At what point would you draw the line, then? There are probably a dozen kids in every given high school in America who have mental health issues severe enough that they would opt for suicide if they had as much support in their decision as Pothoven had in hers. They’d all say with perfect honesty that their lives were…

Depends on the specifics. Nobody likes thinking about forcing treatment on someone who doesn’t want it, and in general 17 is old enough to make most medical decisions.

There’s a saying that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I don’t think that’s true in every single case, but it certainly seems more likely to be true than not for a 17-year-old. This girl needed intensive physical and mental health treatment, not for the system to treat her like an 80-year-old…

No, it’s absolutely not her fault. SNL cast members are all grubbing for airtime no matter what, and I can’t imagine someone in that competitive an environment turning things down out of sympathy. And Kristen is very talented, so it’s not like she’s bad choice. But even at the time, I felt like she was crowding out…

Yeah, I had forgotten how long she stuck around. You’re right — a season to figure things out is plenty. It’s as long as Sarah Silverman got, and she admits it wasn’t a good fit.

Good point. Also Kristen Wiig was still on the show, and it felt like she got a lot more screentime than any of the other women in the cast.

He has fired cast members frivolously, from Jenny Slate cursing on air and Norm MacDonald for his scathing jokes.

I only saw the show a few times, but my most coveted toy of all time was my best friend’s Punky Brewster doll with the lower-leg bandannas, latchkey kid necklace, and mismatched sneakers. Truly a style icon for the ages. The revival (ugh) can only wish to be half as iconic. 

Oh, man. I would still cry if everybody but me got McDonald’s, so I feel you.

Last year, our school district offered flu vaccine clinics at all the public schools. It was a very easy process — all I had to do as a parent was filling out permission slips with the insurance info. (It was free for us, but they must submit a claim.) I wonder whether schools could set up something similar for student…

Yeah, I had the same reaction. I wouldn’t have trusted James from day one because it sounds like his initial flattery of her was really over the top, and (almost) nobody does that unless they want something. Of course she’s allowed to decide to give him what he wants, but she shouldn’t turn around and be surprised…

I don’t like his look AT ALL. Maybe I’m just not his demographic — I thought the idea of make-up was to make you look like the most attractive version of yourself. But he looks a lot better without makeup. It’s possible I’m having that reaction because I’m not used to guys wearing that much makeup ... but honestly, I…

I can see what they’re saying to some extent if they’re talking about middle-class-or-better white cis men who transitioned after their careers were established — the Caitlin Jenners and Wachowski siblings of the world. It’s a LOT of privilege and it doesn’t all magically disappear.

Yep. I flirted with TERF ideology for a bit, several years ago — I’d accidentally followed some TERFs trying to find smart feminists on Twitter, and some parts of their anger spoke to me. I came to my senses when I realized how much they sounded like every bigot I hated.

Wait, her mom beat her until she needed brain surgery and CPS sent her right home? Society doesn’t care about black kids at all. 

The long night strikes me as also being an artistic choice -- while they might not have been able to afford more minutes of full-on battle footage with CGI and lots of extras, they could have spun it out into two or three episodes by filming more scenes set on standing sets with the core cast. They decided to just…

Yes. He was angry at the entire situation, and feeling guilty for helping Cersei for so long, and he’s always been kind of a dick when things are going badly for him. Which is not to excuse him for being pretty awful to Brienne in that moment, but it doesn’t mean their whole story is over.

I agree the show handled the women other than Arya badly this week, but I don’t think Jaime was suggesting Brienne drink more in any kind of date-rapey way. It was more to help get her relaxed and make sure the sex wouldn’t hurt physically. They’d already established she wasn’t going to say no.

Yep. There’s no reason to have an age of consent lower than 18, with exceptions for couples with relatively small age gaps. Hopefully this case will inspire Georgia to fix its laws.

Interesting point -- it definitely seems plausible that not getting treatment for her medical issues is some kind of neglect, at least.