Namely, that the LW's parents have never acknowledged her as a grown-up. The other stuff that's driving her nuts -- their passive-aggressive behavior, their "do what I say, not what I do" attitude, etc. -- stems from their unwillingness to do this.

To be accepted as an adult, you need to act like an adult. So do so. Tell your parents that you and your boyfriend are getting a hotel room for your next visit. Follow through with it and book a room at a hotel in their area. Stick to your decision in the face of their inevitable disapproval. Acknowledge it and change the subject. Be polite, warm, and loving, and don't allow yourself to be baited. If they persist in being unpleasant or pick a fight with you while you are visiting them, make your apologies and return to the hotel. Repeat as necessary until they get the point.

Eventually your parents will acknowledge that you and your boyfriend are a couple. If they are as passive-aggressive as you say, they may never say anything more about it and just assign you two a single bedroom on your next visit. They will probably rationalize it by telling themselves that you'll eventually get married. Whatever floats their boat. The important thing is that you will have established that you are an adult who is capable of making decisions about her own life.

The higher cost of energy-efficient home renovations (such as high efficiency air conditioners) is partly offset by federal tax credits. The web site www.energystar.gov has the details. This puts the government in the paradoxical position of simultaneously encouraging and discouraging energy efficiency!

We bought a SEER 15 whole-house air conditioner last year and got a $300 tax credit. The tax credit didn't make up the entire price difference between the SEER 13 and SEER 15 units. But when we took the lower operating cost of the SEER 15 unit into account, it helped make the unit more more cost effective over its lifetime.

Also, high efficiency air conditioners are not necessarily horribly more expensive than their lower efficiency counterparts. For example, Walmart.com lists a 10,000 BTU Harrier window AC that costs $216 for the regular version but only $229 for the EnergyStar (high efficiency) version.

These things aren't necessarily going to help impoverished people in cities keep cool, though. A short term fix for the problem of heat wave deaths is to better publicize the danger of extreme heat and be more pro-active about getting vulnerable people (such as the elderly) into air-conditioned shelters.

Lighten up, people. There's enough depressing news about women that I'm sure Broadsheet will return to "gloom and doom" mode any minute now.

Anyhow, I'm not surprised to hear that Crocs can be dangerous on escalators. The problem is their softness. A more rigid shoe won't deform as much and is less likely to get dragged down and trapped in an escalator's side. I suspect that their softness makes Crocs more likely to get snagged on the teeth at the ends of an escalator, too.

One of my brothers got his foot caught in an escalator at Gimbel's when he was a kid. It ripped his Converse "Chuck Taylor" sneaker apart, but he fortunately escaped harm. Good thing we didn't have Crocs back then, or he'd have lost a toe or two.

When bottled water first became popular, I was delighted. I can't stand the taste of diet sodas and don't want to guzzle the calories in regular sodas or most juices. I usually order unsweetened iced tea in restaurants, but for some reason it's hard to find in bottles or cans. Bottled water was a great alternative: calorie-free, caffeine-free, cool and refreshing.

Now I'm told by the do-gooders that I'm destroying the planet by drinking bottled water occasionally when I am out somewhere or on a trip. I drink tap water at home and frequently bring my own refillable bottles of tap water when I'm going out, but often this is impractical or even downright impossible. I'd cheerfully drink from glass bottles, but many places do not permit them for safety reasons. And as a lot of other people have pointed out, not all tap water is good to drink. Not to mention that it's a good idea to keep a few gallons of bottled water around the house in case of emergency. (I'm not talking terrorism, either: things like water main breaks and floods are very common and can wreak havoc on local water supplies.)

Apparently all of the people who are drinking soda or juice from plastic bottles that are identical to the much-maligned plastic water bottles are innocent of this particular crime against nature. Or at least they haven't come onto the radar screens of the environment police. Maybe the do-gooders are too busy criticizing these folks for being overweight to notice that they are trashing the planet as badly as the bottled water-drinkers.

All I want is a nice cool drink of water. Is this is too much to ask for? Yes, people drink bottled water when they don't need to. I am completely behind calls to cut back on its consumption, both on the grounds of saving the environment and saving money. But bottled water is extremely useful in many situations and banning it is a ridiculous overreaction.

- Overheard by my husband while walking through a new development in our area.

You can turn this into a win-win situation by providing childcare for your S-I-L's baby.

Line up a babysitter for the wedding, ideally someone with experience taking care of infants. Then tell your future S-I-L that you are glad she can make it to your wedding and that you have gotten her a sitter for her new baby so she and her husband can relax, have a good time, and take a break from the stress of being new parents.