Amen and hallelujah to Anonymous (For whom the bell tolls). My favorite movie wedding is at the end of Much Ado About Nothing (Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, et al). A simple summer dress that happens to be white, flowers in your hair, and a some of genuinely happy and carefree people throwing flowers at you while you dance for joy.

There is so much stress at weddings these days! I didn't have an extravagant wedding (guest list nor expense) but if I had to do it over again, I'd go even simpler. Backyard kind of thing even.

It's about the MARRIAGE not the WEDDING. People need to get over it.

Did Appoggiatura just compare being pregnant to winter? Wow. Just wow.

Also, that the medicalization of pregnancy is a recent phenomenon can be said of EVERY condition/disease/etc. It used to be if you had strep throat you just toughed it out at home with some chicken soup and a warm blanket (same with pregnancy/labor). Now there has been a "recent medicalization" of it and you get antibiotics. So?

I'm actually a big proponent of natural/home birth and so on. But using that as an argument against insurance coverage of pregnancy and preventing the monstrously impactful medical condition that is pregnancy is a complete non-sequitur.

There's a whole book about it: "He's just not that into you."

"And if I don't go down there now (or soon) he wants to see other people."

'Nuf said.

...and watching them clean Grimmauld Place. LOL!! So true. This was a great piece, thanks.

This excuse is complete nonsense. While one might be able to point to a handful of other cultures that are less comfortable with breastfeeding than the United States, the vast, vast majority of the world's cultures would find it much less of an issue. If they were truly concerned about their "multicultural residents," they would have the exact opposite policy and behavior.

For most of our adult lives, breasts are sexual. This is not a bad thing, and certainly not a fetish. For most women, breasts are functional for only a few years.

This argument ignores the fact that almost every other country in the world has managed to find a completely non-controversial everyday kind of acceptance of breastfeeding in public view. European countries have a much lower birthrate than the US, so you could argue that their breasts are, on average, "functional" for even fewer years than American breasts. Yet somehow this ratio of sexual to functional (to use your construct, which I don't really agree with) doesn't cause them to lose it when they see a woman breastfeeding at a cafe. Why the difference?

It is possible to discreetly cover yourself with a blanket while nursing, and many women do this.

Yes, many women do this, but no, it is not always possible or practical. See excellent post by Anonymous "Genuine Answers."

Grew up in northern California and came down to San Diego. I was constantly weirded out by the lack of trees, or "normal" trees anyway. It struck me that the trees here look like Dr. Seuss tress. Well, turns out Dr. Seuss lived here so I'm not crazy. And there was something subtly chilling in the bizzare perfection of it all--"big cars and big boobs" was the way another NorCal transplant aptly described SoCal during one of our commiseration sessions. And the houses are all so...uniform. And the MOST annoying thing was what I perceived as the soul-sucking, mind-numbing, makes-you-want-to-slap-people-and-shout-WAKE-UP lack of ambition of everyone in the whole region.

Turns out that a lot of that is, well, very true. But you know, a lot of it was unfair too, especially my judgements about the people personally. Just some culture-shock-induced bigotry. Seek and ye shall find, my friend. There are plenty of fired-up people around, you just have to look in the right places. Heck, if nothing else, hang out with other NorCal and NYC transplants like I do. Then you get the best of both worlds--the weather and the good company.

(And lets not even get started on the HORRIBLE stench of NYC--you know I never really understood why perfume was such a huge industry until I visited NYC--I'd spend $150/month on too-strong fragrances too if I had to walk through that every day, yikes! Ok I'm being a little harsh on purpose and that's to make a point--everyplace has its downsides, give SD a chance, or move to San Fran--WAY better, even though I do love SD (took about 2-3 yrs to stop feeling really out of place but it happened).

Good luck to you either way.

Why does everyone in the media, including salon, insist on trying to revive this dead horse. This is the most ridiculous talking point of this whole tragedy, including the Asian/Korean thing.

It isn't even clear what "locking down" means for a college campus, that's like saying "lock down" a city. Was your city locked down last time there was a (seemingly) contained shooting of two people? Lets make the scope smaller. Was your office building locked down when there was a shooting in an appartment building 5 blocks away? NO?!?! WHAT WERE THE POLICE THINKING?!?! OMG THE SHOOTER COULD HAVE COME TO YOUR OFFICE BUILDING AND UNLEASHED!!! FIRE EVERYBODY IN YOUR LOCAL PD *NOW*!!!

Stop. Just STOP. Find something else to waste airtime/column inches with.