"Upper middle class, progressive suburban ladies" in their "late 50's/early 60's" do not have to worry about the following:

1. Whether their grand-daughters will have access to safe abortion - even when it was illegal upper middle class women for the most part did not have to resort to back alley, dangerous abortions

2. Access to adequate health care - I would imagine that all of these women can pay for health insurance that pays for top quality medical care

3. Their grand-sons or grand-daughters being sent to Iraq. As long as there is no draft (and I seriously doubt there will be) upper middle class kids are not enlisting. And even if there were a draft upper middle class kids can do the "chicken hawk" dance.

4. Making ends meet on a minimally adequate or below minimally adequate income.

5. That there grand-kids will be sent to poor quality day care and crappy public schools

6. Etc., etc., etc.

These Clinton supporters who are holding the Dems hostage, threatening to vote for McCain or whatever, if Obama and his supporters don't make nice (of course, exactly WHAT they want is left undefined) are a bunch of douche bags and should get over themselves!! Really. It makes me embarassed to share the same gender with these jerks. If those who were against women's suffrage could come to the future and see this they'd say - see we were right. These people are an embarassment. But I really think this is much ado about nothing and probably just a Rep mind game and I wish the press would stop buying into it. By the way, back in the day, there was a movement afoot to unionize sex workers in Massachussetts - PUMA stood for Prostitutes Union of Massachusetts.

Married to a male, have 2 sons, and male friends - I've seen it. Maybe not all of them use the word (because as my husband and I are older we are not tuned into the slang of today's "youth") or as with my sons, well, they are adolescents and don't share their opposite sex girl crushes let alone their platonic guy-crushes.

By the way, I have a "girl crush" on Michelle Obama.

Huh?? Who thinks that they should NOT have a pre-cancerous mole on their face removed - someone with a death wish? Looking better is not why you decide to remove a pre-cancerous mole.

I thought this video was hilarious - even though it made me pee in my Depends. Not really - but I am 51 and continue to hold the same opinions about the sublime ridiculousness (and pathos) of drastic (and dangeous) measures many women are willing to take to avoid a fate they consider worse than death: looking old - as I did when I was a smooth-faced 25-30 year old.

Indeed, the older I get and the more women in my age bracket I see doing Botox, plastic surgery, etc I am even more confirmed in my opinion. When I was younger I just thought it was nuts to undergo major surgery or inject toxins into your face all for the sake of appearing not to age. But now I realize there is another objection to these procedures - THEY DO NOT WORK. I have yet to see anyone who actually looks younger - no, sorry ladies - if you are 52 you still look 52. Except now on top of looking 52 you look like a freak! And the reason you do not think so is probably 1) all your friends look the same so you think you look normal and/or 2) who is going to tell you you look like a freak.

This is mean but there's a woman at my health club (where I see lots of "work") who looks so bad, so much like an alien that I hope, for her sake, that she was in a terrible car accident and this was the best the doctors could do. But I know that is not the case - which makes it even more tragic than if it had been an accident - this woman voluntarily altered her face and now looks like a freak.

You say "at least Botox works" - well, depends on what you mean by "works." As I said in a previous post - I have yet to see a woman who has done Botox who looks anything but weird, scary and freaky. How do I know they've done it? No one is shy about saying so.

At 51, I have the confidence to age naturally - but it is not easy in this culture and sometimes women who abstain from unnatural "beauty" procedures feel like lone voices in the wilderness. I respect women who age naturally - they take care of themselves physically and emotionally, they are flexible and are full of life. And that life radiates through ever wrinkle and they are beautiful, if you care to really see rather than be frightened by an aging women. The women who desperately try to maintain a youthful appearance don't realize that they have done nothing to enhance there beauty other than to look good from 20 yards. Women should respect themselves enough to have the courage to grow old.