This may be one of those situations where it pays to be lazy. We can't be bothered to keep up with the latest in baby stuff, so we just read our daughter the same books we were read as kids and give her the same kinds of toys to play with. We buy her almost nothing new. 80% of her clothes and toys are gifts or hand-me-downs, and good deal of the rest is bought second-hand. About the only thing I always buy new is shoes. We're the demographic that a lot of this baby paraphernalia is aimed at, but we hate to shop.

Our daughter watched essentially no TV until she was two, and now she mainly watches nature videos. She particularly likes the BBC "Life of Birds," which is not made for children. ("Look, the owl is eating a mouse!")

Btw, play pens still exist, they're just called "play yards" now. They have mesh instead of bars, so they look less like little prisons, but the effect is the same. You can also use a crib or a bassinet as a play pen, and a lot of people do, they just don't call it that.

Focusing on what the article says about gender distorts its overall topic, which is the differences between history and fiction and how they've been defined. The thing I found most interesting was the way the discussion of "facts" and "truth" circa 1800 seemed so...post-modern.

I just wanted to point out that the quote about male pregnancies in SF is misleading. In "The Left Hand of Darkness," all the inhabitants of the planet Gethen are ambisexual -- capable of playing either the male or the female role in reproduction. There are no men (except the hapless Terran narrator), but there are people in what we would consider stereotypically male roles who get pregnant, e.g. "the king was pregnant."

There's also Octavia Butler's story "Bloodchild," which she called her "pregnant man story." And there's Elizabeth Lynn's "The Man Who Was Pregnant," which is goofy fun. In John Varley's "Nine Worlds" stories, people change sex often, and population laws allow every individual to have one pregnancy. As for automating the process, I hereby refer you to the Vorkosigan books, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Pretty much any reproductive wrinkle you can think of, SF writers have tackled it. I am personally skeptical that the process will be automated any time soon, though. I mean, we haven't even made a really workable artificial heart yet. A functioning placenta supplied with the appropriate hormonal soup to accomplish normal development is a pretty daunting task, and how would you test it?

Given that Henry's first marriage lasted longer than his second through sixth marriages, put together, I fear that there is a lot more bodice-ripping to come.

The problem may be that this bit of history is so well-known to anybody who cares that it's hard to do anything fresh or interesting with it.

If it was a private event, they were legally entitled not to admit him. He says in the comments to the thread that the "policeman" may have been a private security guard -- he didn't check the guy's uniform closely.

That doesn't make it right, of course. Aside from anything else, it's a boneheadedly stupid thing to do. Myers has a blog, after all -- did they think he wouldn't write about this?

I'm finding that there's an advantage, as one approaches middle age, to never having been stylish or conventionally attractive: it makes aging a lot easier.

Probably about 85% of the articles on Broadsheet are about sex or are sex related

I just did a quick count of the last few days, and you're not even close -- even if you designate discussions of rape, fertility, and childbearing as "sex related." Sorry.

According to Jewish law, a man is supposed to offer to have sex with his wife with a certain frequency, depending on his profession. If his profession is physically or mentally taxing, he's not expected to do the deed as often. Married couples are also encouraged to have sex on the Sabbath.

Trust conservatives to go for the "stick"-- rolling back women's rights -- rather than the "carrot" -- policies that make it easier for women to combine work and family.

...as Jonah Goldberg is to "fascism."

In the spirit of some of the letters that have been posted here, I'd like to say a few words about my friend Jenn, who died almost three years ago of breast cancer, at the age of 35. She was a hopeful, enthusiastic, optimistic person, and though I don't know if that added any time to her life, I do know that it made the last years of her life much better -- happier, fuller -- for herself and her friends. She packed more living into 35 years than many people do into 70 or 80. As someone said at her memorial, she won her battle with cancer, because she never let it define her, never let it take over more of her life than it had to. I miss her, but I'm glad to know that she made the most of her time on earth.

Best to all.