Talk about lack of table manners! Apparently, Miss Portman is not a frequent guest of good hosts. Being a good host involves making one's guests feel comfortable. If one is entertaining vegans, one does not blithely serve up rack of lamb and toss a soy patty on the table as an afterthought.

Furthermore, being a good host extends to farming. Industrial meat processors do not make their livestock, employees, or consumers particularly comfortable. However, small family farms (like the one where I buy my chicken, lamb, and pork) do provide a certain comfort: Phil and Jen (yes, I know the farmers' names) accompany their livestock to the small slaughterhouse, ensure that the animals are slaughtered humanely, and inform all of their customers about their practices.

I don't consider condoning rape in the same category...a good host never would.

Sorry for the loss...Uncle Owen sounds like he totally kicked it. I aspire to be that kind of Aunt to my nieces and nephews.

Try having a cancer-related hysterectomy, but keeping your ovaries; you're not in menopause, still have a sex drive, but either can't achieve the Big O anymore, or have completely different ones.

All the available literature points to the same thing: There is not a lot of study about how hysterectomy will impact a women's sex life. (What research there is is usually done on women who've had the procedure for fibroids, not cancer, and they typically report an increase in sexual satisfaction due largely to the elimination of constant pain from fibroids.)

I'm alive, and my husband has been awesome, but I'm now stuck with a carved up, swollen belly, a totally different experience of sex, and no help from my otherwise awesome oncologist about where to go from here.

My husband has been incredibly supportive and patient, but that doesn't compensate for the ongoing inequity in study of, and support for, women's post-cancer quality of bedroom life.

Okay, I freely admit that I am a sucker for Chietwal Ejiofor. He could stand in a room, with a bag on his head and talk about "The Real Housewives of Orange County" for an hour and I'd be happy to pay the admission fee.

But combine that with some classic Roland Emmerich disaster porn? Sign me up.

Thanks again for another amazing review from Stephanie Z, who sits through it so you don't have to...pay, that is!

Okay, this is about as much in common with Ruth Reichl that I'm ever going to have, but I was so excited to see that she buys High Lawn-brand moo juice, both plain and chocolate. That stuff is awesome and comes from happy cows in lovely Lee, Massachusetts!