I barely skimmed the article and went right to the letters - you could say that this is MY celebrity fixation. And what a glorious train wreck it has been! Kickin'! Bitin'! Clawin'! Yee-haa!

My points? First, Traister is awful, but at least when she writes her usual dumb man/woman stuff there is something to snort at. But she should stop writing these "we" pieces and own up to her own obsessions. (After all, this is her third Jennifer article in a little over a year.) Second, she's no Cintra Wilson, and she's not even Heather Havrilesky (who someone mistakenly included among the "fluff" criticisms - Heather can be hilarious and can put more pop-cultural insight into one TV column than Traister has supplied during her entire tenure), while Traister can't seem to make up her mind whether or not she wants to BE Jennifer Aniston or Sex in The City or whatever. Third, I've learned to skip alot of Salon content - even the "news" pieces seem mostly to be analysis or opinion. (Perhaps no politician wants to return your phone calls anymore?) And yes, I've thought of canceling, but for ten cents a day, I get the AP wires and Tom Tomorrow and MAYBE something else to read. I spend more for my daily paper. (Yes, I still read one, and The Boston Globe is going down the same crap-filled road as Salon.)

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the crash. The world isn't ending yet, but you can still write a letter about it!

But someone please, please, PLEASE tell me - I wasn't here that day - that this was not the LEAD article on the day it came out. Pretty please with a cherry on top?

I have a theory about Maureen's predicament that doesn't really have anything to with gender or evolution or feminism or resurgent neandertahlism or a return to the 1950s -- she's just too fabulous.

Seriously, she�s just TOO fabulous. I have a friend, his girlfriend is fabulous. She doesn�t have a Pulitzer but she does belong to a bookclub. She has fabulous hair, wears fabulous clothes, likes to have fabulous fun, gets bored quickly and can talk up a fabulous storm.

It�s a hell of a lot of fabulous fun for about half an hour. Then it gets kind of tiring. I mean, it�s hard enough being fabulous your own bad self, but putting up within someone else�s non-stop fabulous-ness? That�s just plain hard work! When do you ever get the time to just sit down for a bit and have a cup of coffee and read the paper?

Yessirree, it's a high burn-out occupation, hanging out with the fabulous.

Hmm. My parents used to take me to the bar on Sunday eves. This was in the early to mid-60s, up to the age of about...eight, maybe? The primary purpose being to give my eldest brother a night off from babysitting. Coke with a cherry in it, Cheez Waffies and a puzzle. Place full of WWII vets, many of whom knew my father as Sarge. Friday nights were for Mom and Dad to go out and get tossed w/out the kids.

Fast forward, I frequent a basement joint with appropriate darkness where some (formerly) very regular patrons occasionally bring in young children (up to maybe 4-5 years old) during after-work hours. They are usually (relatively) well-behaved, but they are still kids -- they run about a bit, they giggle, they may spill a little soda. Doesn't seem to be a problem. My only problem is when someone thinks I am supposed to censor my speech because there are kids in the bar. Hey, it's a bar! F-bomb you! Mom or Dad has a beer, and then it's time to pick up the pizza and head home. Meanwhile, said patron catches up on gutter-cleaning tips and the like with the bartender.

But you don't see actual BABIES, and there are no strollers, and any kid of grade school age is generally not welcome. And this is a bar, not a bar/restaurant.

That said, what's with all the brats? When I was young, any aunt or uncle could discipline the cousins with a stare or a threat, adults were addressed as Mr. or Mrs. and were expected to be treated as, um, whuddayacallem, adults?, and "being fresh" was a crime. And man, if it got back to your parents that you were giving off to the neighbors....

Maybe it's TV. Maybe it's the times, maybe it's hormones in the water and the food supply, maybe it's that the parents don't have a proper respect for the fact that THEY are the adults and the kids are CHILDREN, maybe it's the dispersal of the extended family. I don't know. But I think it's bad enough and of long enough standing duration that many of our 25-year olds are exhibiting symptoms of having been raised as (place Salon edit here) shitheads. (Oh, and BTW, this seems to be more of a problem for the, em, comfortably well-off than the working classes.)

One, black fundamentalists can be just as loony-toons as white fundamentalists, you shouldn't be surprised.

Two, it's interesting that we are seeing more and more attempts at group and self-identification as Christian, and as a "Christian nation," across racial and sectional boundaries. Somewhat akin to the Muslim concept of Umma, the community of believers.