Go U Bears!

Oh, yuck. Really? I’m just happy that my A/C keeps my piano in tune. I’d be extra happy if it kept black death mold from growing everywhere.

And don’t forget Li’l Sebastian. She hates Li’l Sebastian.

a deep aversion to air conditioning

You just made me snarf wine. Thanks!

My dad was on Oprah three times: once in 1987 and twice in 1989. I don’t want to dox myself by revealing who he was, but he had nothing but great things to say about her. I’ve still got the old VHS tapes, though, and everyone’s wardrobe was a horror...except Oprah’s, which was just perfect.

Hey, I have a relative who’s all over Facebook complaining about how she isn’t at Burning Man this year so she has to watch some live stream of a bunch of hippies* setting fire to that sculpture thing, and she’s in her late 50s.

Beads?

You're absolutely right, and I acknowledge that.

Yes, I know what a troll is. And, yes, the personal attacks on my intelligence and career that I’ve dismissed have come from trolls and assholes.

I agree that many American public schools do an abysmal job. (I myself don’t teach in a public school, although I hold a teaching certification in my state.) But I do believe that there is a serious problem with the emphasis of school being placed entirely on academics, as seems to be the case with this young man. He…

“Maybe I would have felt differently if I were into physics.”

I just dismissed a few trolls, one of whom put forth the “He’ll be bored!” argument and the other of whom told me that there was a reason I am a middle school teacher, not a college professor. My response to the first troll would have been that there is more to life than academics and that current educational pedagogy…

I have taught middle school for 15 years. Stories like this make me angry. I don't give a shit if he's academically ready for college. He isn't ready for college in far more ways that actually matter.

I think sixth-wave feminists are back to calling them “gals.”

Well, some people do.

Yeah, I don’t get that, either. It would be like telling John Lewis to shut up and sit down because, what, he’s old? Do Millennials think they’re better at protest than their forebears?

Gail Sheehy? Holy crap. I hope she can write often for Jezebel—she is a towering figure.

It involves feeding donuts to bears. Seriously. I couldn’t make this shit up.

Be careful: I said the same thing about Joni Mitchell the other day on Facebook, when her website posted this recent picture of her at a Chick Corea concert, and I was so lambasted for being “judgmental” and “ageist” that I finally deleted the post. (When I remarked that it was a damn shame that her SIXTY TWO YEARS OF…