When I taught ESL, I had an Italian student who was in NY working at a bank. He would come in almost daily with some really raunchy expression and ask me what it meant. It took a couple of weeks before I figured out that his native English speaking co-workers were putting him up to it. The one that stands out and…

Ahem...HitPERSON.

I've told men that I couldn't meet their emotional needs, which was true—it wasn't a judgement on how much they needed—their needs are their needs—but an acknowledgement that I wasn't the person who could fill them. I guess that's just a fancy way of saying, "It's not you, it's me," but it's true.

That's just whizzful thinking.

That Masai thing was...horrible. This isn't really the same thing—she is not a tourist, she lives in North Africa and lives and performs in an Arab/North African context (huge conversation to be had concerning the conflating of those two distinct regions there, but let's skip it for the moment) and she's not traipsing…

Yep, I commented elsewhere that even as a sewist, I confront the same issues. When friends ask if I can make them a skirt and say they'll pay me, I explain they couldn't afford it—based on my day job salary, it would cost them about $500 for a properly fitted and lined straight- or A-line skirt. Obviously, I don't…

I sew most of my own clothes and I still feel a little sick when I buy fabric, because if the conditions for the folks assembling the final garments are bad, the conditions for farmers (cotton is one of the most resource-intensive, polluting textile fibers—worse for the environment than most synthetics) and producers…

Gotcha! Montreal is awesome.

Ari, I adore you and everything about you, so this is a sincere question: Why would one schedule a proposal? My understanding was that the proposal was the thing that happened when one person asked the other person to marry him/her so by actually planning the thing, weren't you already engaged? Or is is more about…

Ha! It's true, there are several celestial bodies one could point to if trying to invoke "round," but the moon's appearance to us on Earth changes every day. Maybe he meant that you would only have half a face, or just a scythe-shaped face, or completely absent face?

YES!! Make them pay, er, donate for the privilege of serving during holidays!

I think people confuse "bonding" with universal love, which is most definitely is not. Small "r" racism*/nationalism/fandom is a form of "bonding" with your group which can have a really negative effect on those not within that group. If oxytocin increases maternal and sexual bonding, that's great for the family…

That's really more of a craft beer name...

Well, except that is exactly what the privileged in our culture do—dress up as "others" because it is quaint or exotic or whatever. See: Blackface, "Navajo" designs at Urban Outfitters and others, the perennial "Gypsy-look," undifferentiated "Asian" costumes, etc., etc., etc.

In its way, it's kind of a brilliant…

Wait, they want the hair to be natural, but they don't want it to be *too* natural? I don't get it.Also, she'd completely lovely. I hope she gets the resolution that she wants and deserves.

Along with the natural gas harvesting from rotting garbage that already happens, I think it would be great if they could incorporate wind farms too, and make it into a sort of mini-park of alternative energy sources.

There are dozens of "kills" throughout New York city and state—it just means creek or water channel, but I did always find the name Freshkills to be particularly apt for a site known for dumping bodies along with trash.

Northern parts of Queens are filled-in land as well (and yes, we're part of NYC). I love this historical description of my neighborhood:

Angela Bassett's eyebrows need their own series.

Had this discussion with somebody at work during our Thursday morning analysis of the show—Kathy Bates is like Meryl Streep in that regard—she's just such a great actress that even when cast in the role of the villain, you can't help but root for her at some level. (see also: Misery).