I'm more comfortable with a female doctor because she has the same parts so it's not all just theory to her. This doesn't mean that *all* female ob/gyns are better than *all* males in the profession, just a preference that I have. And yes, I've used both in my 30 years of having pelvic exams.

We always just counted off (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, etc.) and were assigned teams that way. I remember rarely doing the whole pick-a-team routine. This was the 1970s and hippies were in charge, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm OK, don't believe I've been exposed but I'd never forgive myself if something happened to that beautiful little boy.

When I took a teaching job in the CUNY system (City University of New York), I had to prove that I had my shots. I couldn't locate the paperwork, so I got them again. It seemed completely reasonable to me that if students have to prove inoculation, teachers should as well.

You know when this anti-vax bullshit is going to go away? When they start hooking kids up to iron lungs, or burying hundreds of measles/whooping cough/rubella etc. children in mass graves like we did during the first half of the 20th century. I am old enough to have had teachers and adult friends of my family…

Any time the word "fat" comes up, it's like the comment threads are controlled by a gyroscope. Try as you might to tilt it toward a constructive, body-positive direction it will inevitably "correct" itself and end up with the usual "but fat people are unhealthy," "it's costing ME money," blah di fucking blah.

You can't be that bad if the dog stayed.

My cousin, the pathologist, cracked me up when she said, "You're not dead until you're room-temperature dead." Because cooling the body can slow all sorts of metabolic processes without killing you (context: we were getting ready to do the Coney Island Polar Plunge on New Year's Day).

This is probably my favorite movie line of all time:

I love the Newton Creek plant—I run past it all the time. It usually doesn't smell too bad, but occasionally...Such an important piece of our infrastructure and they took the time and expense to make it truly beautiful. It is a thing to behold at night when it is lit up. I've been wanting to go on a tour for ages.

Bitch totally stole my hairstyle (um yeah, that frizz atop my shoulders is *on purpose*, yep, yes it is...)

I think maybe it can open up a broader dialog about relationship abuse, even among feminists. For as long as I can remember, the excuse often made for women returning to abusers was that they had no other choice—financially they are dependent, don't have the access to legal services in the case of child custody, etc.…

The fact that her attitude seems to be, "I don't really care about your penises, male audience;" for that alone I love her.

Yes, from 1990 or so. It is brilliant! I think it is also available on Netflix. Same title. I was wary of watching the US version because the original is so dependent upon parliamentary culture and process and I wasn't sure how they'd shoehorn the story into an American context.

My middle school (in the late 1970s) was a lot more restrictive than grammar or high school. It was weird. Mostly it was no tank tops or shorts on girls and something about hats and boys, with religious exceptions. You could more or less wear what you wanted in high school.

You don't need a penis to be patriarchal.

I loved the UK version and thus have been reluctant to watch this one, but this has sort of convinced me to take the plunge.

Buddy cop movie with Sandy B?! There.

Came on to say the same. Ditto gentleman "gentle man." Not going out of one's way to be hurtful towards others. It doesn't mean buckling like dry grass in the face of misogyny.

My niece summed it up nicely when a friend and his 19-year-old nephew were visiting: Ugh, it smells like man-soap in here! WTF?!