Aren't they so non-recyclable and non-biodegradeable that they'll wind up in the fossil record?

One solution - the larger wineries can ship the stuff in large aluminum kegs to be bottled locally.

Ex. Beringer can clean out an aluminum keg and send it to Milwaukee. Milwaukee decants it at a local bottling plant, cleans it, sends it to a brewery, fills it, sends it back to us. We decant their suds at a local bottling plant, lather, rinse, repeat. We can recycle the bottles used locally, too.

The kid's a senior in high school. So, she must be 17 or 18. Just about every single inexpensive costume for adult women this year appears to be a "Naughty" something. I know matrons who are unable to find costumes that can cover what has moved south over time. One can defend the girls by saying that they don't have a lot of commercial costume options this year. One can also say that a lot of seniors in high school are sexually experienced. So, getting upset about their sexuality is a bit like slamming the barn doors after the horses have run off.

And the last thing is to ask yourself what you saw at Halloween parties in your adolescents. Odds are that the hooker costumes were homemade, as they were for my crowd.

Don't sweat it. Make sure the kid has a can of Mace (just like in the old days) and remember that it is in the Teenager's Union Contract to piss off mummy with her choice of couture.

The guy was asleep at the wheel. It cost people money. They're going to look for something and they are going to punish him for a long time. That is how business works. If you screw up, people are going to find something about you and rub your face in it, usually for years. He could have been a three martini guy or been cheating on his wife, but he's into the herbs.

By the way, that is still illegal, isn't it? I personally think we should be allowed to grow it in our planter boxes, but it is illegal, so I don't do it. One would think that a guy in a position of authority (in control of assloads of money) would learn to be more circumspect and find more trustworthy people to indulge with.

In case you come back in to read this, thanks for the note about tetra paks. I am always *very* happy when I hear that another thing is recyclable!

The best way to understand Aviation is to go to pilot's ground school. Fortunately, some community colleges offer it for very little money. Even if you aren't near a CC that teaches it, its worth the money to buy a Jeppesen book, take the class and read the FAA's incident reports online. Commercial air travel is very surviveable. I'm not so sure about MDs in Bonanzas.

The TSA thing is so bad that a friend of mine who is rather famous and lives in Europe has vowed to never return to the US or to go anywhere through Heathrow. I have stopped travelling by air for pleasure and have actually looked up what is involved in driving cross-country and taking Cunard to Liverpool rather than fly on an airplane.

I remember one trip where the TSA agent took my toothbrush out of my bag and ran her gloved thumb along the bristles. This was probably the same glove that was up someone's ass an hour before. That was when I stopped flying for pleasure.

Bickering with the minimum wage people at the TSA station is useless. They are not paid much, are not skilled at other jobs, have a strict list of what they must ask for and look for, and have a line of people just as cranky and put out as you are to deal with. Because they don't want to get sued for patting down dark skinned men, they have to harass toddlers, 75 year old nuns, German tourists, and (in one case) two penguins. For the penguins: http://tinyurl.com/yrr7qh

If everyone just flat out refused to fly anymore (I know some business people insist they have to - try teleconferencing. It works!), maybe the airlines will get the message. Either that, or the air will be a lot cleaner.

I know lots of fannish people. They're very social, very weird and a lot of fun to hang out with. Lots of them live La Vida Harry. They knit Gryffindor scarves, wear capes in Costco, and name their cats things like "Weasley" and "Minerva". The suburban ex-cheerleaders and ex-jocks love to scorn them, but they have no idea of the bubbling cauldron of good fun and jocularity that the people they sneer at enjoy every day. (The fans call those people "Mundanes", and now "Muggles")

Maybe our reader is afraid that her Muggle family will disapprove of her joyous escape? Perhaps she can download some knitting patterns and make scarves for everyone and pull her real life into her fantasy life, have the twain meet and discover that she's not so removed from reality after all. Perhaps if she wore big glasses and asked her husband to wear a black wig and imitate Rickman's mellifluous voice she could spark things up a bit so she doesn't have to read slash fiction?

My own experience with crushy obsessions has been that I indulge in them if my own life is not spicy enough or if I have had a big breakup. Maybe our dear reader needs to see what she can do to make her life a little more magical...