While George Clooney may be the first actor nominated for screenwriting, acting, and directing (and I haven't checked that), a quick check of imdb confirmed that Laurence Olivier was nominated for both acting and directing for Hamlet in 1948. He won for Best Director.

Cara Lea Shockley

I understand why parents want the notification, but I'm not certain how many of them truly remember being teenagers.

It's a time of fear for so many kids. Fear of not fitting in, not finding/keeping a romantic partner, grades and the future, but, most of all, fear of parents.

So many people think teenagers exaggerate when they say "my folks would kill me..." but not all are exaggerated.

There are people for whom an unwed teenaged daughter would be a breaking point. And that's not even considering the people who have sexually abused their children and might deliberately harm them to keep the circumstances of the pregnancy from getting out.

I also worry about a potential rise in successful suicides for girls who think they may be pregnant.

My biggest fear if 85 is passed are that some girls who get pregnant deciding -- with or without their partner -- to hide the pregnancy and, possibly, kill the child.

We'd all like to think that parents would step up to the plate and be there for their kids. I've known parents who have -- they helped their daughter graduate with her high school senior class even though she gave birth during her junior year. But I've seen more girls who've been slapped, punched, or disowned when the parents discovered they were pregnant.

They need to be protected. I voted against 85 today.

I miss living near Schwetzingen, which I think may be the little town in Germany Ms. Nobles was referring to.

For the entire month of May every restaurant has ein pfund of asparagus with a variety of sauces -- Maltaise as well as the more traditional Hollandaise for example. In addition, there are two types of asparagus soup, asparagus mousse, and asparagus souffles.

The only difference is that Schwetzingen's asparagus is always the thick, white asparagus rather than the green.

Women have a slightly higher rate of migraines than men. Since migraines can be brought on by the flicker effect of flourescents, that may be part of the reason why women are less likely to want them.

For myself, I'll use the flourescents anywhere I don't have to read (much - in the case of my kitchen) or where there's no conflicting flicker as with a TV or a computer. Hallways, kitchen, garage, utility room, bathroom are fine; bedroom and family room aren't.

I've noticed people mentioning the LED lighting. Is there a flicker effect with this type of lighting?

A few years ago, I was jobless and without any sort of health insurance. My annual income was less than $10,000 per year. My doctor suggested that I apply for indigent status at the hospital where she worked so that I could continue to get treatment. It was humiliating, but I followed her advice.

Because I was a part owner in the house I shared with three other people, I didn't qualify.

No one looks at the bigger picture. I had spent all my savings. I literally had nothing besides the equity in that house, which I couldn't pull out because I was one of several owners.

How much worse is it that children, who have no say in family finances at all, cannot find coverage.

My tabletop Windows PC is six years old. It probably has at least another few years of use in it for my parents. I can't imagine having to resell my machine in two years or less.

Spyware, viruses, etc. are easily preventable. My speed on the net is much faster than my sister's (she owns a top of the line Mac), and she seems to need much larger hard drives to run her software than I do.

Moreover, as a programmer, I like the fact that I can hack my own system if I need to. When my sister's Mac has a problem, she has to take it to the shop. I mean that literally. She needs to pack up her entire machine, put it in the car, take it to a Mac shop and maybe lose the use of it for a couple of days while the issue is resolved. This happened twice in the year that I lived with her, and she ultimately bought a new machine in order to get what she needed. When I realized my hard drive was too small, I bought a supplemental and installed it myself.

My Dell laptop cost less than her MacBook. I got the maximum length warranty on it, and, since I've had good luck with Dell in the past, I don't expect I'll need to pay for further service. The Mac Service contract is annual.

I've never understood why people prefer Macs. They have fewer keyboard shortcuts, which is probably why I don't know a single Mac user who doesn't have severe carpal tunnel from constant mouse use. For anyone who isn't primarily working in a visual medium, Macs just don't make sense.