I thought I wanted Bernadette Peters, but you have convinced me I thought wrong.

How about Christine Baranski for Miranda......

Yeah, in retrospect that would have been worth mentioning (and that’s why he called Trump an idiot specifically). Thanks for pointing that out.

Stringer also talked about the economic impact of immigrants in the city: how many are business owners, how many work in the financial sector, etc... He made a point that we are not just doing this because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also to our economic benefit to welcome and defend immigrants. I love it…

This^. He wants to do stuff to reduce unintended pregnancies in the first place. Now, I’m no idiot, I realize that if such things were implemented, it could be leveraged as an argument to reduce access to abortion in the long run (the “well, why didn’t you just use birth control?! you need to suffer the consequences!”…

The constant flood of Michelle Obama comments over the last 8 years really do flummox me.

My sons’s Dad is like you (congrats, btw!).

An ex-bf, marveling at my ability to walk away from a second dessert, a third glass of wine, or offers of drugs at parties, said that I had the least addictive personality of anyone he had ever known. He struggles to this day with food and substance addictions, so he knows what he’s talking about. For the longest…

Hate to be the stereotypical ‘I did it to be cool’, but I hung out with an older crowd in high school, they all smoked so I guess I started for a feeling of inclusion. Being grown now I get it’s a completely shit reason and I’ve mostly kicked it but I do still smoke about a pack every couple weeks. I don’t think…

Unsolicited advice incoming:

I really hope your sister responds well to treatment. My mother died from lung cancer, the kind that does not come from smoking. Somewhat ironic considering she was almost militant about not smoking. Hell, I didn’t think you could get it randomly like she did.

I’ll check that out. My sister is in treatment for lung cancer and still hasn’t quit. I’m so incredibly torn between being furious with her and sympathetic.

I can relate on both your points. My brother in law smokes and has tried multiple times to quit ever since they had kids. I’ve often felt annoyance at him for not being able to do until I read David Sedaris’s book “When You Are Engulfed In Flames.” He writes a whole half of the book, called “The Smoking Section”…

Yep. I thought she was cool but I didn’t necessarily seek her out, and I think part of it may have been my own resistance to labeling myself an addict or alcoholic. It’s really bold to say it out loud and build a second career on something that’s defined by secrecy. She had the guts to do that in the face of the…

I also wouldn’t say ‘i don’t get it’ to someone who’d not invited me to talk to them about whatever their addiction was.

And that bit, I get. Even 8 years down the track, I know he still gets those compulsions. I’m the person he calls when he thinks about doing it to discuss the feelings behind it or the one who organises activities for times I know are particularly triggery for him. And i know I’ll be doing that for the rest of our…

It won’t get any easier. It’s been—what, two years?—since Robin Williams died and I’ll forget for a moment, then someone will post a clip or something and I’m right back in that despair from the day he died. Carrie Fisher has, apparently, a season of some Amazon tv show, the new Star Wars next December, and a…

As with Robin Williams, Carrie Fisher seemed so totally herself that I do feel I know her. Both she and Robin were huge influences on me as a kid—I adored Leia, and I was watching Robin’s stand-up way, way before it was age-appropriate for me to do so. I’ve read all of her books, I’ve seen all of her movies, I’ve seen…

It’s a strange thing to mourn someone you don’t know. Carrie’s death, like Robin Williams’, has really hit me. She was such a warm, whip smart, bad ass woman and she wasn’t here long enough. She seemed to have such a lovely relationship with her daughter, Billie and my heart breaks for her. I hope it’s some vague…

I’m an addict too and it’s always helpful to hear about the struggle from someone who doesn’t look like Gary Busey’s mugshot and who makes cultural contributions that don’t necessarily have anything to do with addiction. She was a good human.