at the question "Will there be a TV in the bedroom?" Yes, I just e-mailed this, to a husband that I have been married to for nearly 15 years. Like I told him, if we were going to split over something in the bedroom, it sure as hell would not have been the TV. It would have been over a certain cat we recently lost (the cat passed away last Friday, at the age of 16). I miss the cat, but am the first to admit he was often annoying, especially in his later years. With this in mind, I'm surprised that this survey did not ask about pets.

I haven't paid much attention to personal ads since getting married nearly 15 years ago. But this article made me laugh, and I loved some of the funny ads quoted. Why wasn't this stuff around back in the 1980s, when I was single? Back then, most of the ads had a line like "Enjoy long walks on the beach." That was appropriate for where I lived (I was in Southern California), but not very original.

Despite the fact that I never had much luck finding love for myself in the personals, I'd do them again if my marriage came to an end. Yes, there is some bull@$%^ involved, like the other person mentioned, but you can't tell me that it doesn't exist elsewhere in the singles scene. Anytime there's a situation where people are trying to sell themselves, a certain amount of that is to be expected. Comes with the territory -

but if Max was as great of a pet as Clooney claims he was, I'm sure that Max is now literally in "hog heaven".

I don't live in Virginia, but I was rooting for Webb the whole time he was running against the Macaca man, and was thrilled when he won. I don't agree with every view Webb has, as he much more conservative than I am. But I've always believed that he is a good man, and this story proves that I was right all along!

and not all of them have to do with religion or hyper-commercialism. Some of us have personal reasons not to like this holiday. The Grim Reaper is around every day of the year, and sometimes he just happens to strike near December 25. That's what happened when my Mother was 10. On the morning of Dec. 28, my Grandfather (who was only 38 at the time!) went over to a neighbor's house to visit. A few minutes later, he wasn't feeling so good. An hour later he was dead, and no one knows why, as an autopsy was never done.

My Mother was pretty good about keeping her memories of this horrible event under control when I was little. By the time I hit my preteen years, and Mom's alcoholism worsened, I had to listen to Mom piss and moan about this every friggin' December. Nowadays, I dread this time of year. Death (and memories of it) sucks at any time, and even more so at Christmas.

there is no way anyone could make this up. Even a horror writer like Stephen King would be incapable of dreaming up something this bizarre!

I wonder if the only reason why hubby is going along with his Mom's crazy idea is just to get her off of his back. Perhaps he is just as turned off by this as his wife is, but he does not want to get Mom upset, so he is keeping his real opinion to himself. (It's possible - I have seen my father and my husband both agree to do stuff they didn't really want to do just to make their Moms happy. Though, admittedly, nothing as strange as this.)

I have heard that Playboy's photographers are totally unaroused when taking the famous nude pics. They're too busy to be aroused.

Been there, did that, when I was in the Air Force. To a young person, three months is an eternity. To an older person, three years goes by in the blink of an eye.

I can sympathize, but part of me feels like saying "You think three months is bad? Try three years. That's how long I have to go before I can retire from my boring job." Yes, it does seem like a long time, but I think that I'll give Cary's suggestions a try, even though my situation is different from the LWs.

I would advise the LW to see as much as the country he is in as he possibly can. Chances are, he will never return there after he leaves. That may sound like a good thing now, but believe it or not, he may very well get homesick for this place years after he leaves. It happened to me. In 1990, the Air Force sent me to the Azores (tiny Portuguese islands in the Atlantic Ocean). The whole time I was there, I griped about the place and could not wait to leave. My commander (and many of my other higher-ups)was a pain and made my working life miserable.

Though I will never stay in a work environment like that again, I miss the Azores islands immensely. Today, I would kill to go back there for a visit!