There's a bunch of us mid-to-late thirtysomething, unmarried, childless women out here in your same shoes, LW. I'm sure most of us enjoy our freedom to a certain extent but didn't intend to end up alone at this point in life

(interesting study on the subject: www.socresonline.org.uk/11/3/macvarish.html).

Let's face it, working isn't all that rewarding much of the time and friends, for the most part, can't be counted on (the biggest disappointment of my single life has been the unreliability of other single women). After age 34 there is almost no social support for a single woman, so, even if you are someone who enjoys your own company, it can get pretty lonely.

When my nephew was born I considered doing the same thing-- moving back to my city of birth to be closer to my sister and her kid. I was only in my late twenties at the time, but I thought I could provide a lot of the monetary and educational advantages to my nephew that he would otherwise not have. Ultimately I decided against doing so, due to many of the misgivings you mention in your letter.

Now that my nephew is a teenager I don't know if I did the right thing. I do regret I wasn't able to do more for him, but he seems be turning out just fine, and in a couple of years will just want to hang out with his peers anyway. My family also makes me feel like a black sheep because of my unmarried status, so in many ways it is best I stayed away.

There was a great moment of dark humor in last night's episode when the mob guys are talking about their children's problems and one of them says, "It's not your fault Tony, kids are under a lot of pressure these days."

As much as I like the rest of Salon, I've never trusted it's movie reviews. Film seems to be the one arena in which critical judgment is suspended, and this review confirms it.

I saw a preview screening of "Ocean's Thirteen" and think it may actually be the worst movie I have ever seen. Lazy, pointless, cliched, nonsensical, smug, meaningless, BORING BEYOND BELIEF. I might as well have been watching paint dry. There was not one single thing that engaged me in this film. PAINFULLY awful to sit through. Had I not been there with a friend, I would have walked out within fifteen minutes.

I have lost respect for everyone involved with this film! And who thinks George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon are funny? Please oh please stop putting Brad Pitt in comedies.

I love Heather Havrilesky's TV reviews because she's much tougher on TV than most mainstream critics. For some reason the Salon movie reviewers (not sure if there is more than one) tend to be much softer on the movies they review than mainstream critics.

Here's a far more accurate review of Ocean's Thirteen:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,2097605,00.html

Chase should have given us a more clearcut ending. Last shot should either be of Tony with the family munching on onion rings but with a terrible sense of paranoia, or else we see a gunman approach the table before we cut to black. Either way we are given an existential, bleak ending (nothing changes or death is nothing), but we don't have to spend time scratching our heads over which ending he intended. What exactly is the point of that?

And now some of these posters are making a pretty good case for this last episode being a dream, with Tony imagining resolutions to the war with New York and the problems with his family. Interesting shot of Phil's grandkids in the car seats... echoes the car seat smashed by a tree limb in Christopher's SUV. Could he have been shot in the prior episode (the real ending) but still in a state of semi-consciousness, with the final cut to black in this last episode his actual death? Remember the scene when he mutters to the guys that he can't go somewhere, muttering something about "my daughter..." Perhaps that was his semiconscious telling him to get back to Meadow and tie that up.

The dream scenario would explain why nobody in the episode discussed Phil's whacking.

It was a weird episode. It seemed "off." All the conflicts resolved themselves way too quickly. I'm becoming convinced, after reading yet more postings, that it was a dream.

Which still leaves the ending open... did he wake up (once his subconscious had finally tied up all the loose ends and gotten Meadow back together with the family), was he shot (thus ending the dream), or was he shot prior to the dream and dies at it's end? Now I think it's most likely that he woke up from the dream and is back in the safe house. Ready for the movie!