Martin's wife told him that if he kills Arya, she's leaving him. Martin mentioned this during an interview and seemed quite tickled that his wife (and probably one of the only readers whose opinion he gives a damn about) was that invested. While Arya may still bite it at the end of the series, she has an insurance…

Thank you for laying it out like this. It's the awful kind of breathtaking to see the list and follow the links. Awful but necessary. Sharing now and thank you again.

One thing about this story has stayed with me for years: after Brittany died, her mom and Monjack started sleeping in the same bed at night. Mommy Weirdest was the one who made this public and that just skeeved me so much. It wasn't a sexual thing (which I believe) just a comfort thing (per the mom, at any rate),…

Your story resonated so much. As far as my mother was concerned, I had no boundaries. I was her property and she could do what she wanted, when she wanted, and when I cried or screamed at her, she told me I was hateful and used that as an excuse for physical (when I still lived at home) and emotional violence. …

That was probably it, in which case that's a lot less WTF in a way.

I'm glad it was just a weird First Thing and not some sort of bigger bummer. A lot of anti-psychotics can lead to significant weight gain, so I'm tentatively hoping the weight he's put on isn't just middle-aged but also might be due to staying on his meds more consistently than he apparently used to do.

This may have been the first real confirmation that he's no longer able to run errands alone. The onset of dementia, especially in the early stages, can be a slow, inconsistent thing for some people. Adjusting their perceptions of him as more vulnerable might also have been that much more difficult given how…

I keep looking for Sam Kinison and Tawny Kitaen to show up.

Holy wow. This looks so awkward, I though tit was a badly 'shopped pic.

I only just learned that he has some pretty severe disorders and has been on and off anti-psychotics for years. Apparently, when's he's up, he is the most charismatic and charming man out there. When he's unmedicated, well, that doesn't salvage that night for you but I'm guessing that's probably a factor in what you…

Hey! That poster, Kim, gave you no reason to doubt she has worked very hard to destroy those families and seek that attention omg.

Preach. I used 'serious' to indicate that I gave a largely long-distance relationship a go for a little short of two years. I suspect that if I had actually wanted something that better approximated a 'serious' relationship, I might have opted for someone I saw more than twice in that second year. I loved being…

Although I've flinged here and there, my last actual relationship ended in 1995. That's right. I am on my way to hitting the twenty-year mark without being in any sort of serious dating relationship. (ETA if you're worried/nosy about such things, I was twenty-two when that relationship ended.) I feel like…

You know what's really fucking depressing about this? He got a harsher sentence than he would have received if he had raped a living victim.

I'm sorry getting the procedure done was such a hassle for you. Probably my age (I was 36 or 37, IIR) helped shut down protests from doctors about having the procedure as did my family medical history. I was taken aback to discover some women have to additionally have meet with a psychiatrist to get an all-clear on…

I opted to be childless — the tubal-ligation-to-avoid-pregnancy, non-murdering-a-toddler kind of childless — and I can't imagine how he could do what he did. I see so many people sneering at everyone who initially believed this guy didn't intentionally kill his child, but they seem to miss the part where most people…

I have a couple of degrees in chemistry as well as some dear friends who are firmly invested in woo-woo crap, so I have been exposed to a great deal of actual research and articles that are based on how the author feels something should work. I'll just stick with the disclaimer provided by the howdoeshomeopathywork…

Yes. That evidence is called the placebo effect. It's brilliantly effective in its way.

I think it might actually be even better than http://www.howdoeshomeopathywork.com/ and that site has been a favourite of mine for years.

When it comes to being hit with some sort of personal news, the bigger the personal emotional impact the news has, the quieter I get and the deeper into my head I go. Before I learned to manage my PTSD, I would even dissociate and have fugues. I haven't had problems with those blackouts in years (yay!), but they for…