I have a very poignant sociological observation for you all, so get ready: The sight of a fat woman eating a salad makes people lose their minds, and wallow in self-hatred. Scene 1: Couple of weeks ago, 9:00 am [M. LeBlanc, in office kitchen, spooning yogurt into a bowl][Female Co-worker, age 40 (ap...

I was having trouble getting work done last week. On Thursday, my boyfriend had a job interview just a block from my office and I said please, please come over when you're done? Please? And he came by my office, dashing in a suit, and my co-workers and boss said he seemed like such a nice young man ...

I'm giving makeup for Lent. Actually, no, I'm trying to give up makeup forever. But I figure Lent's a good start. You know what's nice about not wearing makeup? You can touch your fucking face. Several times in the last few days I have put my finger to my eye, with the instinct to rub, and then had ...

You know, I never do any fluff on here. I'm all serious all the time. So I'm re-blogging this meme from Amanda Marcotte, which is pretty rad. It's a cross between "25 things" and the "Random Ten"--you put your music player on shuffle and the songs that come up are the answers to the questions. 1. Wh...

Did Abigail Zuger (a doctor!)'s review of Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s My Little Red Book, a book of first period stories that spans World War II to the present, America to Poland to India, really need to include this nugget?At this point, male readers may want to go outside and toss a ball around for...

I've been poo-pooing criticisms of Slumdog Millionaire, but Samhita makes some great points over at Feministing. She also links to a great piece by Mitu Sengupta at Alternet critiquing the film as a "hollow message of Social Justice." I have mixed feelings about this criticism. On the one hand, the ...

My first love was from Texas. I fell deeply, crazily, unabashedly in love when I was seventeen, and even though it seems sort of insane to me now, I can't deny how very exciting that first love was. It was the classic sort of teenage love that made you do really stupid things, like lie to your paren...

Actually, I do. I would gladly pay higher taxes if that meant that I and the rest of my community got better services. Especially at the city and state level. So I had to snort a little bit at Marcus Gilmer's Chicagoist post where he states that Illinois is a state "where we tax the shit out of ever...

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in the nearby urban-professional-white-people-lunch-establishment, eating my bland lunch, when I noticed someone very striking. It was a young woman, probably about my age or barely older, and she was ordering coffee. I remember her outfit very carefully, because I...

The notion of being "entitled to your opinion" is complete bullshit. Sure, you can have an opinion. You can judge someone you've never met and rant about how they deserve scorn. It's not illegal. But that doesn't mean your judgments, your opinions are immune from criticism. You hear this all the tim...