I think Salon's book group should do a revisionist reading of THE SCARLETT LETTER. We can include the resident shamers. They'll fit in just fine: Hawthorne despised women writers too.

Seriously. When Hester is standing facing the mob of righteous types, they are upset that she is proud and has embroidered her A. She is supposed to be shamed. She isn't.

And Pearl, despite everyone's choplicking hopes, turns out well. The baby-daddy doesn't.

What WAS Hawthorne thinking of?

I grew up in the 1950s reading comic books. Sunday afternoons where when my father would drive me across town to the one drugstore we KNEW had the very best assortment of comics, and we'd buy a bunch and come home and read them.

Naturally, Dad caught hell from the college professor on the block, but both my parents believed that if I read comics I'd read other things, and that comics often contained interesting concepts that would make me want to read other things. For example, mentions of the Greek gods (and my cousin the medical student, who ran out of Kryptonite questions to answer for me) sent me to Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY. Besides, Dad was a science fiction fan who grew up on PLANET STORIES and got me hooked on SF too.

Mostly, we bought Code comics, but not always. And I was thrilled to see how comics grew up in the 1960s and 1970s until they are now "graphic novels."

My favorite essay on comics was Harlan Ellison's essay in PLAYBOY, which was sent me by the late Julius Schwartz ("father" of Green Arrow and many others). In it, he talks about all of us who suffered from our mothers throwing out our comics. HIS never did.

Comics. Fluoride in the water. John Birch. It wasn't always fun, but it sure was interesting.

Are we supposed to take this seriously?

This whole affair makes no sense from start to finish.

As usual, Brightstar is overgeneralizing.

Sexism is not immune from the rules of logic. It just seems that way.

And what his same-old, same-old has to do with shaming, I don't know. I actually do follow how Jim's "I can't get control of my juvenile chattel, and it's MEAN" is almost relevant here.

Trolling LWM (live white male) alert.

Check.

What AKA Smith said. You are necessary here and wherever else you are. And I do not believe that you, AKA Smith, any of the other women here, or I are inferior to men.

You are valuable.

There was only one Andrea Dworkin. There are many other women and men who are and were feminists.

Why not use pictures of some of them in the interests of inclusiveness?

They're in your wash, BS. Along with the rest of the Kinder, Kirche, Kuche BS.

Can't you get your fiancee to wash them for you?

Tsk.

Besides, brown is -so- not my color. Unless lightened up with gold, which I am financially able to buy for myself.

Please write to let us know you're okay.

Let us know even if you're NOT okay, and I can't imagine you feel anything but awful right now.

Keep talking. Everyone's experience with breakup is individually awful. Last one I broke up with (actually, it was the other way around), I put into a really gruesome horror story, killed him messy undead, and bought a diamond tennis bracelet with the proceeds.

Sometimes the truth comes out in anger, sometimes people simply lose it, and sometimes they just say stupid things. Your ex's big mouth isn't your problem. The loss and the consequences are. Your life is not stupid and insignificant.

You might want to call and ask someone to come over.

Ah. In other words, comic relief.

Sometimes I think of Elmer Fudd. "Be vewwy quiet. We're hunting Wabbits."

Or trolls.

That's what friends and family do. They worry.

They also yell bloody blue murder after they find out you HAVEN'T confided in them. People form communities in which they care for one another, though you're not feeling the love right now.

The important thing is communicating, however you feel comfortable.

First things are food, clothing, and shelter. Are you set for these? Can you get set?

My guess is that Social Services can help you line up a GED program that goes along with work and "life skills" like driving.

No, you're not in a bed of roses, but you're taking responsibility and looking toward the future. To my way of thinking, that makes you worthwhile. You have a child to provide for, better than you were provided for. And judging from what you said about your grades, you have skills and abilities that are very worth developing.

One reason I always admired Bill Clinton was that, regardless of everything else he did, he bootstrapped himself. I'm not saying you have to become president (good grief, why would you WANT to?), but I'm saying that this country still has the means of helping people like you create good lives.

I admire it when people do that.

Ignore BS. You don't need more cruelty.

The Telegraph's trolls, male and female, are better than Salon's. Very vivid. East German judge gives them a 7.

Bravo!