Actually my parents had disowned me and hated me, so no. I didn’t have a grownup in my life to help me out.

I am Danielle, and it was no typo. I was a stupid teenager from rural Maine who had been disowned by her parents and had no responsible grownup in her life at the time. In an unrelated move I later went to law school and became a raging bitch, but back then I was a meek, mild Christian teen whose whole forearm was…

There were about 200 students in my graduate program at Stanford, and in my first year, there were two suicides. This article rings very true to me.

I’m going to grant you that the average American probably doesn’t know camembert, raclette, morbier, manchego, etc... But certain cheeses are very basic and should be common knowledge for any regular American, and those cheeses are American (shudder), cheddar, jack and Swiss. Not Appenthaler, not Emmanthaler, not…

The explanation is pretty easy: there’s a thing called the bystander effect. The more people witness a crime, the less likely anyone is to do anything. They look around and see that no one else is doing something, and that seems to enforce the idea that doing nothing is the right thing to do. Think of Kitty Genovese.

I hate to say this, because it could be offensive but (whispering) I really want my hair to look like hers with her “natural” coils. I’m as white as Rachel Dolezal, and I’d love to have that hair. I know it’s cultural misappropriation, but it just looks great. I don’t wear feather headdresses or pretend to be anyone…

I had a boyfriend for a while in college who writes a blog where he brags about returning clothes that he’s worn out and getting refunds. He makes a practice of knowing the most generous return policies and abusing them. So glad I broke up with that cheapskate scammer. He also blogged about how he saved money by not…

(Editor’s Note: Are we sure this was weed? Because that really does not sound like weed. “Violent stoner” is not really a thing)

It actually is a thing that one can sue for: intentional infliction of emotional distress. (I’m an ex-lawyer).

RuPaul picks the winner, but not who will be the most beloved and successful drag queen. It’s not the first time Ru picked a pretty girl with a nasty disposition (remember Tyra Sanchez? And the gorgeous bully Raja, who delighted in calling other queens “boogers”?). Some of the queens who don’t win go on to make more…

And yes, I HATED brussels sprouts growing up. Did not meet a brussels sprout I liked until I was in my forties. My mother was truly a horrendous cook.

Last night I made brussels sprouts, braised in a mustard cream sauce, served on a bed of polenta. Really, really good.

I made a soup once which had a couple teaspoons of whole peppercorns. The peppercorns actually softened up in the soup and were sort of awesome. I don’t remember where I got the recipe.

Re “California champagne”: once I was feeling contemplative and asked my kids what stood out for them that I had taught them. I was pathetically angling for something showing what a great mom I am, raising them just so damn artisanally. They sat in silence for a while, then my younger child offered, “That champagne is…

Sorry, people, should have been “fired her.” Typing a comment while also answering a persistent child’s questions + not proofreading.

I got someone fired once for stealing from a restaurant. I went in very often to get a salad and a cold drink to go for lunch, and because I was assembling my salad at the salad bar, it would vary a little in cost... but suddenly it was costing a dollar or two more if this one woman was running the register. I brought…

There is a lot of controversy over how old Soon Yi is. She didn’t have a birth certificate; the documentation was not there (remember: she was adopted from overseas). Woody Allen made out that she was as old as she could possibly be; Mia Farrow was calling for the youngest possible age. The actual fact is unknown.…

I am so sorry to read these stories about Crustacean. I know the owners (one of my kids is close friends with one of their kids), and they are so warm, friendly, and down to earth. I've never eaten at their restaurant but I love patronizing their food truck. Evidently even really nice people can have a restaurant…

He might still get away with it. Eric Garner’s killer is doing juuuust fine. Just not enough obscenities in the world to utter over this.

Humor works when it's punching up. Attacking Mo'ne and Quvenzhane is punching down on so many different levels: they are children, they are black, they are girls. It looks like bullying when adults pick on kids, and adding sexual tone of the epithets makes it just gross. That's a racial thing as well as sexist,…