Let me second the suggestion someone else made that it might be valuable if you engage with other writers, and that one great avenue is Romance Writers of America. While the energy of meeting like-minded people face to face on a regular basis - learning about writing, receiving critiques on your work, receiving SUPPORT as you pursue your dreams - is very energizing, RWA also has many online chapters with broad and active memberships who interact with each other using message boards and Yahoo loops. Go to rwanational.org for more information.

In addition, a local college or university may have an active creative writing program where you might be able to take a class. There may be dedicated writing schools in your community, much like Minneapolis's Loft Literary Center (www.loft.org).

Taking a class, talking with other writers, can really feed your soul.

I've noticed several comments in Letters which reference "most women" or "the average woman" before making an argument. Even someone with 2 'X' chromosomes might want to reconsider making such sweeping, unsupportable generalizations.

This straight woman finds watching 2 men getting it on to be mighty hot - even without envisioning herself as the filling in the Manwich.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

dick d. said: "apparently we need at least 4 different planets: not just Mars and Venus but a bi, er, "fluid sexuality" Mars and Venus and straight ones."

Or accept the possibility that a more fluid view of sexuality renders such binary (ha!) taxonomies moot.

YMMV, of course, but I personally find most either/or, black/white, 1/0, straight/gay arguments to be invalid right out of the gate - unless you're talking about literal math. We humans tend to live our messy lives in the grays.

Hi Dick - to me, it's an issue of the Bell Curve. There's only room for so many extreme 'outliers' on either end. I can 100% accept that there may be people - a lot of people - who don't have the capacity for sexual interest in the someone of the same gender. However, I wonder how many of those folks don't have the capacity simply because, for whatever reason, they've never allowed themselves to consider the alternative.

No worries. As I said, YMMV.

Bravo, Shepard Smith. Thanks for putting law and, dare I say morals, before mere political expediency.

Perhaps the biggest thing liberals would be surprised to learn is that we are tolerant. Much more so than they.

...which unfortunately contradicted and invalidated your entire post in my mind.

Does anyone know under which conditions The Hague might get involved?

I'm so glad the GOP is working on important issues like this, instead of devising and proposing actual viable alternatives to the economic policies they find so onerous.

We're listening.

Nothing? I thought so.

Could you get your baby jones fed by babysitting? Even better, is there someone in your life who has a child you could volunteer to babysit for a week or two? Get a taste of the reality of what you yearn for, and it might not be as attractive an option - at least not now.

This has not been scientifically proven, but anecdotal data suggests that trying to quiet a squalling baby at 3:00 a.m. on a school or worknight is very effective birth control.

... but the music wasn't quite as good. I've watched this clip several times now, but I'm not humming the song.

That said, the guys have the look, the vibe, the 90's R & B jam-hands, down pat. Great job.

Why is it acceptable to pay a pilot with lives in her hands less than she'd make flipping burgers at McDonalds or working retail?

This industry should be ashamed of itself.

Adam Lambert? Challenging. Cheerfully freaky. Ambiguous (to some) sexual orientation. Neverending effing pipes. Wears more makeup than most of the women. Sexual swagger, southern manners, and charisma to burn. If there has ever been an AI contestant who embodied the "idol" portion of the show's title, he is it. When he's on the stage, you can't help but watch. What is he going to ...do? You're absolutely riveted.

But I can see how his persona might be a bit too threatening for AI's core demographic: tween girls, their watchful mothers, and their grandmothers, who voted in droves for the bland, unthreatening, and yes, talented Allen. Allen is malleable fantasy boyfriend material. Lambert represents... another type of fantasy entirely. ;-)

Allen needs the AI machine behind him to have a viable career. Not so with Adam Lambert. He came out of this smelling like a rose, with millions of avid fans. In the finale he very capably fronted two classic rock bands - and he's (shudder) not obligated to record that horrible "No Boundaries" song.

Some of us drove right on past the mortgaged-to-the-hilt subdivision McMansions and bought houses we could afford without putting our family's financial security at risk. Some of us listened to the voice of common sense when it whispered in our ear, instead of to the sleazy mortgage broker who insisted, over and over again, that we could afford twice the house we bought, and that only someone monumentally stupid paid 20% down and got a fixed 6% mortgage.

Yes, there were real drops in takehome pay during the last decade. But in what earthly reality is charging the flat-screen TV you can't afford in the first place the smart response to the situation? Did people turn off their brains? IT WAS ALWAYS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. ALWAYS.

...they're at least VERY CRABBY about having to share.

blunderdog, I join you in your depression this morning. While listening to NPR report upon the recent Hondouran earthquake, I was stunned when they opened the story with the dollar value of the damage the earthquake did, and then ended the story with the fact that someone died.

Just in case anyone forgot what matters most.