Isn't 41 getting pretty high risk?

Yes, pretty high. Down Syndrome is just the first/most obvious risk at that age.

I am keeping my mouth and fingers firmly shut on the matter of whether these particular... individuals should continue breeding the way they are, but as a pregnant-at-37/birthed-at-38 person I kinda want to clarify some of the risk stuff.

Short answer: It all depends.

Slightly longer answer: At around 40 your Down's risk does go up by some alarming factor; IIRC, it doubles. But the under-40 risk for an otherwise healthy woman with no genetic red flags is 1% anyway, so even though the risk doubles past 40 it still means that 98 out of 100 of post-40 moms will have non-Down's babies.

And it can vary further depending on your personal history, family history and blood work. Some women are low-fertility and high-risk from their early 20s on (a lot don't get diagnosed until their mid to late 30s because they don't start TTC until then, but often the problems would have been diagnosed earlier if they'd started earlier); I know of at least one late-30s pregnant woman whose risk was assessed, after all the numbers were crunched by a team of OBs and geneticists, as approximately the same as that of a healthy woman in her late 20s.

So, in short, the risks go up but it's more random and less doomy than it seems; between the genetic counseling we got and the masses of reading I did at the time, it looks like, if you're otherwise healthy with no risk factors besides your age, by the time the risk of serious birth defects becomes statistically significant you're going to be old enough that conceiving at all is increasingly unlikely.

Not saying anything about that couple and their army of offspring. Not. Not.

In fact, my mother's cousin *did* lose an arm sticking out the car window, which I'm afraid I found rather funny at 10, because I'd already been told a number of "don't stick body parts out of the car" urban legends before she told us about him

Dude! Your mom's cousin probably STARTED those urban legends. Awesome.

flea, do we need to kick mr. flea's butt into doing somethign nice for mother's day? Or do you have an agreement that he doesn't get anythign for father's day?

It isn't the busy in December and January. It's the busy in March and April.

Hah! That's exactly what i was thinking. I can't believe that clowncaruterus woman is pregnant again. Damn!

With a wooden spoon, tap around the borders of the blanket. If the baby crawls off the blanket, slap the kid's hand with the spoon, put the kid back on the blanket,

Wow, that's....kinda creepy. Also, don't they have fifteen older kids who can make sure the little one doesn't burn the place down?? Yeesh.

I think in the problematic books (otherwise known as the new testament) I think there is something about (paraphrase) "they took to strange ways, men lay with men and woman with women". And it is clearly meant as a sin. Then again, so is overeating. Something about (paraphrase again) "becomes as a sieve leaking from every hole". So all the gays and all us fat dudes are equally headed for hell, but given the relative severity of the criticism, us fat dudes to deeper more painful levels.

I think that the same "abomination" word is used to wearing clothing made of mixed wool and linen.

Also, in one of the Chick Tracts, there was a panel that had footnotes supposedly listing all the biblical references for homosexuality being wrong. One of them was Ezekiel 16:49, which is

49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

Which seems to be saying nothing at all about homosexuality. And the point of that chapter is "You guys are even WORSE than Sodom and Samaria, but I'm going to restore you, anyway."

So, in short, the risks go up but it's more random and less doomy than it seems; between the genetic counseling we got and the masses of reading I did at the time, it looks like, if you're otherwise healthy with no risk factors besides your age, by the time the risk of serious birth defects becomes statistically significant you're going to be old enough that conceiving at all is increasingly unlikely.

t points and nods

I was born to a 38-year-old mom and am seriously considering trying for a second child that would be born when I'm 38 or 39, and while I do think about the increased risk of Down's and other genetic issues, the odds of it happening are still extremely low.

Really, AFAIC the worst of having older parents is you end up losing your parents at an age where many of your friends still have living grandparents.

I think that the same "abomination" word is used to wearing clothing made of mixed wool and linen.

That's exactly what kills me -- people who claim to be living by Biblical law, except OBVIOUSLY not all of them.

Although the Duggars just might do that one, which is why their clothes are all so bad.

In some very religious Jewish neighborhoods, there are shops where you can bring clothing to have someone check to make sure there isn't any linen/wool mixture in it. Apparently some brands will use a linen/wool mixture as the lining in the lapels of suits, so these shops will test the stuff like that and replace it with some other material if it is the wrong kind of fabric.

Would a cotton/poly blend be OK, or is it literally just the linen/wool?

It's literally just linen/wool.

One explanation I've heard is something about it not being right to combine a plant fiber with an animal fiber, but I can't recall ever seeing any sort of commonly accepted reasoning for that prohibition.