Here's something that might help: make up a story for every person who tormented you. Figure out something that would have given them the motivation to do what they did to you. Maybe one of them was taunted by his older brother for not being tough enough. Maybe one of them felt a lot of pressure from his parents to be popular, and the only way he could think to be popular was to make fun of the less popular people.

The idea is not to excuse what they did but to explain it in a way that diffuses your anger toward them. If you can have compassion for the screwed up kids they were, you probably won't be as upset about the whole thing anymore.

Plus, if it makes you feel better, you can imagine what terrible things have befallen them since they were so mean to you. I think I'd start with cheating wives and bratty kids, myself.

If Ayelet Waldman wants to expose her nuttiness to the world, that's her business. But Salon should be ashamed of giving her a platform to humiliate her children. How long do you think it will be before word gets out on the playground that Zeke makes out with his mommy? What do you suppose the consequences of that will be?

is a fairly liberal college town. There are liberals in red states, too, you know. Even in Montana.

That statement about Billings is so wrong that it should be removed from the article.

Do you think we don't know what the word "bureaucracy" means? Just curious. . .

The boy was FIVE. What did he need to know about bombs and death for? I can't believe these people sat the kid down in front of the evening news to show him how horrible the world really is. He'll figure it out on his own soon enough.

Kids deserve to be more than props for their parents' political agendas. Let them be kids for a while.

Rolling Stone does have an interview with him in the issue with GW Dunce on the cover.

In the first season she had the pony with alopecia. They sent her off to boarding school to grow boobs and get hot before they brought her back.

The responsibility falls on you. Shoulder it. If you do not shoulder it, it will bury you.

I'm sure Cary was going for a dramatic ending, but it would be nice if it had some basis in reality. We're not talking about a minor child. The guy is a 35-year-old man who shouldn't need his older brother to parent him, and even if he does it's not his brother's responsibility. It sounds like the LW has more than enough on his plate right now.

Due in a month, that is. This is kid #2, and your friends are not wrong about the newborn period. It is not fun. It's, like, the total opposite of fun. But once you get through that they start to have a personality and then it starts to be the opposite of the opposite of fun. Plus, you're sleeping more which makes everything better.

You should come hang out at Table Talk, especially if you have questions or problems. TT got me through the newborn period with kid #1. A lot of smart, cool, experienced people hang out there and will be happy to help you get through the rough parts. Just don't call them your chickens.

Due in a month, that is. This is kid #2, and your friends are not wrong about the newborn period. It is not fun. It's, like, the total opposite of fun. But once you get through that they start to have a personality and then it starts to be the opposite of the opposite of fun. Plus, you're sleeping more which makes everything better.

You should come hang out at Table Talk, especially if you have questions or problems. TT got me through the newborn period with kid #1. A lot of smart, cool, experienced people hang out there and will be happy to help you get through the rough parts. Just don't call them your chickens.

How much is another year of this hell going to cost you in student loans? How many years of your life are you going to have to spend working at a job you hate because you made one bad decision?

The same thing happened to me except it was law school. My debt load wasn't as heavy as yours, but I still owe a *lot* of money for that one bad year. But I didn't see the point of continuing to borrow ever-larger sums of money to be able to get a job I didn't want just so I could pay back that money.

You only get to go around once. You don't have to spend your time being this miserable.

starts at 8:36 tonight:

http://www.nbc.com/Schedule/

Anybody who has worked fast food, especially at a national chain, knows that they are *very* careful about labor costs, since that is their biggest expense. McD's has software that tracks labor vs. sales to the quarter-hour. They know exactly how many people they will need for each shift, when to send people on breaks, etc. They don't have extra people hanging around because the manager is a nice guy.

And that's what was happening before, if this letter is to be believed. The manager was scheduling everybody for more hours than he needed them for, but now he's had to cut back. Except that would never happen in the real world, because business people don't just give money away to their employees. I'm not surprised that Cary didn't notice.

On "Good Morning America" today, Miss USA Tara Conner cops to her drug use, telling Matt Lauer, "I have done cocaine, yeah."

Lauer's on Today.

Also, I like the new format.

The literacy level of that post was brought to you by No Child Left Behind.