I once had a guy back down after I said it was my anniversary. And he said he was backing off out of respect to my guy on this special day, otherwise he'd keep trying. Ugh...

Also, I'm sick of hearing that we're not supposed to discuss politics in the immediate wake of a horrible incident. I mean, when else are we supposed to have that discussion?

I can kind of understand the vegan shrimp lady's confusion. They shouldn't call it that. They should call it soy cocktail or tempeh skewers or something.

I am hoping that by monitoring and discussing at 13, I can let go around 15 or 16. I pay the most attention to numbers/names I don't know. She actually came to me with her texts to a friend this weekend because she wanted advice on a fight they were having. I think she likes the safety net sometimes. She has…

Good thing Meatloaf did Paradise By The Dashboard Light back circa 1978 not today, that would be weird. I love that song, best poprock duet ever.

I monitor my 13 years old texting. She had a male peer (at least presented as a peer) ask for a nude photo. She said no and we talked about it. She talked about how you don't know what happens to a pic after someone sends it. I also brought up child pornography and you don't want to get someone you liked in trouble.

Oof...that reminds me of the time I made a girl I knew in high school cry. She was very proud of the fact that she was vegetarian, and was always mildly chastising those of us who were not for our "cruelty" (despite this, she and I were still friends, as she was a very sweet and kind person).

May we share stories of...I don't want to judge them as "stupid", so I'll say "inadequate at their jobs" servers, also?

I was on a road trip with my family and we stopped at a sit-down basic American food restaurant for lunch. I ordered the chicken sandwich. The waitress almost-repeated "chicken-fried steak sandwich"…

I am a vegetarian that in no way misses or is tempted by meat, but I do sometimes like to eat things like imitation chicken sandwiches (especially the fake chicken parm sandwich at Red Bamboo in NYC, mmmmmm). This isn't because I'm lying to myself - I would find an actual chicken sandwich disgusting. It's because I…

I'm not sure why this is confusing for people. Nothing about a hamburger looks like a cow. So how does that not make the meat-eater the one in denial?

I honestly always find this argument about soy meats so tiresome and one dimensional. See my response above if you want to know what I mean.

Some people turn vegan for ideological reasons and still miss the taste / texture of all the non-vegan food. Can you really blame them for that?

Gah! Why did I miss this? I have a good one.

I feel like reading this should be mandatory high school sex ed curriculum, for some reason...

I did anything and everything in the world to sex up my first love (first love is real life vampire love I always say) despite our parents' best efforts. At first it was easy because they worked full time. Take advantage of a half day, ditch a couple classes here and there, NBD.

When I was in high school I had this super duper over-the-top crush on my best guy friend at the time, who had immediately friend-zoned me because I was fat (and that's not an assumption; he told me that was why). We'd fooled around before, but third-base at most, never had sex. So I concocted a plan.

I want to win a pissing contest so, so badly, and doing ridiculous shit for sex might just be the one thing I deserve a gold medal at. I'll give extra stories to show my desperation:

Nothing too crazy, but I did buy a mountain bike, because a boy I liked was into mountain biking. And then I had to actually go mountain biking, which was scary, but also fun. When the boy and I broke up, I sold the bike, but to a girl I knew, and I would see her riding that bike around having all kinds of fun with…

I've worked in family court representing juvenile clients (only pro bono), and in my experience they're capricious as fuck. Get the wrong judge on the wrong day and who knows.

It's a pretty self-deceiving to think that being a narcissistic asshole with no respect for others, especially their elders, is a phenomenon new to this generation of teenagers. Socrates famously said,