How is it that Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson both seem like reasonably charming people in real life (or, y’know, as “real life” as talk shows and magazine interviews ever get) but absolutely none of that comes across in these terrible awful no good very bad movies?

Yeah, I haven’t been through the infertility process myself and this whole plot line is bugging me too. Also, not to stigmatize mental illness, but maybe a woman who literally had to quit her job to recover from a suicide attempt isn’t the best possible egg donor? I know Rebecca was bored and willing to work cheap,…

Honestly, no, unless there was a huge movement already going on. I know that’s cowardly, but I have kids. I have a job. Me going downtown and throwing rocks at the Trump hotel isn’t going to do anything except get me arrested. And the people who would have to clean up and replace those hypothetical broken windows…

She didn’t have a problem with the Trump administration as long as they kept handing her big paychecks for a do-nothing job. If she hadn’t gotten fired, she’d still be in the White House. I hope she takes what she knows to Mueller, but until she does I don’t care how sorry or concerned she says she is.

Yep, that’s what I would do. Or leave the cage on a table in the middle of the food court and figure someone will take the hamster to a shelter. Or use that fancy new internet thing to broadcast an SOS on social media.

I think it was incredibly inappropriate for the judge to suggest sterilization given the history of eugenics in the US. Even if everyone was clear it was only a suggestion, suggestions made by the person who can send you to jail carry a certain weight. 

Ha! But if you’re going to give your kid a long name, I’d rather it was after every single relative ever than just a bunch of pretentious names you like. At least the relative names mean something besides “Mommy thinks Rihanna Indigo Moonbeam Sloane is a cool name.”

Anytime!

I hate that I know this, but Kris Jenner’s kids do have middle names. Kim’s actually Kimberly Noelle and Kylie is Kylie Kristen. (Yes, I looked this up last night to see if the no middle names was a family thing ... quit looking at me that way.) Besides, the only grandchild whose last name is Kardashian is Rob’s…

I’ve heard that and it never makes sense to me! What if she never gets married? And even if she does, that’s like 25 years walking around without a middle name.

True ... but there are a crapzillion Websters out there, and Stormi isn’t THAT weird a name. I guess they’ll figure out what to do if she gets confused with another Stormi Webster when it happens.

I haven’t noticed that trend, but I’ll take your word for it.

What do the Kardashian-Jenners have against middle names? I don’t think Kim’s kids have them either. Not that anyone needs one, it’s just weird.

No, you aren’t awful for knowing yourself. My son has a genetic mutation that there wasn’t a test for when he was born. (Not Downs, but it is an intellectual disability.) I love him more than anything, but raising a child with special needs is incredibly difficult on good days. I don’t know what I would have done if…

I think Quincy Jones is a genius, sounds like a hell of a storyteller, and has lived a fascinating life, but I think he may be experiencing “I’m old, I can say whatever the fuck I want” syndrome. Like, I’m sure he had dinner with Ivanka a few times, but she’s probably surprised to hear he thought they were dates. And…

Gotcha. I blame you for that not at all.

We’re mostly agreed. For me, it came down to listening to a broader range of trans voices, as well as recognizing that I don’t need to completely understand someone’s feelings to accept them.

How would you avoid people born with penises winning everything if you did that? Of course women train as hard as men — that’s not in dispute — but if you look at athletic records, the male records are always faster, higher, more difficult, etc. than the female records. We can’t undo millennia of evolution just by…

Agreed.

Thanks. That’s my suspicion as to what will happen in general — some people will decide a genderqueer identity doesn’t work for them, some won’t, and very few will end up joining Operation Rescue protests who wouldn’t have been there no matter what.