When I read an article like this, about a person (male or female) who dumps a marriage simply because one aspect of it no longer works, I wonder: just what do they think will be better without their marriage?

If Ms. Loh doesn't have the time and energy for an "improvement" project, how is she going to find the time and energy -- as a single mother -- to form a new, better romantic relationship? If she (and her husband) put half the energy into rekindling their marriage as they will into their divorce, let alone new relationships, they might just have something.

Jazz has never been to the White House before? Not even during the time of the president who played the saxaphone on Arsenio Hall's show?

I love what the Obamas are doing in the White House, but they're not the first people to eat organic food, play jazz, etc. in the White House.

There are way too many people in this world who need to believe that bad things never happen to good people -- that everything that happens is due to someone's malicious acts or flawed character.

It's a form of magical thinking: I'm a good person, so things like that will never happen to me.

Well guess what? The universe doesn't work that way. For all you people who say a good parent could never suffer a tragedy like this, I hope for your own kids' sakes you never learn otherwise firsthand.

I've commented several times that Broadsheet contributors are just as guilty of obsessing about the trials and tribulations of urban professional women as the media they criticize. Not surprising, since most writers write what they know that women who aren't college-educated don't show up much in the media, including Salon.com.

Good point, 2ndGenerationPilot -- you've got nothing to lose by asking!

I'm another one who likes to hit the ground running in the morning after a transatlantic flight, especially since half the time I have a train trip to my final destination. Last time I flew SF-Newark-Milan, arriving in the morning so I could catch a train and be in Rome that afternoon.

If I see the pilot I try to give them a compliment or ask a question -- most pilots seem to like it when people show some interest in their work.

I'm always more nervous about takeoffs than landings -- especially since in the Bay Area the plane usually immediately goes into the fog deck -- heavy air traffic and zero visibility make me anxious! And flying in and out of OAK and SFO I'm used to landing approaches where you can't see land until about five seconds before you touch down. I've had to reassure more than one anxious seatmate that really, we aren't about to land in the Bay!

Professional attire is professional attire. Male attorneys don't show up to court wearing nothing but board shorts -- women should dress professionally, period. And by "professionally" I mean something that doesn't draw undue attention to your body. Surely any woman who is smart enough to pass the bar can figure out what is appropriate to wear to court.

BTW, Broadsheet editors, a laywer is a "counsel" not a "council."

"In this case, my guess is that men and women act more alike online because their gender is unknown and they don't have to prove their masculinity or femininity."

That was my first reaction, too, Agnos. People who because of their gender might feel uncomfortable in certain situations don't feel that way on the web. A guy who might be hesitant to walk into Victoria's Secret or a baby shop would have no problem shopping from them on line. A woman who feels intimidated asking a banker a lot of questions for fear of been seen as a "silly woman" can do all the research she wants. Etc.

The anonymity of the web is a freeing thing -- sometimes too freeing, as the presence of so many obnoxious trolls (who are probably perfectly reasonable face-to-face) demonstrates.

This is just one more example of a phenomenon I'm constantly amazed by: that large numbers of people still have their perceptions shaped by stereotypes formed by '50s and '60s television. I see it all the time in attitudes towards older people: they expect people in their sixties to be like "old people" *in* the '60s, not really thinking that people who are in their sixties today grew up *in* the '60s with rock and roll and the sexual revolution. Yet somehow they're supposed to be prudes who have forgotten how to swear and only like "old people" music.

PCs have been in the workplace for over 20 years. Almost anyone who has worked in the last 15 years has been exposed to a computer. That includes most women and a large number of older people. My boss retired a couple of years ago at the age of 71, at which time she had been using computers for 10+ years. So yes, even though she looks (and talks) like a nice little old lady out of the '50s, she very much lives in the 21st century.

And maybe people should adjust their ideas about parents. My Dad is almost 80 has been programming computers since before most of you were born. His first home computer was a TRS-80 that he wrote his own software for, including a word processor my Mom (also a card-carrying old person) used to write a book. And I know a woman in her 80s who loves texting!

Applause!

When Broadsheet veers away from the political I find it to be seriously annoying. It doesn't really matter what they're commenting on, but the knee-jerk default position is that it's sexist.

As for Ms. Jones -- I'm for anything that counters the prevailing pop culture norm that anyone over the age of 40 is a perv if they even think about sex. How dare older people have bodies! Younger people might have to look at them! Gross!