the right platonic co-parent. The one thing I…

Yes! I love the way you put this. This is how I feel too. My racially and culturally mixed kiddos are going to grow up to be cool new-culture people of the future. I don't see why they need to hang onto any of the 3-4 cultures of their grandparents. Other people are still around doing those cultures anyway.

I'm just jumping in here because I notice that you seem to feel that there is some loss if your multiethnic children don't speak their heritage languages or share their heritage culture. Obviously your feelings are your feelings, and I know a lot of parents in ethnically/culturally mixed marriages share them, but I…

Wow, I could not disagree more. In my experience language is the way - the only way - into a culture. People who speak a given language will always view someone who doesn't speak their language as an outsider - regardless of what food the person eats or what holidays they celebrate. Conversely, a true outsider who…

Lots of adoption agencies have age restrictions too - eg that t least one parent be no more than 40 y older than the child.

That is a tough place to be. If I were in that situation I would find another woman in the same situation (maybe through SMBC or other similar group) that I got along with, and make a very specific commitment for a limited time (5 years?) to have babies and raise them as platonic coparents.

Athens did this in 2004. It's a crappy last-minute paste-on for a problem that needs to be addressed systemically, with lots of time and attention.

I just had to thank you for this. I refuse to be 'that person' as well but I would say that 90% of the time I see 'faze' used on the internet it is incorrectly spelled as 'phase.' It's so common people are starting to think it's correct. Diffuse/defuse bristles my neck hairs too.

No, not a pool thing - but I agree with you about the bleach, except that bleach and chlorine smell similar to me (bleach is hypochlorite after all)

Huh? No way! Men's parts have this chloriney kind of smell. Women's parts are more musky to me.

Non-lifestyle-related causes of obesity are not limited to thyroid problems. Numerous environmental pollutants have been linked to glucose intolerance and obesity in laboratory mammals. Furthermore, animals that live in proximity to humans (wild and domesticated) are *also* getting fatter. How is that explained by…

Whoa. My first reaction to this is, why is it so important that your boyfriend have an opinion on dinner? I couldn't care less about food and am happy to dine pretty much anywhere. I think a lot of people are the same. I'm not sure why it should be a problem in a relationship?

*snort* OK you win this round of Stupid Kid Tricks

Guess I'm in the minority. I did go to a women's college so maybe our relationships with men were necessarily more 'defined.'

Huh. I thought online dating was actually vastly superior to the alternatives for nerds and geeks specifically because you can do an end run around the phatic communion and just get right to the point. I wrote a really nerdtastic profile essentially saying that I was interested in science and philosophy and I wanted…

I have so many different types of cloth items for wiping that my kids think anything cloth is a 'wipe.' We were reading the story of Aladdin last night and the princess was wearing a long headscarf. "Look, she's wearing a wipe on her head," quoth my 4 year old.

Really? I'm in my mid-30s and I never experienced this kind of ambiguousness.