Baseball is one sport that I can think of that has one.

Not at the pro, semi-pro, or even high amateur (i.e., college) level.

My mother gave my brother an african statue for christmas. She told him that it was a fertility doll. A few months later, he and his "friend" had a pregnancy scare (not that my mother knows this). He got rid of it. He tried to give it to me, but I was having none of it.

Is there a slaughter rule in regular baseball?

I know that there are slaughter rules in football and in baseball as played by the kids in one of the local park districts.

I am trying to figure out, did that soccer team not have backup players? Like, what if the goalie gets hamstrung in the championship game? Isn't there anybody else who could have filled in?

They did have a substutute.

I wonder if the sub was just really crappy? and/or she'd never been trained as a goalie?

I think that slaughter rules may be just at the lower levels, so that the kids don't feel bad.

My mother gave my brother an african statue for christmas. She told him that it was a fertility doll. A few months later, he and his "friend" had a pregnancy scare (not that my mother knows this). He got rid of it. He tried to give it to me, but I was having none of it.

Very wise - next thing you know it will be chasing you around with a knife.

I remember doing a research paper on cryonics back in highschool. I don't recall the "acoustic fracturing events" bit, though. Yuck. But even back then, it seemed pretty out there.

I mean, regardless of if science eventually figures out how to cure what killed you, they also have to figure out how to cure death too. I mean, there's plenty of lethal things we currently have a cure for, but they don't mean squat if you die before you can be treated.

And of course, if it's somehow even possible someday, it brings up questions about the soul and whatnot (if you believe in such things.)

Just a mess all around, really.

I've been wearing an ankh since I was 8 (used to be on and off, but since the tattoo, always on). My mother gave me my first. I think she also gave me Ghanaian fertility earrings. Also before puberty.

It seems to be a thing -- who knows? I could be as fecund as the fertile crescent. Just not up to testing that theory.

I wonder if the sub was just really crappy? and/or she'd never been trained as a goalie?

Could be, or they took their best defender, and stuck her in goal, weakening two positions.

My MiL started an IM conversation with me while I was at work to mention that if we had any problems, it might have been similar to my FiL's "issues". Talk about a conversation I was never meant to have. EVER. Poking my eyes out at work wasn't an option.

How funny would it have been to ask "Oh, [FiL's] issues involved not wanting children in order to spite all the relatives over their intrusive hints and comments on the subject?"