Yeah, her question was awkward but it seems like quite a people took offense to the idea that she was specifically seeking a black friend, like a POC is some kind of novelty item.

So tough! In my experience, meeting other newcomers is a good way to go. At least in my city, the natives have had the same circle of friends since high school and show little interest in new people. Cliques forever! I actually made some friends by writing an article talking about how hard it was to make new friends —…

A while back a Jez reader asked how she could make a black friend and she got very publicly schooled on why that was so wrong to ask (I thought her intentions were honorable, even if the question was clunky). Personally, I am in the market for *any* new friends, but our neighborhood is literally the whitest place I've…

You like really old memes.

Actually, I don't know if I'd call it "dated" (sounded nicer than "was sleeping with") but yeah, I never saw his feet. He always had thin black socks on. Presumably he took them off to shower, but I made him go home for that. I remember he wore them on a beach outing though. Weird, right? A mutual friend told me the…

My urn is going to read "Unchaste for years, burned in incinerator to prepare for hell."

Ahem, pretty sure my brother did too. Or at least he had some "not really sex" encounters. I also had a wild night with a preacher's son. Sing it, Dusty Springfield.

And being unchaste before marriage is hell-bound bad.

Good point, unless you consider socks with underwear a little freaky deaky. I dated a guy once who refused to take his socks off even when he was getting his rocks off. I found it very odd. Are socks an alternative to jorts for the never nudes?

True. And some people go out of their way to attract it.

Allegedly? Or has it been proven that the grandfather's friend actually committed the crime? Kai's posthumous accusation seems a little suspect. He just happened to be in the home of a freaky-deaky rapist and just happened to get in the car with a homicidal racist? That's some seriously bad luck.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about real-life astronaut Megan McArthur, who helped fix the Hubble Space Telescope. She was totally awesome. And while I didn't ask her how she felt about pink — cause, you know, we were chatting about her insanely dangerous mission — I'm pretty sure she'd say that anything that gets…

The point is that the childfree are asked to justify their choice ALL THE FREAKING TIME, and you probably have never been asked that question in your life. I asked my best friend out of actual curiosity and that was her husband's response. The unspoken implication is that having kids is something so natural and normal…

"The Corey Hotline." Your comment was awesome in general, but that phrase I'm stealing. :-)

Oh man, that is incredibly rough. I'm really lucky in that department, as my brother and sis-in-law are expecting their third this winter. My mom says she always had a hunch I wouldn't have kids, so she'd prepared herself for it. Actually, at one point I was having a heart-to-heart with her about *maybe* wanting kids…

The beginning premise makes me think of Stephanie Nielson (NieNie), the Mormon mommy blogger who was in a fiery plane crash that resulted in severe burns over 80% of her body. Her strength and grace and resilience were astounding. She also did not escape with her beautiful face unscathed, unlike this movie character,…

Part of the problem is that I moved away from all my best buds. It's not that they don't care, it's that I'm far away and their FB feeds are probably filled with people they see often and whose day-to-day lives are more familiar. Honestly, the way FB works, I'm not even sure that anybody sees my posts. I've asked…

Quite a bit easier said than done. :-)

Unless you are in such poor health that early death is certain and will affect a child's upbringing, I don't understand why it's an issue. I'm sure a kid would rather have a 65-year-old dad at graduation than no dad ever. Or a doting overweight mother rather than a standoffish skinny one. Or a lower middle class…

I've asked people this question. The response? Why WOULDN'T you have children? Translated: "What kind of freaky woman are you if you don't want kids?"