On the reverse side—when I was a freshmen in college (in the South) when I asked people where they were from, so many of them responded: The City. I always asked back: oh, which one? And they would stare at me like I was a dimwit because obviously NYC is THE city. (I’m from Chicago, which is also a city, and there was…

Yeah. I just seriously wanted something to not make this story 100% horrifying. After I read about it I went and hugged my cat until she squirmed out of my arms and gave me her WTF?? face.

She did take the later flight, without Pebbles.

Yes! Stories like this make it harder for people who really need support animals. (I’m not saying she didn’t—I don’t know her story.)

Bizarre, or legitimately very mentally ill.

She might be doing all of those things. I’ve been in therapy and on meds for almost 3/4 of my life, and I still have a mental illness legally defined as a disability.

She sounds—based on her behavior—like the kind of person who is going to have a tough life.

That’s what I was wondering, too, especially since she was supposedly going home for a (possibly-related) medical condition. It’s possibly this medical condition is one where she legit didn’t feel like she could disobey an authority.

I’m the only person in the world with my name, but that’s not surprising since my first name isn’t super-common, and there are only about 100 of us with my last name. (I only know this because my aunt did some serious genealogical sleuthing a few years back.)

Women often stay in abusive relationships because they are, to some degree, trying to be ‘convenient’.

YES. It sucks to be seen as a victim, which is why I prefer the term survivor. There is so much stigma. It’s not exactly fun.

I still think of myself as young (under 40, barely) but my dad is a lawyer and the Supreme Court freaks me the fuck out. I would love the right to terminate an unwanted fetus going forward, but I can’t seem to get my stalker’s several illegal guns taken away. That makes no sense!

Pence can’t be in a room, alone, with a woman who is not his wife. So for women? Sadly, possibly worse.

My statement was clearly an over-generalization; sorry if that went over your head. Ann Coulter is not interested in having a dialogue of any kind. Or that Milo guy who was gutting humans for HIV drugs. Or our current shithole of a president.

Racists, sexists, homophobes, religionists are not trying to ‘exchange ideas’.

I recently saw my h.s. English teacher for the first time in 22 years, and the first time since she transitioned. We had a five hour long coffee conversation, and a large portion of it was spent talking about how totally weird and unnecessary and ignorant transphobia and homophobia are. Not to mention violent!

I hate the word victim.

Ghosting doesn’t work with stalkers, because they just keep stalking. (But point taken.)

I have the same thing with some of my family members. Weirdly, now sober, I don’t try to force a relationship with them. (sarcasm)

Yes! My boyfriend of 9 years (but on again, off again) is a significant but not creepy amount of years older than me. When I asked, early on, if he’d ever lived with someone his response was, Never for very long. That told me everything I needed to know. He’s a great guy and I love him but we’re never going to get…