I have nothing to add to the conversation about how to respond to mean people. I think the last time it happened to me I just did my icy death stare, which really is an almost unconscious response for me.

Reading that Times article made me think that Dr. Atkins was somewhere smiling. He never really came up with anything new, just stuck with the old logic that everyone else had rejected.

This summer when I did my first six weeks of MMA I was a VERY good girl. I ate junk precisely four times (three fries, one desert) and worked out like crazy... and I lost three whole pounds.

I got much more muscular and my clothes all got bigger. I realize I was pretty much putting on muscle at the same rate I was dropping fat but it was a little bit discouraging nonetheless.

Of course, the nice part came when I took a week off to go on vacation and even though I ate like a horse who eats fried pork products and only managed to swim twice I only put on two pounds. Muscle at rest DOES burn more calories after all...

But I muscle up quickly, not everybody does that. The exercise advantages are clearly energy and focus and strength and flexibility... but the weight loss is fairly round-about.

And not to be both sexist and agist, I can imagine that coming from 16 year old boys more than adult women.

Actually, women can be savage to other women.

but the thing is, even if you think it is a moral failing, do you yell at people on the street for it? I rarely comment on anyone's moral character unless asked, and even then, I am pretty circumspect!

See, *real* moral failings are much harder to criticize from a car window: "You claim to be in favor of a working wage and affordable health insurance for everyone, but I saw you shopping at Wal-Mart, which clearly contradicts your previously stated beliefs!"

That would have to be one really sloooooow drive-by.

Hey wait, is it Matilda's birthday already? How did that happen so fast?

Happy birthday, Matilda!

Shrift, those are very nice glasses. And should I just buy the episode of L.A. Ink from iTunes sight-unseen? I'm assuming yes.

Frank was adorable. A-DOR-ABLE. Oh, I guess I should whitefont this:

He fed fruit to his big muscley bodyguard. He was sweet and nice and tinytiny and "I love my grampa!" He squeaked! At one point he was saying something like, "I can be scary! Grrrr -- yeah, no."

how about yelling insults from a car window as a moral failing.

Jars, omg you are Connected to the World! Where are you? Still out in the countryside?

Hey! Yeah, I CAN HAZ INTERBUNNY. I've moved to Cork! And it's SO GREAT. And you should come visit after you're settled into York. Which is also great. You should go to the Mexican place by the river. They do great Margaritas.

And I don't remember ever being shouted at, although I have been flashed a couple of times.

There isn't much yelling at strangers in my nice little university town, but sometimes a pickup full of country girls will come to town to get drunk, and they have a tendency to pull up to a stop light and scream "Party!!!!" while flashing their breasts. Rural girls showing off for the college boys. Not appreciated by everyone, but definitely preferable to insults.

Hey! Yeah, I CAN HAZ INTERBUNNY. I've moved to Cork! And it's SO GREAT. And you should come visit after you're settled into York. Which is also great. You should go to the Mexican place by the river. They do great Margaritas.

That's awesome! Yeah, I mean to come back to Ireland in November, I think, and another of my friends has moved back to Cork, so I have plenty of reason to come down there. Not to mention, I haven't been there in three or four years, so it would be nice to see it again.

Steph, did you get the magic cards I sent in the mail? I probably should have gotten a track on it.

My body issues are epic, and I definitely have had the horrible insult yelled at me on more than one occassion, which just sort of cements the issue.

Weirdly, though, the book publishing thing has helped the self-image issues out a bit. It has nothing to do with my physical appearance, but I can sort of pump myself up a bit on the thought that whatever else I may be, I'm also a published author, which is something that stays on my resume long after the taunters lose their physical beauty.

So there.