Oh yeah, and very fair -- like, when I die it’s definitely my fault. 

I returned to Dead Cells after a long hiatus and damn it’s good. Unfortunately, *I* am not good at it. I can only get one boss cell (or whatever they’re called). Not sure how to get better to beat it three more times.

He’s talking about the Jade Helm invasion of Texas. I heard Obama rescheduled it for a couple of weeks from now.

The answer is that Europe has in fact had much lower death rates than the US, with the exception of only three countries in Europe: Belgium, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The rest of Europe has had dramatically better results, although Italy and Sweden have come close to the U.S. in terribleness. Thus, the European…

There are a lot of things I think of when I think of early-career Sufjan, but “feel-good” isn’t really one of them. Bubbly and joyful at times, maybe, but always tinged with sadness and world-weariness.

For a number of years, I’ve been in a long-distance, open relationship. Her one rule is “whatever else happens, I don’t want to know about it.” We don’t tell many of our friends about the open part either. She would be VERY upset if a friend of hers (or of mine) said, “I saw him out with another girl and it looked…

I generally agree, but I promise you Austin is special.

Agreed. I replied to Tormented Thoughts with longer musings, but I certainly agree with your broader point.

I agree with you, and I certainly enjoy a lot of songs written by people who didn’t perform them (in country music and many other genres), and I am all in favor of recognizing the unique contributions of those artists in making songs their own. I just think that what shows like these want to do is tie themselves to…

I wish articles like this would acknowledge that the song God’s Country was written by three people, none of whom is Blake Shelton. It is absolutely bizarre that these country singers can craft identities around songs they never wrote a word of. I know there is a long tradition of this in country music, but it’s worth…

This is the real Dune mashup story of the day:

Right. I think a lot of things have been “porn-ified” in sex, and this is one, but I agree that it’s hardly the strangest thing out there. I also think that people see it on the screen and think it’s about restricting air-flow, which is very dangerous (rather than blood-flow, which is potentially dangerous, but less…

I absolutely agree with Dan’s advice on choking. But I (straight male) have been surprised by the number of women I’ve encountered who have wanted to be choked or slapped or have harsher things done to them. On the one hand, good for them I guess for finding something that gets them going. If I had to guess I’d say it…

Having just read the Vulture article, I’ll say the dad sounds like a definite weirdo, and was more actively involved in her life at that time than the AV Club synopsis suggests. Although he never says anything remotely like “approving of her having sex with the older man,” he does say that he was fine with the…

Yeah I saw that, but the quote backing it up didn’t contain anything that sounded like approval. Let me be clear that I think this is all gross. I just don’t know that the father could be subject to criminal liability for his daughter’s relationship.

I haven’t read the full article, obviously. I agree with you that if those things were present then there would be some serious legal liability. The above quote makes it sounds like the father was basically saying “this girl has dropped out of school and left the house, so I’m not really in control of what she does,”…

Curious as to what laws you think his father broke? I’d also be curious about what charges they’d consider against Mr. Ross. Certainly statutory rape fits the bill, but that is not a particularly lengthy sentence (under 5 years), and it would not be impossible to avoid jail time altogether on such charges.

And how about a massage, some scrubbing, and a little cuticle work while you’re at it? I’m a straight guy and would happily let a woman (or hell, even a gay guy) do this to me if I got a more or less free pedicure out of the deal. (I’ve never even had a pedicure, but I hear they’re nice!) This letter is just crazy.

Oh man, keep at DQ11. One of the moments where I found myself actively crying in that game (I know!) is just a little after Octagonia. Man I enjoyed the writing in that game. You have a ways to go too!

Oh sure, I’m with you. Spitting and water would do it in most states I’m guessing. (The injury/weapon stuff is just “aggravated” assault where I am, but it’s interesting that Washington lumps it together like that.) It is an excellent idea not to go around touching people in offensive ways. I still contend that the…