I agree with dfield that it really shouldn't matter if you have to spend a few nights in separate beds. My husband and I still sleep in separate beds when we visit my parents because I like to sleep in my (tiny) childhood bed while we're there. Somehow we survive a few nights apart.

Texas PI Lawyer, her parents don't seem to have "heartfelt Christian beliefs" when it comes to their own divorce and her father's adultery, only when it comes to what their daughter does with her own love life. Don't y'all have some sort of quote about motes and eyes?

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow and I'm sitting here with the Ativan, waiting for 11:00 p.m. so I can take the tablets and go to sleep. Then 2mg more tomorrow before the appointment.

I'd love to have nitrous oxide, everyone always says it's great. However, my dentist is strongly resistant to using it, because he'd have to have a second assistant in the room just to monitor it. So he gives me anti-anxiety pills for the visit instead. The appointment won't be that bad, because he's pretty free with the novocaine. Still, I'd like to have nitrous without having to switch dentists. Could there be any hidden issues behind the resistance? Why would a dentist hate nitrous oxide so much?

As for the letter writer, she should give her boyfriend an ultimatum. If he acts this way about his teeth he'll do the same about his heart, lungs, etc. and she'll be an early widow (with his family blaming her for not "saving" him).

The company has a signed contract... and she's about to let them into the house to do the sort of work specified in the contract. From the letter, it sounds as though all she has is their telephone assurance that the work will be free. That's not going to be a pretty case when she finally does see a lawyer- in several months when the company is suing her for payment for the completed work.

If my brother or I tracked mud into the house or messed up the living room we were expected to help clean it up. Do parents these days really look on indulgently and then clean it up themselves? Why?

Is it just the same old mantra I hear from so many women about their husbands, "it's easier to clean up after him than to make a big deal about it. You have to choose your battles." A woman who says something like that does, of course, deserve to spend her life mopping up after her husband. Her poorly-raised son, however, will become society's problem.

If the governments really want to solve this problem, here are two laws that could have a strong effect:

1. Some sort of social security system, so old people don't have to rely on their sons for support.

2. A law that all babies be given the birth surname of the mother. Sons will then be useless for "carrying on the family name."

Ewwww, he's old! This reminds me of how women were supposedly attracted to Dan Quayle, and now I think we're also being told that we're supposed to think Romney is handsome. Why would we find some 50+ y.o. guy cute when there are hot 20 or 30 y.o. guys everywhere? Unless he's Johnny Depp or that guy who played Spike on Buffy, if he's over 50 he's not a hottie.

As for Hillary, I think she's a moron to stay with a guy who cheated on her. More importantly, I think she's a moron for screwing up healthcare and a calculating bitch for voting for the Iraqi war. The only nice thing I have to say about her is that I hope after she loses this election she dumps Bill and gets herself a hottie for sweet consolation.

1. The Rodham disappears whenever she thinks it will hurt her. My mother-in-law does that too. When she wants to use feminism to verbally attack someone she's "Jane Smith Doe". When she wants to use her religion to attack someone she's suddenly "Mrs. Rev. John Doe".

2. "Mrs." sounds much softer and nicer, as though Hillary's gonna bake up an apple pie just for you, sweetie. They're trying to soften up her image and I bet the focus groups love it.

Some may think it's off-topic, but I think names are the best window into Hillary's soul. She triangulates on even something as basic as her name. Who is she really? Does she still even know? Also, I don't see how she can really be the frontrunner when so many in what should be her base do not want to vote for her. I wonder if the media is playing up her early lead in the polls so that she can be pulled down later. Imagine how all the journalists are drooling to write "Hillary's Mistakes" and "Snatching Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory".

It's not ageism for me to find Bill Clinton unattractive, it's a reasonable preference for someone my age. A lot of voters are under 45ish and so would probably not find a 50 y.o. attractive.

It's very annoying when the media decides that the reason a candidate has strong support from women is because of his looks, as though we don't keep up with current events and make well-reasoned decisions. After all, if only women's votes had been counted in the last two elections, the country would have been spared the Bush presidency. And certainly nobody can say that Gore and Kerry were handsome.