I would have been all up in that shit if I were little! Children. (Mostly. Girls.) Play. House.

But I love them. Messy, dirty, stratified, overpriced, mixed up, apartment-living, don't need a car cities. And I'm a real American.

and the reason I won't have children. Some family genes I really don't want to pass on, and then feel like a horrible parent for the rest of my life. I'm really sorry, LW--your situation legitimately sucks.

Fuck 'em.

Most people think about it at least once in their life. Or every day for a while. Honestly, I don't understand how anybody manages to avoid fantasies about dying, period.

There's a difference between thinking and doing. Think away, LW, but if your parents are alive and fulfilled their basic duties to you, you owe it to them to stick around. This goes double if you have children yourself.

It may be "normal," but it sucks. Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better, and stop worrying about your level of success at this point in your life. You've got a long way to go and a lot of time to make it.

I'm sure as she lovingly (/creepily) made herself over, through plastic surgery and irresponsible fertility treatments, in the image of actual celebrity Angelina Jolie, then very publicly spawned 8 sick babies, then hired herself an agent, she saw nothing but red carpets and glitter in her future.

As a frequent, occasionally drunk, visitor. Maybe I was lucky, probably this book cherrypicked.

And get the fuck out of Kansas.

Isn't that comment actually more insulting toward Obama? How weak does a man have to be to let "them Jews" tell him who he can and can't talk to? Although I guess Wright assumes that they have that kind of power because of all the media and banks they control. Clever, clever Jews. Makes me proud to be one.

They are not behind *this* disaster. So they will probably be calling it terrorism.

Sorry, lefties, your blind righteous anger about Israel breeds anti-semitism. (Don't remember many of you bitching about the almost certain genocide that was happening in Sri Lanka last month.)

sorry.

I haven't found the South Side a hotbed, or even a coolbed, of antisemitism.

The first line of the article made me sadder about STL's divorce than my own parents'. And then I reined in my sanity.

Batten down the hatches! Redouble your efforts to restrict the rights of gays and women! It is your only answer to this latest embarrassment!

I agree with pervious posters that borderline and bipolar share characteristics and get confused with each other, but that's because they both make people uncomfortable, they are both exciting, and they are both overdiagnosed. And they are both resistant to treatment, but both treatable. Nevertheless--if the mom isn't onboard, the father has a duty to protect his children away from her.

Isn't it kind of sad that the career this LW might have spent his/her whole life dreaming about is collapsing? Sure, journalism won't die, but it looks and will continue to look nothing like the journalism adults grew up with. Isn't that sad? It may be totally hip and cool to pretend you love change, but generation after generation mourning its old way of life tells me we crave stability.

As for you, LW, my sympathy for you personally went way down with that whole "DUIs are such an inconvenience!" thing. Maybe learn a lesson here and be glad you didn't hurt someone.

I'll never do it again, I give you my word!

Why does everyone have to be beautiful all the damn time? I am not beautiful, but that's fine--I'm not required to be beautiful to have a good life. Most people I see are fine--average--not beautiful, not ugly. Why isn't that okay?

I think I saw this sentiment above, but this campaign doesn't do anything to move the standards of self-worth away from superficial appearance.

I admire your honesty, LW. Have you ever noticed when someone writes into this column and seems depressed, people post things like, "Go volunteer! You'll get out of your silly little head and find joy in helping!" Yeah, maybe--but you're volunteering for an even better reason: duty.

It also sounds like the depression you may be experiencing is deeper than what a couple of hours of volunteering can cure. Are you paying attention, self-righteous posters? Depression doesn't equal being a selfish, spoiled kid who just needs to get out of his house and help people.

I don't know you, LW, so I have no advice for how you'll find meaning in your life. You may not. But don't feel guilty about not enjoying the good things you're doing for others. The people you're helping don't care if you're enjoying it, but they're being helped just the same.

Sylvia Plath? The Bell Jar wasn't exactly subtle.

it is obvious to me that Caitlin Flanagan has serious, serious daddy/girlhood issues. She cannot write about anything--Patty Hearst, Alec Baldwin, anything--without flowery musings on the delicacy of young girls and how much they need their daddies.

I think it's time Flanagan worked on these issues with a qualified therapist, rather than through her all-too-visible media persona. She is in no position to tell others how to lead happy lives.

But the "totality of the situation" makes me the think the cops are just incompetent assholes who punished a woman for showing her titties to someone other than them.

Canning is so obviously not a money-saver when you don't have your own garden, it amuses me when people slant it that way. But what does it matter, if you can afford buying the ingredients and find it enjoyable? Just as I'll never understand why people enjoy watching football, people are free to not understand canning. But it's not going to ruin the world or anything.