seeing any "Clinton Fatigue?" headlines on Salon during all that primary silliness.

Joan, since you cover the media, how about an analysis of why the gasbag commentators on TV can't speak of Obama's candidacy in anything but negative terms?

Wake me when you write something substative.

I agree the meaning of "guest" has been perverted (so have a lot of other meanings), but the core definitions haven't changed.

The host plans and pays for the event, invites the guests, and provides for their comfort.

Guests should RSVP "yes" or "no" when they get an invitation. If they say "yes", they should show up. At a wedding reception, guests should avoid getting drunk enough to throw up in the corner, or making X-rated toasts.

And it's all good:

1. When a bride-to-be talks incessantly about "her day", run for the hills, because it sure as hell isn't going to be anyone else's day.

2. Any bride who sacrifices body, soul, and friendships for the "best day of her life" is setting herself up for disappointment. If her wedding is the "best day", what does that say about her expectations for marriage?

3. Guests hit up for money to finance a wedding should send a nice letter of congratulations and stay home. Guests don't pay for parties.

4. Bridezillas don't happen overnight. The same young (or not so young) woman who drives her friends and family crazy before the wedding, also whined incessantly as a kid about not having a "big enough birthday cake" or "lousy presents". Parents have to put their foot down before Miss Princess catches the entitlement disease.

"No, one should not talk on cell phone for idle chatter, but if you are trying to find your way to family, friend, or business, it is essential...yes, you can pull over, but that wouldn't work on an Interstate."

My God, how did we EVER find our way to family, friend or business before cellphones?

Remember maps? Those funny unfoldable paper things that you look at BEFORE you get in your car? There are lots of variations on them now -- Thomas Guides, mapquest.com, etc.

Try using them.

Stop whining about the Nanny Society. Stop with your endless claims of "everyone else's calls are trivial but mine are important."

It's your right as an American to be a self-centered doofus, but not on the road. Turn your cellphone off and put it in the glove compartment for emergencies.

Professor Judson is an evolutionary biologist. This lovely excerpt is from her essay "Why I'm Happy I Evolved":

"Some people want to think of humans as the product of a special creation, separate from other living things. I am not among them; I am glad it is not so. I am proud to be part of the riot of nature, to know that the same forces that produced me also produced bees, giant ferns and microbes that live at the bottom of the sea.

"For me, the knowledge that we evolved is a source of solace and hope. I find it a relief that plagues and cancers and wasp larvae that eat caterpillars alive are the result of the impartial - and comprehensible - forces of evolution rather than the caprices of a deity.

"More than that, I find that in viewing ourselves as one species out of hundreds of millions, we become more remarkable, not less so. No other animal that I have heard of can live so peaceably in such close quarters with so many individuals that are unrelated. No other animal routinely bothers to help the sick and the dying, or tries to save those hurt in an earthquake or flood.

"Which is not to say that we are all we might wish to be. But in putting ourselves into our place in nature, in comparing ourselves with other species, we have a real hope of reaching a better understanding, and appreciation, of ourselves."

An eloquent response to the self-serving notion that if you're not religious, the wonders of creation are closed to you!

I also recommend Richard Dawkins (The Ancestor's Tale) and Timothy Ferris (Coming of Age in the Milky Way) as authors who stand in awe of the natural world they so beautifully describe.

ABBA is silly music to be treasured for that reason. Any group that can turn a nothing song about a teenager into a three minute pop opera ("Dancing Queen") has a unique sensibility, like Phil Spector in his heyday.

Speaking of sensibility, I've never enjoyed an ABBA song as much as the drag queen version of "Mamma Mia" featured in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, with Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving giving it their all.

Just perfect.

LW, get both these people out of your lives. You can't help your friend (she's not really your friend, since you betrayed her at the first opportunity) and the guy is a serial cheater.

You are way, way out of touch with your feelings if you tumbled into bed with this guy just because he came on to you.

It's a problem a lot of women have, but that doesn't make it any less destructive.

Get away from both these people, get into serious therapy and find out why you did this. Otherwise it will happen again, and again.

1. Would this cartoon have been funny if it had run on the cover of, say, Aryan Nation Weekly?

No? Why not? Does racism magically morph into satire when it changes location?

2. If the Obamas had instead been dressed like Aunt Jemima and Stepin Fetchit, would we still hear the argument that "Democrats/lefties/blacks have no sense of humor"?

No? Why not? Is the use of contemporary black stereotypes OK, but not historical ones?