Carey suggested thinking about your stripper name or prison name (or more cheery possibilities) - you don't HAVE to have one or the other of these 'family' names. A letter writer suggested smerging a couple's last names into something new. "Family" names are paternal-line names, chopping off half your descent. In this day of nuclear families and fewer ties to extended family/tribes, perhaps all couples, upon embarking on marriage, should take a whole new name for the two of them. And, BTW, what's this jazz about wanting to have the same last name as your kids? Why should they automatically get your husband's name? Who carried them and went thru birth and nursed them anyway? Of course, more and more people aren't bothering to get formally married, and so the name thing hardly comes up... Last but not least (sorry if this already came up in one of the 200 previous letters...I ran out of reading steam), maybe we should consider the Icelandic tradition, where Mary's daughters take on the last name of Marydottir, and her sons take on their father's first name plus "son". Under that system, it's IMPOSSIBLE for a woman to carry her father's last name!!!

I thought the little story about Obama's little (very little) story was interesting - and somewhat insightful ... about the candidate and about the existential necessities of campaigning. As for insight about the candidate - self-deprecating and all that, but, um, lacking in substance, running on *personality*. As for insight about campaigning - thank goodness on this (American) thanksgiving day that it never occurred to me to run for office. As for Mr. Shapiro - don't let the inevitable, anonymous complainers and insulters generated by the internet deter you...

You go! Perfectly said.

As a garden-variety Wiccan (actually, literally), I must agree that we don't do all that bad cult stuff to adherents. (Can't speak for Pentecostals - tho I was in a Pent. church for the first 8 years of my life, and developed a taste for singin' and dancin' and carryin' on in religious services there.) Not because we're so wonderful, but because Anti-Organization Is Us. We Wiccans are mostly cults-of-one. There are a few organized groups, most famously covens...but they're supposed to be (a) private, no recruiting, and (b) have no more than 13 members, and usually far fewer. And because any kind of dealing with money is anathema, a lot of cult problems simply never come up. And because everyone is a priest or priestess, it's pretty hard for a leader type to make any headway. Furthermore, we aren't required to believe any particular thing - and there's no way to investigate or enforce anyway. It satisfies many of my religious inclinations without getting me into the usual problems of religion.

However, this is just an observation, not a recommendation - Wicca and the whole gamut of neo-Paganism answer a different set of emotional needs than the straight-jacket of Scientology and various other new and old religions.

Ridiculous outfits on (admittedly) sexy beanpoles, and what was with all the wings?? Seal did a good parody of a soul singer in a pimp suit. Okay, so why was I watching? (a) nothin' else on, and (b) it was guaranteed snickerable. One needs to snicker at one's fellow beings occasionally. Though afterwards I gave a little thought to joining some strict no-fun cult (like fundy Muslims) because, like, the decadence, man. This goin' on while there's lotsa people in the world don't have any clothes...wait a minute, these models didn't either... Owell, back to the presidential campaign (where they're all wearing fake wings too...)

Christopher Hitchens for president!

I've asked this on other forums and so far haven't seen a post in response or a referral to a piece of journalism:- Whatever weird stuff Romney believes (or pretends to believe) as a Mormon, what did he DO as governor? Did you act in any specifically Mormonish way? Did he have a specifically Mormonish agenda? (By their deeds ye shall know them...)

From what I've read, it sounds like Romney is a politician, and his Mormonism doesn't affect much more than his underwear drawer. As a number of people have observed, his flip-flopping and pandering to the religious right are more telling (and politician-like) than his professed faith.

I've said it before and likely to say it again - I love the snark and sniping in the letters about the other items, but I'm always moved by the attitude of you people towards the LWs who write Cary.

About housekeeping - we're all gonna die, and may not have the "luxury" of a specific date, so we should all keep our houses in order. Not just destroying all evidence of our creepy activities and interests, but just thinking about the physical junk we leave behind for our family members to deal with. Live every day as if it were your last! And, sigh, that doesn't mean running out and screwing the nearest warm body - that means cleaning up after yourself on an on-going basis, the way you brush your teeth. (First item - learn how to wipe your hard-drive. Or do your internet crap at a public computer.)(Oh yes, and make a will. Today.)