So you don't know what to do with yourself? Don't you think it's a little much to be so focused on living a "normal" life right now? What about this war? Did you notice that we are bombing the crap out of Iraq again? What about what's happening to the environment? That millions of women are being forced into prostitution? That unwanted children are being brought into the world to suffer and die young?

My generation grew up through rebellion, kicking our way into the big world. We became real grownups, some of us. Now rebellion's been so co-opted by the advertisers that it's just a cliche, and that's why you reject rebellion as being uncool. I think that's something you need to be very angry about. You've been robbed of agency.

As Cary says, you can pay your bills on time and so on or even be good company for yourself, and that's jake, but if you aren't mad as hell you haven't been paying attention.

Where are the young activists? Where's the indignity? Are you all on Prozac? We old leftys aren't getting any younger. So ditch your Hallmark sentiments and start working for political change. If you make this effort, you'll discover all the meaning you have been missing in life.

Lucky we have men to set us straight about what's wrong in this world. Uncowed by facts and figures as to who's really at fault for the mess we're in, they can go on blaming us women. Whatever makes you feel good.

Even if you move to Timbucktoo you are not going to get rid of your future husband's family. Their talk indicates that they are really bad people who will make your life Hell. Run away, girl.

I certainly identified with this one! I grew up abused and unvalued. I recently had to cut off my relationship to my last surviving relative because she simply could not stop yelling at me and telling me I was stupid. I don't abuse people. I had to learn different ways of getting along with family from what was familiar to me.

My mother in law is small, dainty, and whiny. She never got much pleasure from having kids, because what she really liked was a clean house, sex with her married lover, and craft projects. Yes, I look down on her. She's vapid. However, now that her lover is dead and she is old and helpless, we take care of her. She has never done me any harm. And her son loves her, in spite of everything. As do her grandchildren. I don't have to love her, but I look out for her interests, anticipate problems as she needs more care, and treat her politely.

My point is, mothers in law are forever. Real families are like that.

I wish I could remember where I read this comment: men are afraid women will laugh at them; women are afraid men will kill them.

What worries me is the effect that being used as sex attractions on display has on young women. They get all inflated from attention gas and then crash, deflated, when they can't get that kind of attention any more, having become old hags of 30 or so.

Why Boston? It's a place that demands conformity and fitting in. Why not go someplace that's full of eccentrics living by their wits? An isolated place with a lot of bright outsiders who have to make their own cultural scene?

But..is it the thing in itself that turns you on, or is it fame you want? It's probably too late for that. But not too late to do the things you love. 35 is old to seek fame in the theater but young for everything else.

Men have changed. It used to be women who fought to maintain that youthful appearance (Not me, I can't be bothered). Let's face it: just about everyone over 50 is pretty darn fugly, so why not relax about it?

This is getting to be an old debate. People like the Independent Women's Forum members and Christine Sommers have been flogging this stuff for years. These are the women who have been trained to focus on men's concerns, and they are paid well for their attentiveness to the concerns of the dominant sex.

But many boys don't do so well in school because they know they can get high paying jobs in construction,plumbing and welding, auto repair, corrections, police and fire departments,etc. And there is the military, which is now again taking boys who have not graduated high school. These boys choose not to bother with book learning. It's their decision, reinforced by a negative public attitude about schools and teachers. Such ideas as the "self made millionaire who never finished 8th grade" are part of the lore of dropouts. They just don't see the point of sitting in school for all those years for what seems to them a dubious payoff.

Girls stay in school longer because they have to have higher degrees to make good money. If they did not do this in the past, it is because there were more barriers set up against women in higher education, especially in fields such as law and medicine. Gender quotas were common, too, as well as an attitude that girls didn't need educations because they were just going to get married and stay home and raise kids anyway.

The barriers against women these days are in the lucrative trades that don't take years of school preparation. If women had free and fair access to these occupations, the gender disparities in higher education would disappear.

Those teeth!

How about damage to the vessel? It is well known that a woman is most likely to be assaulted by a husband or boy friend when she is pregnant.