I miss Ben Skywalker (and Mara Jade) SO much. Luke deserves to experience having a family before everything goes down the shitter.

But when you spend 10+ yrs reading about Ben Skywalker hearing Ben Solo in the theatre was WEIRD. Like WHY reuse that name. Not like JJ had problems naming Rey, Fin or Poe. Picking another one syllable name thats not Ben would sound more star war-y as well.

Met while backpacking through central america a british guy named David Hicks. Which is not a name that means anything if you’re not old enough to remember the 2000s or Australian or have a degree in war and terrorism in the 21st century.

All minorities in China never had one child policy applied to them. Like its even a selling point for people from non-Han tribes to say that they can have more than one child without consequences in marriage interviews.

You guys got someone with compassion - Obama. Unfortunately compassion doesnt work with everyone else. Try someone with similar ideals and a lot more ass kicking.

oh god yes! My mum’s family is (distantly) russian and i still remember getting fruit salad covered in mayo. And that seems to apply to a lot of fruit salads served in older restaurants in tianjin/beijing (or at least last time i was back) because after the civil war those cities had a massive influx of white russian…

this is more because the chinese legal system is completely confucianism based. a good example is that when the son dies, the parent (if still living) is entitled to a share of his estate and can legally duke it out in court with the wife (and any grandchildren).

I’m an engineer too and one of the senior engineers on my team does it part time. she has two kids under 12 and prefers to be present for their school activities. we’re lucky that our boss has kids and is lenient on where/when as long as the work gets done. granted because she works at home/school/sport activities…

you know whats really funny? Turtles have some seriously harmful bacteria living on their backs. When I volunteered on a turtle preservation in Costa Rica we were all firmly told not to touch the backs of turtles with our bare hands or face some really fun skin problems.

Gotham or the Simpsons? Cause I just found out that my boss is a die hard Gotham fan but hates all the other DC TV shows.

Susan Johnson. Ridiculously steamy romances in hilariously improbable settings. Christina Dodd is actually really steamy in her earlier stuff but has gotten a little bizarre in her latest series.

LOVE the viscount! the minute kate started clawing his leg from under the table i was in love with that book.

omg. do. they’re her best series.

Have you read the Susan Johnson stuff which is a fuck load of smut in really improbable settings? The library I grew up next to had these but its like no one has heard of her.

omg i cried so hard at the end...so embarassing when reading it in public but miranda! those babies! the diaries!

OMG i LOVE anything by Ilona Andrews. (ok there was this weird angel thing a few years ago in an anthology but even they acknowledged that it was an experiment that they might not continue on developing)

omg thank you Kelly for this piece. I practically raised myself on Amanda Quick/Elizabeth Lowell/Julia Quinn books when I was growing up and its so lovely to read a piece that adds to the experience of reading those lovely books instead of denigrating them as ‘romance novels’ and therefore they’re not ‘literature’.

...i know what you mean. first place my mind jumped to was the gutter too.

moscato might do the trick for you. or a late harvest riesling. not sure where you are but in australia if you want to drink wine but want it sweet they’re the two that people go for. Find a good late harvest riesling and you’ll have all the sweetness with the complexity of a good wine.

people do that?