as Prozac has helped me since 1992. I went off it for a few months in 1995 and became a monster. Since then (post breast cancer) I have been on Effexor to counteract the effects of the estrogen-depriving drug Femara. After four years I couldn't stand Femara, and was able to taper off Effexor easily. My husband had a stroke in 2007, and has taken Lexapro since.

Neither my husband nor I watch drug ads on TV (we watch little TV, and fast-forward over the ads). Our several physicians oversee and participate in our decisions to continue taking these medications. We are not miserable, but see no reason to discontinue medication that is beneficial.

We have seen three very aged parents who were helped by antidepressants. Why would you let a 90+ year old person who is demented scream in desperation, when a medication can soothe and relieve the terror?

who cares? So am I. But I don't have bunions, hammertoes, or other foot deformities. My feet have gone from size 7, AA, with AAA heel(when I was 12), to (I guess)10 medium. I wore Birkenstocks for 40 years or so, and they allowed my feet to comfortably expand. I still wear them indoors, but several years ago I had a bad fall because of them. How delighted I was to find Crocs. With the back strap in place I am stable and my feet are still comfortable. And they cost much less than Birkenstocks.

When I was the young mother of a daughter who was unplanned--a pregnancy I certainly would have aborted had that option been available to me in 1960--I heard from a friend, another young mother, this story:

A woman friend of hers who couldn't conceive, had arranged, with her husband, for an adoption, the public, complicated way. Then something changed in their lives (not something major, like death or serious illness or financial ruin). They canceled the adoption.

I felt shocked, uncomprehending. How can you stop something once it's been chosen and started? Although I would have unchosen my pregnancy. Now I also feel shocked that someone would abort a pregnancy of a baby of an undesired sex, but my feelings are more muddled about a baby with malformed hands.

Needless to say, my unplanned daughter is as dear to me as my planned son.

is proven once again. Michelle Obama's other traits, such as intelligence, good judgment, gentility, stability ..., are more important, but it's good to celebrate her physical beauty as well. Over six feet tall, so well proportioned that some of us were surprised to discover how tall she is, with a beautiful face and smile--I wouldn't describe her booty as big, but high. This characteristic gives many women of African descent a particular grace.

in thirty-three years of secondary teaching shifted over the years. Denise and Nancy yielded to Jennifer and Liz, Jasons swelled, and I loved the simple biblical names like Seth and Leah. Then there were Tifanny and Destiny and my favorite, Khymi. Only once between 1967 and 2000 did I have a student with my name, Joan--which was the ninth most popular name the year I was born. There was always another Joan in my class--and still is, in my arthritis aquatic class.

I learned never to call the roll on the first day of class. Let the kids sit where they choose, then go around the room making a seating chart. ASK their names, write them on the chart (with phonetic markers if needed), check them off on the roll sheet.

No matter how ridiculous the name, a person wants to be called by it, or by a preferred nickname, and wants to have it pronounced correctly.

Yet I can remember names I stumbled over: Young Kim--it was so hard for me to remember his first name was Young

Whoops, forgot the Mc in McCain. I don't THINK I was thinking of the original fratricidal Cain--but maybe a fratricidal Republican who is hated by the likes of Rush .... ?

for John Edwards, before he dropped out. Absentee, in the California primary. I'm not sorry I did, because I want his ideas to be heard.

But here's what scares me. John Cain will get the Republican nomination; Hillary Clinton will get the Democratic nomination. As much as I disagree with his opinions, Cain is that rare Republican who is an honorable man (unlike the dwarves running against him, and most of his predecessors--make that ALL). Where I live there are few Clinton haters. But I am aware that there are many elsewhere. A huge Clinton backlash might put Cain in the White House. I doubt he could dig us out of the disasters seven and counting years of Bush the Younger have brought down. Most specifically, what would he do about the erosion of the Constitution?

but assault. She should have made a police report.

and I remember stuffing my dress into the bottoms of my snow suit in order to walk to school in the winter, but in the classroom, no girls in pants! This rule still held when I began teaching in 1967. I wrote on the board with one hand and pulled down my skirt with the other. A fundraiser at the junior high involved having girls pay 10¢ for the privilege of wearing pants (nice, not jeans!) to school. In 1970 I was hired by another school district in the area that had no dress restrictions for students or faculty. By the time I retired in 2000, the high school girls were half naked. Seated at my desk, I would be at eye level with the belly button ring of the student who was earnestly seeking my help--that ring was surrounded above and below by expanses of bare flesh. My wardrobe moved from dresses and skirts and pantyhose to pants as soon as I could afford it. I haven't worn a dress since my son's wedding in 1989--not even to weddings or funerals.