"It is just a sad indictment on our society that this conversation even happens at all."

Who will write stories about the elves? (A rhetorical, but not a dismissive, question.)

* * *
Do you not see the value in being able imaginatively inhabit the experience of another person, for the aim of increasing mutual understanding?

I don't know that any individual's experience is sufficiently broad to allow them to write the story of their "race".

There is something important here about cultural appropriation, and the way it tends to minimize the access of minority race or identity groups have to participate in our shared culture. That said,…

"I am just baffled that you are so caught up in the forest, the trees (the substance of the article - actually good information for developing a life plan - even without ANY Christian references) become invisible."

No need for "people" to announce it; it just seems odd that the author of a post on a site like this wouldn't mention the spiritual inflection of the material she was writing about, as if the background assumption is that we're all Christians.

"Off-putting because there is some Christian reference in the document? Really?"

My objection was neither infantile nor a complaint of being offended. What is the source of your hostility?

This is a very welcome development.

What Islam is, is beside the point. These are humans who are making such threats (who are free, as humans are, to interpret and misinterpret texts, sacred and otherwise, as they seek to justify their actions as permissible or necessary.)

Assigning blame for individual actions to membership in any political, ethnic,…

I'm inclined to put one of these pins on my jacket as I walk around Boston (where people are apt to forget that this is the kind of ugly antagonism that passes for political difference in this country.)

Upping the ante, excellent.

"Three months' pay — buy her a ring that shows her you're a real man."

(This message brought to you by the American Society of Ring Salespeople.)

When I proposed to my fiancee, she got her great-grandmother's diamond ring (her grandmother had given it to me the first time she and I met — no pressure there!). Had I not had this heirloom, she would have gotten whatever silver ring on Etsy we both got the biggest kick out of.

A few weeks later, fiancee gave ME a…

I actually think the local Red Men lodge meets on Mondays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_…

You might be too ingrained, indeed. A fish doesn't know it's in water and so on.

Consider: There might be a reason you only know (via workplace relationships, say) people who work better on the train than in the office. That reason might be because they gravitated toward a work environment that rewarded this kind of…

Gotcha. In which case, invite the ladies, or take it on yourselves for not knowing how to break the habit of obsolete gender roles. If there's business going on during your recreation, involve everyone on your team. If that's not possible, don't do business on your recreation. (Or maintain the status quo, and be…

Now that I think of it, what field do you work in? The economy's tight, so it there's really some sector where one of my competitors is able to pay the bills even while subsidizing the bro-style recreation of its employees, then that's a business opportunity waiting to be exploited.

It seems like you could take the money your company spends on trips, and the money it will have to pay for gender discrimination lawsuits, and simply hire employees who are capable and professional enough to be effective and creative in a work setting more structured than a backcountry camping trip.

A scene in the car on our way home from the grocery store with a bag of live lobsters:

I like to throw some chopped celery in with the aromatics — rounds out the flavor with a nice vegetal note. Another nice variation is using hard cider instead of wine, and preceding the cider with a half-cup of halved cherry tomatoes. The resulting broth is acidic, sweet, and rich, with a nice color. Wonderful for…