I am actually somewhat appalled by this. I’m an avowed child-hater, but an ad which pretty much flat out states that a man should regret the birth of his child stuns me into silence.

I’m not surprised in the least that it was a man in the ad. First of all, and most obvious, men wear the things, not women. Not the kind sold by Trojan, anyway. More insidiously, I do not believe we will ever see an ad in this patriarchy suggesting, even in an off the cuff manner, that it is acceptable for a woman to wish her children had never been born.

I work at home, mostly. Joe works at home almost all the time. We both work for money. (Neither of us does quite enough housekeeping, unfortunately, though I think he does more than I do.) No childcare involved. Those two phrases, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

Trolls drive me up the wall, and I have trouble resisting getting into debates with them.

It never fails to amaze me that there are people, mostly men, who are sufficiently interested in feminism to read feminist blogs and air their opinions in the discussion threats, or (in my experience) to start debates or discussions with me about feminist issues;
but are not sufficiently interested to actually learn anything about feminism!

My mom had a friend who, every time he saw me, would ask something along the lines of “why don’t feminists ever talk about/ argue such-and-such.” Such-and-such would always be something that feminists have written tons about. Whenever I’d try to exlain to him that his assumptions were wrong, or that his anti-feminist beliefs had been strongly refuted, he’d stop listening.

Sorry for my somewhat pedantic comment; I didn’t really think you thought that a Dick Bong was something you used to inhale.

And in five days I give up candy for Lent. I have NO IDEA how I am going to get through Lent without Fritos.

Meanwhile, the ongoing hotdish discussion reminds me of Garrison Keillor’s joke about Lutherans eating tuna hotdish and feeding the leftovers to their chickens.

And re: General Tso’s chicken: it gets mushy when reheated. I’m in favor of eating it all when fresh, regardless of potential intestinal consequences. Mm, crispy.

Another thing lacking in Germany: good Chinese food. Man, I miss the local takeout place at home.

If I had only known this BEFORE I planned my long weekend in Cornwall …

We can suffer together. I’ve known Below the Salt by heart since about age 9 …