I apologize to thin women everywhere for calling them "skinny" and "cadaverous."

Satan seems to have a problem, however. It is indicative of the extreme attitudes that people have about this subject. I'm not so sure that the fat are necessarily doomed to isolation. I see plenty of them out with other people. Even large groups of large people in gregarious situations. With so many people being fat, they find each other and hang out together, eating.

We have all this food around that does not even need to be cooked. We drive everywhere. When we're not eating or driving around, we're watching TV. No wonder so many of us Americans are obese. We've given up tobacco for antidepressants, too. Antidepressants make people gain weight like mad.

Well, gotta go do some gardening and work out on the old Nordic Track.

Cheer up, everyone. It's a long haul, this life. I don't care if you're fat or thin. Aunty Hattie loves you just the way you are.

This is the most amazing thing. How can so many people be so full of shit? It must be TV or the drugs or something.

A friend of mine's son would strip his sister's Barbie naked and tie her to a chair and administer torture. He also touched me inappropriately and told me he hated me. Now he is a very large adult high school dropout and biker covered with tattoos who was really scary for a while. He seems nice enough now, with a pleasant wife and daughter.He's avoided prison and has a responsible job.It turns out that he spent several months with a sadistic caregiver, and it took a while for my friend to find that out and fire her.

Ladies who are tempted to give it all up for motherhood: no matter how wonderful it seems to be pregnant and how much you may look forward to a life of leisure at home baby tending (Ha!) you can't afford it. Do not, under any circumstances, sit out of the job market for five years. You will be marginal forever if you do that (my fate). And you're letting down your sisters.

My advice: say nothing until after the first trimester. Then negotiate for a long leave of absence without pay, say 6 months, with a guarantee of your job back. Line up good day care well in advance.

It's the only way to be taken seriously in the work world. And it's what young women need to do for their own sakes as well as for the women's movement.

Ask yourself how much respect you have for women who are "just housewives." It's infantilizing to be home all the time. Women need to be tougher, more serious.

Wish I'd taken my own good advice. I thought I had to be a "good mother," but my kids didn't need it. It would have been way more sensible for me to be pursuing a career and making money so we could have a higher standard of living: a bigger place to live, a few amenities, better medical care and education, and above all, more respect.

Wish I'd had some backbone when I was young. But I fell for the love stuff. Wrong thing to do. You must plan your life.

To me the problem is that people are trapped in a tasteless, vapid media land. The banal and tasteless sports, fishin', card games and funny food are supposed to be emblematic of family life, signifying love and togetherness. I would be bored stiff by Wheaton's family. I think the Wheatons are bored too beneath it all and lashing out at each other in an attempt to get the adrenaline going.

This is no time to give up, however. I think a place to start is with a hard look at how we're going to restore the Democratic Party so that it's a viable alternative to the Republicans. And we have to understand that it will take decades to undo the damage the Neo-Conservatives and religious right have done. We need new faces, fresh ideas. And a lot more women in politics.

Let me see. A couple of footloose young people enjoy a holiday in South Africa, a treat beyond the means of most people. They are young, fit and capable but don't have real jobs. They poormouth it about $1000 that was stolen from them in the house of the people they were freeloading off of. Not content with free rent and food, they expect reimbursement for the money they have carelessly left lying around.

In the words of my father, "Get a job!" Pay back the hosts. Stop being such pains in the butt to everyone.

It does not seem to strike some people that we are not talking about Arabs here.In our culture, the duties of a host are not infinite. Furthermore, many people never extend hospitality to anyone, and this is not considered wrong of them. I have entertained too many people who think the honor of their company compensates for the way they inconvenience me. They seldom bring gifts or offer to share expenses. They make it clear that it's a real bargain for them to hang around my house and they really appreciate it, but thank you notes are passe, evidently. Seldom do I hear from them until the next time they want a bed and free meals. I forgive, usually, if these people are young. I consider that many American youth have been brought up as aristocrats who are not expected to be anything but young and charming and taken care of. I consider them ill prepared for the chilly economic weather we have coming at us.

BTW: Young, to me, means anyone under 50!

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.

Those teeth!