The important take-away from this essay, despite Walsh's hovering, is that we can now blissfully ignore Belger's "expert" status on eco-friendly living, a subject she blathers about on various morning programs. The obvious way out of imminent poverty? Brand yourself.

Why is Walsh appearing in these letters? Surely Cary Tennis needs more support.

No matter how highly intelligent, idealistic or motivated you are, pop music has been there first and better. Rather than write a long, indulgent narrative to Cary, why not get your head out of your ass and get out those old LPs? Much more poetic, much less serious, and far more fun. You're 25. Nothing you do is going to matter.

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Pick up on one and leave the other one behind

It's not often easy, and not often kind

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Did you ever have to finally decide?

Say yes to one and let the other one ride

There's so many changes, and tears you must hide

Did you ever have to finally decide?

Sometimes there's one with deep blue eyes, cute as a bunny

With hair down to here, and plenty of money

And just when you think she's that one in the world

Your heart gets stolen by some mousy little girl

And then you know you better make up your mind

Pick up on one and leave the other one behind

It's not often easy, and not often kind

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Sometimes you really dig a girl the moment you kiss her

And then you get distracted by her older sister

When in walks her father and takes you in line

And says "Better go home, son, and make up your mind."

Then you bet you'd better finally decide!

And say yes to one and let the other one ride

There's so many changes, and tears you must hide

Did you ever have to finally decide?

For what its' worth, I think Cary has been very consistant over the years with this sort of letter. I can't imagine that the BF really wants to settle down with someone who thinks that accessories and gadgets (and tender! loving! care or whatever) are what make a house a home.

I can only hope that English is not the LW's first language. But I do wish the 16 year old would write in.

How long until Joan chimes in about what a wonderful person the LW is, and how mean all the commenters are?

Let's see a Salon staff photo. How many writers of color have been published here, besides the ubiquitous Erin Aubrey Kaplan?

Are all of Cary's fans such sensitive flowers? G'Town is right, but if the LW really needs some sort of escape, she (and this has to be a woman), wear head phones. They don't even need to be plugged in, but when the Boss Lady approaches, let her rant, and then whip the head phones off. Say you were transcribing or something.

It's entirely possible that the partners are evil, the boss is right and the LW is a wuss.

Why can't Dee buy her own car? Is her dream career working at IHOP? Why can't she earn her own money, get her own mortgage and buy her own dream house?

Because--Dee's a gimme girl, and her anxiety and depression have to do with her wanting someone to fill all her wants and needs and whims and bank accounts.

Get on the bus, Gus. You could be Bill Gates and it will never be enough.

Kate Harding reminds me of Fitzgerald's cousin Bernice from Eau Claire. If she suddenly lost weight, she'd have nothing to distinguish her from thousands of other people. That extra poundage isn't just defense or padding--it's material. It's her only subject matter. Pity.

Remember when everyone complained about Salon publishing nothing but whining white upper-middle-class, self-absorbed women writers? So, now we get a downwardly mobile self-absorbed functional illiterate. Progress?

Two words. Jon Landau.

Springsteen was a rock n' roller until Landau turned him into a pallid imitation of Woody Guthrie. Stephen Metcalfe, writing in Slate, the better online magazine starting with "S", noticed this about 4 years ago. http://www.slate.com/id/2117845

"Over the next couple of years, Landau insinuated himself into Bruce's artistic life and consciousness (while remaining on the Rolling Stone masthead) until he became Springsteen's producer, manager, and full-service Svengali. Unlike the down-on-their-luck Springsteens of Freehold, N.J., Landau hailed from the well-appointed suburbs of Boston and had earned an honors degree in history from Brandeis. He filled his new protégé's head with an American Studies syllabus heavy on John Ford, Steinbeck, and Flannery O'Connor. At the same time that he intellectualized Bruce, he anti-intellectualized him. Rock music was transcendent, Landau believed, because it was primitive, not because it could be avant-garde."

and

"Thirty years later, and largely thanks to Landau, Springsteen is no longer a musician. He's a belief system. "

Read, as the man says, the whole thing. http://www.slate.com/id/2117845 or click on the sig

Blogs quoting blog is just another cluster f*ck. Suleman's father is Iraqui. She may have been an egg donor, which would make sense regarding both the money and the access to embryos. She's been reported as having been on public assistance. It's been reported, and not just by British tabloids (whose writers do far more old fashioned shoe leather reporting than many US journos and certainly more than did Berman or Marcotte) that she worked at a fertility clinic.

Motive, access and means.