As someone who has read all (really, all) the Gossip Girl books I now understand where they were coming from. Really, they sound pretty much identical, all the way down to false, arch, slangy vernacular and horny virgins.

@gunnstreetgrrl: Maybe I'll put "Seattle-based Brunette" on my resume.

@veronicafu: It's pretty typical for airport employees or baggage handlers to walk the cargo dogs before loading them onto the plane, it's actually the *good* thing to do, and lazy or insensitive workers sometimes don't do it. This story is added to my list of reasons I will not fly my dog cargo.

It occurs to me that maybe Jessica Simpson is her generation's Jayne Mansfield, but is sadly under-utilized.

@Hannah: Yeah, that looks like a "genuine" Gordon Gartrelle to me. Yikes.

@OnTheCastingCouch: I do love how his attention is completely on her in this photo. I see it in a lot of photos of the two of them, and it's incredibly sweet. He's arguably the most powerful man in the world, surrounded by handlers and photographers and reporters, but he only has eyes for his lady. *sigh*

I also love Charlotte Gainsbourg's underbite because I had/have the opposite problem. I spent a total of 4 years with braces and headgears, and even had teeth removed, to "correct" my overbite. Funny thing is, my upper jaw isn't a problem, my lower jaw is. So I have a very weak chin, and I *still* have an overbite,…

@MyRomanApartment: There are miles of difference between concern for the well-being of loved ones and telling strangers that they are unhealthy because they are fat. I don't think Tasha is saying her loved ones aren't allowed to think about her health, she's speaking about the hypothetical stranger on the bus telling…

@LaurenIvy: Nobody is asking you to celebrate her choices, she's asking you to please not tell her how she should live, since it's really not any of your business.

@RedLantern: I've never run into this problem, either. But, then, I live in a so-called "childless" city (Seattle). I know people here with children, and they generally aren't bringing them out for fancy meals or non-kid-appropriate movies. I did have dinner in a nice restaurant the other night and a table nearby had…

@ManicPixieNightmare: I got yelled at by a lady telling me to keep my (leashed, restrained) dog off her yard because her cats were outside.

@Snood: Doctors will tell you that it takes 3-6 months to get pregnant after going off the pill, so a lot of women assume that's the timeframe they have to work with before they worry about fertility. I have a friend who planned her whole pregnancy around the assumption it would take 6 months to get knocked up, but…

@Jennifer Stockwell: I have a friend who has spent years being kind of wishy-washy about whether or not she should have kids, then last winter she discovered she was pregnant. She and her husband are extremely excited about it. It's like chance decided on it for them. I have another friend who recently stopped using…

@divinelioness: Ugh, yes! I'm between a 6 and a 12, and I hate it. I never know what size of anything to get when I'm shopping, even brands I trust change sizing scales season-to-season. Bleargh!

@BadgerChaser: We do the same thing, we listen in on other people's conversations and then, when they leave, talk about them behind their backs. Also, we talk about the food, so for the first half of the meal or so we're quiet, then things start to pick up once the food arrives and the neighbors leave.

@francofile001: thank you for the clarification! I took German in school, not French (obviously ;).

@boxspelunker: I learned the coward part in college, in a linguistics class (before I gave that subject up for biology), but Wikipedia has a decent rundown of different sources for the vagina usage, some of which were novel to me. "Pucelle" I'd heard before, so that's the one I give the most credibility to.

@Biologeek: It's funny, where I grew up the "blow you for a tennis bracelet" and "nose job for sweet 16" stereotypes all referred to the really wealthy WASP kids. (I knew a guy who really did get the choice between a nose job and a car for his 16th birthday. He opted for the nose job but then got the car a few months…

@BabyJane: My friend is currently pregnant with a child conceived in the Dominican Republic. Popular vote has determined that she should name the kid Dominic. Everybody but her husband is on board.

@Mischif: But perhaps they would want to be named after a kick-ass Michael Caine movie: [www.imdb.com]