I didn't state *what* books people talk about, but if I said William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, etc., would that alter your opinion of what I consider the "best" subjects to talk about? I don't think I ever specified that they had to be pithy, just that they had to be books that I also liked talking about.

Sometimes, people chatting about travel and concerts sounds to me like folks trumpeting their privilege.

I'm not sure what you consider privileged about catching a ska band at the bar down the road for $10 or tramping around in the state park in Cooperstown for a long weekend, but that's cool I guess. I'd probably be one of the people you find boring, and you're probably one of the people I'd find boring, because people chatting about their highly-evolved appreciation for witty and diverse conversation sounds to me like folks trumpeting their pointy-headed intellectualism.

Congratulations on making the 70%, on both sides of the equation.

This one is not only unwinnable, it's also just dumb.

Tarty? She's clad in a modest cap-sleeve shirt with high-waisted knickers. Or maybe a coverall thing, hardly "tarty". I agree with the other poster who says it looks like they aged her. She looks like she went from being three to being about ten. Seems reasonable, for the target age of the toys.

The cellphone thing Iis* irritating, though. Bring back the cat. Or give her an iPod if you want to go the e-gadget route, at least that way she can cultivate good taste in music.

I envy all the other posters who had dolls growing up, I was never allowed a Barbie since my well-intentioned, woefully-earnest leftist feminist hippie parents believed I would develop a poor body image. I got one anyway because of my typical American junior high school experience, so I might as well have had the doll all along and had some fun before I started hating myself.

"The greatest power a man has is the freedom to say "no" and accept the consequences." (I think that's the quote, I can't remember where I read it or who wrote it. In any case, it's not mine, so don't attribute it to me.) You said "no", now it's your turn to accept the consequences.

Just going by the first paragraph, where you have trouble delineating between admin assistant and personal assistant, I'm hazarding a guess that your boss asked you to do something that involved a personal errand, and that is what you said "no" to. One thing to look at is your actual job description; what does it actually *say* your job is, and does it include some nebulous phrase like "and other duties depending on department/management needs?" or something like that? Because guess what, sometimes getting coffee or picking up drycleaning (or calling the daycare center, or the babysitter, or the husband) is included in those needs of the department. If your boss is working on a tight deadline, or with a client on the edge of canceling a contract, taking time out to get a cup of joe or run to the cleaners could spell ruin for that project or account. In that case, the needs of the company *are* being met by your running around spilling half-and-half on your skirt; fetching coffee does occasionally fit into 'the greater good'.

I guess the larger question is: is this really the hill you want to die on? Is this something that is throwing your moral compass into a spin and keeping you up at night with anxiety, or is this a difference of opinion about the role of an admin?

If its the former, then you're better off leaving the company, since they seem to be engaging in deeds that are anathema to your world view. That's perfectly OK, I've had a couple of crises of conscience myself, and made decisions about the sort of person I want to be in this world.

If it's the latter, then you're SOL. If your job description is to get coffee, then you get coffee. Work isn't summer camp, you don't get to do what you want all the time. If you did, they wouldn't have to pay you.

I re-read the letter again, and now it sounds to me that the person you directly "confronted" (your word) was not even your own boss, but someone much further up, which now presents a whole host of other problems, not the least of which being that you've made your boss look like an asshole.

There are ways to go about effecting change, but I promise you going over your boss's head to openly confront *their* boss about a policy you disagree with but probably don't know much about beyond your immediate perception of impropriety is not a very good one.

Speaking personally, there are few things that piss me off more than a newbie who knows nothing about what I do, the processes I've built, and the policies I put in place telling me that I've got it all wrong and what I should be doing instead. I do value a second set of eyes to make sure that I'm not totally out to lunch, and there is always room for an independent observer to find efficiencies that I've missed because I'm so deep in the trenches, but always with the base assumption that they understand the business needs and the problems I'm trying to solve.

If someone "confronted" me on my operation without knowing the big picture, you'd better believe I'd go to their manager and suggest that they perhaps learn a little bit about our larger objective before sharing their jumped-up opinions about what I do all day.