I don't like 'partner' as a term for romantic relationships because, as a woman, I had a female business partner for quite a while before either of us married our then-boyfriends. When we were starting our tech business and introduced ourselves as partners, the default assumption was that we were a lesbian couple,…

Do you live in Sunderland? The Blue Heron is the best!

Thanks for the kind words. I have an addendum to the story: mistercharles and I are no longer together (honestly, repeating that story to each other probably kept us together about a year longer than nature intended), but we're still friendly, so I texted him to let him know that some internet strangers found the…

New Year's Eve, 2010. After a very nice pre-game of oysters and champagne, mistercharles and I got on the #1 bus in Cambridge to head back to Boston to properly Auld Lang Syne. As we got on the bus, the driver barked, "All the way back", which didn't seem meaningful until I glanced to my right and stopped so…

Ah, the Silhoutte! In 1985 my father drove me to Allston to help my roommate and me move into our first apartment. He left to find a payphone to let my mother know we had arrived safely, and came back to let us know that the dive bar around the corner had 50 cent drafts. Is it still full of early morning drunks…

Especially as Russia and Korea share a border. I have a Russian friend with very Asian features - I had no reason to believe Victor An wasn't a born and raised Russian citizen until I read this story, and I agree, the sentence was off putting.

Much like the Deadspin story about putting toilet paper in a wastebasket,…

As long as he refers to the men who are getting their Viagra from government funded health plans as being "helpless without Uncle Boner coming in and providing for them a prescription each month" I have no problem with this.

Jesus. As has been explained to you multiple times in this thread, the charge of "Third Degree Sodomy" from the 90s is extremely ambiguous, and can be misinterpreted to the detriment of the accused, as mores have changed in the past 20 years. So I find your scare-mongering panic response and troll concern idiotic.

And…

And I'm a woman, and I'm not an idiot, so I have zero problem understanding it, either. But thanks for the helpful clue as to whom the idiot is in this discussion.

This has nothing to do with Jack White (although I did sit across the aisle from him on a BNA-JFK flight once - he is tall) but as a very pale person, your story reminded me of one of the more humiliating experiences from my 80s Seven Sisters College experience.

We had dining rooms in the houses, and staff to keep out…

And the crazy thing is - I'm a single female MIT grad, but my four closest friends from school are all married and supporting their husbands, who are all also highly educated as well. The husbands are "exploring ideas". My sister is a Smith grad who is a tech executive, and entirely supports her husband. One of my…

As a person whose adult brother died from a non-bike related head injury, and has herself cracked two bike helmets from crazy sudden incidents on busy roads, yes, the "nearly-weightless piece of brittle foam" bike helmet will save a life.

Why on earth would you think that piece of equipment that has been highly…

Well, Rashida Jones may be Jewish, but Rashisa Jones is totally a Scientologist, and really fucking awful.

Think what you meant to say was:

"But there are numerous examples throughout Harlequin Romance novels in which two individuals might be involved in a sexual relationship were one might have a tremendous amount of power over the other, but you can't call that rape without knowing the mindset and intentions of the two…