Does it count if I let the dogs eat them? Or do THEY get the fortune?

Could someone PLEASE explain this to me? This man has always seemed singularly charmless, with his smugness, his heavy-handed jokes and stumbling around the English language. His affability is so obviously fake, and the nicknames he gives to his underlings strike me as mean-spirited and calculated to make the guys feel small.

Maybe it was just that he was charming in comparison to Cheney?

All of a sudden? You guys need jobs or what?

Serai, that sentence was a bit long but parsed perfectly fine. The JUDGE did INDEED cry as he asked that Smith be buried next to her son in the Bahamas.

That I don't even know WHERE to begin. Chief among them is the uncritical reporting this is receiving on our local NPR station (I am an Ohio resident). One of the sponsors of the bill keeps saying something along the lines of "this will totally change the way we teach our children about stranger danger!" Please--so check the license plates, and if they're not fluorescent green you can get in the car? Among other objections, what prevents the person's wife/mother/brother/whatever from registering a car in his or her name and allowing the sex offender to use it?

Seems like a total waste of time and resources that does absolutely nothing to protect anyone.

But the Sunday chat shows should be talking about it, and ANY prominent Republican, ESPECIALLY the presidential candidates, who was there should be pressured to repudiate it.

Actually, I liked the article, but I thought the tattoo thing was kind of silly. My first reaction would have been "How come MY booboos never look like dragons?"

If I had a child, and had to explain my tatto, I envision it going something like this:

Kid: Mommy, what's that?

Me: That's a tattoo

Kid: What's a tattoo?

Me: It's a drawing made with a needle. You know how you get a shot sometimes when you go to the doctor? A tattoo is like a whole bunch of little shots that puts ink under your skin.

Kid: Does it hurt?

Me: Not now, but it did while I was getting it.

Kid: Why'd you do it?

Me: It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Kid: Can I get one?

Me: If you still want one when you're 18 and you have your own money to do it, I suppose you can.

I have lived in the Chicago area, and yeah, if you never leave the city limits and rely on public transportation, traffic's not that big a deal. HOWEVER...

I lived outside the city, and commuting into/out of Chicago, or commuting suburb to suburb is horrible. Any time of day or night, pretty much, traffic is going to suck the life right out of you. When I visited not too long ago I felt my blood pressure rise as soon as I hit the city limits. And don't even TALK to me about trying drive East, or re-enter the area from the East. It's never, ever good. EVER. (For some reason, going West isn't anywhere near as difficult).

I've also driven in L.A., at different times of day, from/to the airport to the Long Beach area and y'know what? It was a LOT easier than driving from O'Hare to where I lived in Chicagoland. I think L.A. just likes to THINK they have the worst traffic problems--don't know why they'd want to feel that way, but whatever, guys!

Am I missing something? It looks like a cat. It's a pretty cat, but still--it certainly doesn't look any more like a tiger than any other cat does.

Then again, I'm a dog person, so what do I know?

I'm thoroughly against charging giant amounts of money for hybrids (labradoodles and other permutations of "poodle" come to mind--I don't get it) and in fact, thoroughly against charging giant amounts of money for ANY pet animal. Breeders should be able to get *approximate* recovery costs for their breeding, and should be breeding for themselves--anyone who is making money breeding cats or dogs *probably* isn't doing the testing and taking the care that should be taken to avoid genetic problems and to keep their "breeding stock" in good condition.

For the record, I have 3 purebred dogs, 1 from a rescue and the other 2 from a hobby breeder (i.e., someone who breeds occasionally for herself and doesn't make a living out of it, performs all testing for genetic problems, and raises her dogs in a loving, social home environment).

Then why not just get a poodle? Or another non-shedding breed. Why pay a premium for a mixed-breed dog? There are plenty of nice rescues out there, purebred and mixes, who would make great pets.

I'd think that a mix of poodle and something else might shed LESS, but wouldn't be no-shed.

I have Shelties, so obviously hair doesn't bother me!

I thought it was funny. Although I did wonder what her ACTUAL child will think years down the road.

AbFab did a skit on this some years ago--actually, 2 skits--one when Edina decided to adopt a Rumanian baby (I can't remember why) and the second when she finds out that her daughter is pregnant by a black man and fantasizes about what a great accessory an interracial baby will be!