It's about a 5'8", 88 lb. girl walking into a modeling assignment, and the photographer or whoever having the good sense to say "no, I'm sorry, you don't look good. Come back when you gain 20 lbs." It's about her agent saying "I can't get you any more jobs until you look like you can stand up without your legs breaking."

Not these things will ever happen in my lifetime, but it would certainly solve some problems. There's just no way for this girl to have looked anything other than ill at that size. Don't get me wrong, I love me some slim ladies... but "slim and toned" and "skeletal" are very different. I'm 5'4" and remember how thin I looked when I weighed 95. I couldn't imagine being 4 inches taller and 7 lbs lighter.

Probably one stupid photographer or booker or other model said she looked fat at 108 or something. That's often how it starts. And if the person isn't strong enough, this is how it ends. Very sad.

"What exactly is unreasonable about asking people for student ID's when they're in an area restricted to students? I suppose it's unreasonable search-and-seizure to be asked for a ticket when you're on a train?"

No. However, if on that same train you are randomly asked to show ID and you refuse, should you beaten by four bullies and electrocuted multiple times? In a police state, absolutely. And that's where we're headed. Some people in this country love to beat their pompous chests about the evils of Communism vs. our beautiful freedoms, but think about it... is what happened at UCLA really so very different from what might have happened in China? Are spying on citizens, walls having ears and dissent being akin to treason REALLY so different?

As for asking for IDs in that library, was everyone approached for their ID, or just the Arab-looking guy? If it was just him, then he was being racially profiled and had every right to be upset. If it was everyone equally, then OK, he was being a jerk. But if we beat and electrocuted every jerk in this country, there would be few people left standing... and most of them would be committing far more egregious infractions than being in a library.

Faulty analogy. On the LIRR, they don't ask for ID, which is what happened in the library. Asking for a ticket is different, because everyone on the train is asked to show their ticket, regardless of ethnicity. I'm talking about whether or not this student was racially profiled, and asked for ID based on his appearance... while others were not asked for theirs. ID is not the same as a ticket. Being asked for a ticket on a train is more like being asked for your library card before borrowing a book in the library. An equal-opportunity, non-discriminatory request.

And getting back to the train, I'm sure it wouldn't take four men and an electrocution device to get someone off a train. Or out of a library. Unless of course it was being done for the sheer sadistic pleasure of exerting power.

Not immediately complying with a request shouldn't result in beating and electrocution in a free society. I'd hate to put my feet up on the seat in any movie theater in which you're working as an usher.

So am I correct in assuming that this real estate firm doesn't have any gay male or straight female clients interested in buying property?

Yeah, that's what we need, yet another area of commerce (like beer advertising) in which it's taken as a given that the only consumers worth catering to are straight males. The rest of us don't exist... unless of course we're catering to straight males. Then we have a purpose.

I happen to love Quorn, as do a lot of vegetarians all over the world. And I have lived quite happily for 43 years without pecan pie. Not all of us were born with a sweet tooth.

I just can't believe that on SALON we have to read another "there is no true life without junk food" article, meant to make people whose eating habits have made them unhealthy feel better. Sure we can get all philosophical ("but what IS healthy, really... can you really be healthy if you're not happy? And can you really be happy without eating crap?") but honestly!! Why do you assume crap=happy for EVERYONE??? Like it's something it's understood that we ALL universally agree on... crappy food gooooood.

I'm not unhappy or unhealthy just because I don't eat garbage, and I'm tired of the junk food mafia laying their issues at my feet as if I'm the one with the problem. Believe it or not, I DO prefer Quorn to pecan pie for reasons of both health AND taste. Don't judge the whole world's eating habits by your own narrow opinions, as if it's a given that no sane person could possibly prefer carrots to carrot cake because YOU have an addiction to sweets.

I have no such addictions, and as such my dentist has just spotted the beginnings of the SECOND cavity of my 43 years. Does that make me boring, no fun and without taste? Should I throw myself off a cliff for all I've "missed"? Is life without rotted teeth really worth living?

If you want to write an article about the joys of junk food, fine. Have at it. But do it without INSULTING people who eat healthy food, as if we're going to die lonely and miserable because we passed up the fettucine alfredo and cheesecake. Maybe we just DIDN'T LIKE IT.