I have a dear vegetarian friend who comes to my Fourth of July party every year with nary a complaint (she always brings her own food no matter how many times I tell her that we will have some veggie burgers as well) - last year I did exactly as you recommend (my intentions were good previous year, but I always…

Jesus. At least mine program was liberal arts. A science grad student thinking that is....worrying.

I maintain they think Catholics are a soft target, so to speak. They never mentioned any of the really weird shit to our atheist/agnostic friends, but I guess they figured I’d be a more receptive audience (nope! But my default setting is to be polite when startled, which in retrospect may have given them false hope -…

I grew up in an an area that was heavily Catholic (mostly second and third generation Irish, Italian, and Polish), so I didn’t encounter any evangelical Christians until I went away to college (oddly, an extremely liberal college in an extremely liberal city), where I became friendly with a few evangelical girls. I…

Brilliant! What grade are you teaching? The Outsiders was one of my favorite books growing up.

That is a wonderful story. I hope you are so much happier now, and your priest is still out there, dropping unexpected truth bombs on unsuspecting members of his congregation.

Same. It wasn’t until I went away to college that I started to consider my conservative views, and even then, it was a slow process. I came around on gay marriage a good three years before I was able to process abortion as a women’s right. I think people really underestimate how difficult it can be to have rationale…

I second camping! My husband and I got into it last year, and we had some wonderful, extremely cheap, relaxing weekends. Bonus, we didn’t often have cell phone service, so we actually had to communicate like human beings, and no temptation to check work emails. Just us, some nice wooded strolls, our dog, and some wine…

Agreed, she’s getting a pass from me based entirely based on her age. She hadn’t been out in the world yet.

Thank you, from a fellow raised very religious. I hate when we go after teenagers. Give her a chance to develop outside her community, ffs. Poor thing is also going through an extremely stressful time, in which humans typically fall back on their belief systems and cling. Yelling at her, a frightened young woman who…

I want that to be real so badly, mostly because that is indeed the colour I turn when surprised. (Not the colour I turn when fucking surprised, mind, that colour is increasingly a pale and weary one.)

This has absolutely nothing to do with periods, but did anyone else watch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman when they were growing up? I was obsessed with that show, but the episode where a bear is trying to get into the shack where Dr. Quinn is holed up scared me for life. Seriously, I’m 31 years old, and I will believe…

Agreed. Never understood the hype. (I was just going to sit here and think it, but your courage inspired me to join you against the inevitable comment backlash!)

I laughed out loud reading this. Well done, friend. Do you still like seafood, just out of curiosity, or can you never face a shrimp again?

Ha! Also a fair point. What religious traditions people cling to can be a funny thing...

Thank you! This comment thread was getting exhausting. I lived in various Middle Eastern countries for several years. I’m not Muslim and never covered my head - except when entering a mosque! Because a mosque is a religious place and I feel it is good to be respectful of people’s religious traditions within their…

I believe Melania might be Catholic? Google tells me she is - so it makes sense to me that she covered her head in deference to her own religious traditions.

The Tories were going to win anyway - I’m not saying this won’t boost their numbers a bit, but let’s face it, Jeremy Corbyn has done some pretty significant damage to Labour - his idiotic waffling about the IRA and refusing to condemn their past violence could not have come at a worse time (obviously the IRA isn’t a…

Yeah, everyone keeps saying this, and I keep looking at them, and I’m just not seeing it. They have similar colouring, but that’s basically it. White skin and blonde hair does not make a relative!

Oh that warms my heart, thanks!