Stay strong, smonster. That's what's important.

Fiddy Cent is doing Jonathan Ross too. I guess he's making the most of his time abroad.

Good luck, smonster! {}

She cited a bunch of studies of what working-class families in England ate in the 1800s, and most of them found that the families could only afford a little bit of meat each week, and that meat went to the husband, while the wife and kids ate mostly vegetables

Oh, FFS. This is clearly NOT an historical research. I'll semi-forgive her if she paid attention to the change in the English Poor Laws.

And Sean, darling, all of the It'sNothingSerious~ ma in this freaking world. {{{}}}

Loads of nothing-serious-~ma, Sean.

Much ~ma to Sean.

Much wishes for happiness for smonster.

Oodles of ~ma, seaniekins.

So far, she's mostly just been talking about that division -- meat as masculine food, vegetables as feminine food -- and how the division, along with meat being considered higher quality food, is linked to women having lower status in society.

IIRC, you can project that back to the pre-agricultural period of human existence. In your hunter-gatherer society, the men were the hunters and the women the gatherers. Hunting was high-profile, and effective hunters won prestige, but it provided significantly fewer calories than the gathering side of the equation. I vaguely recall there being evidence that it got caught up in politics too, with whom the hunter would share his meat, that kind of thing.

I'm not sure where this winds up in modern society, though.

Oh, FFS. This is clearly NOT an historical research. I'll semi-forgive her if she paid attention to the change in the English Poor Laws.

What's the problem with it?

IIRC, you can project that back to the pre-agricultural period of human existence. IN your hunter-gatherer society, the men were the hunters and the women the gatherers. Hunting was high-profile, and effective hunters won prestige, but it provided significantly fewer calories than the gathering side of the equation. I vaguely recall there being evidence that it got caught up in politics too, with whom the hunter would share his meat, that kind of thing.

The author does mention that.

Matilda got her lullabies and Christmas carols mixed up this morning and began singing to herself (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

Jingle, Jingle Little Bell

How I wonder how you smell

Awwwwww! Baby's First Mash-Up!

I brought in some stuff to the tailor yesterday, to get sleeves and pant legs shortened. (I usually do it myself, but these were complicated, with linings and cuffs and stuff.) He asked me what I do, and I told him, and he said he didn't know that girls could be mathematicians -- he thought it was only guys.

You should have told him you thought sewing was a woman's job.

No no no no no no no

Do that when you pick them up.

Twilight books: these are possibly the silliest books I've ever read, and I cannot put them down.

They're page-turners, I'll give them that. And seriously? That could turn a kid into a reader. I know an improvisor who never read for pleasure but felt like he had to read the Harry Potter books because there were increasing cultural references. He discovered (once he had an easy page-turner in his hands) that his focus is such that once he's been reading about twenty minutes he can get sucked into a book. It turned him into a reader. He just knows not to try and read for a short car ride, or something where he'll have to shift around too much, but if he'd going to be still for 20 minutes he brings a book.

The place where my tooth had been hasn't been hurting for the past few days, but it's starting to hurt again. Weird.

Talk to your oral surgeon. Sometimes people develop a dry socket.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_socket It hurts like a mother.

I also have a tiny cut on the tip of my tongue, which is slowly driving me nuts.

I got nothin' for ya there, Hil. You're just going to have to go insane. Sorry. Maybe in your new Complete Lunatic Form (like a Pokémon!) you'll be able to communicate with your psychotic advisor.

OK, my family is ridiculous. My mother's wish list includes lobsters

YOUR VEGAN DAUGHTER IS NOT BUYING YOU LIVE ANIMALS TO EAT. KNOW THAT.

I just remembered that I was going to get a box of Chanukah candles while I was in NJ, and I forgot. There are a bunch of stores in DC that I think might sell them, but all of them are just a little further than I want to walk to maybe not buy anything. I'm nearly positive that the grocery store at the Watergate sells them...

Chabad! Surely one of the fifty seven hunnerd universities has a Chabad chapter. They'd fire up the mitzvah tank and zip them over toute suite.

I know it sounds nuts and not a good idea, but we are going to craft a written plan to move forward.

Change is good, smonster! If you get a happier change out of this than you expected that is FANTATIC.

OK, my family is ridiculous. My mother's wish list includes lobsters

YOUR VEGAN DAUGHTER IS NOT BUYING YOU LIVE ANIMALS TO EAT. KNOW THAT.

ALSO YOU ARE JEWISH, ARE YOU NOT?

(I mean, come on. Even *I* know they're treyf.)

My mom only keeps sorta kosher on holidays. And even then, not so much. My father is also not going to buy that for her -- in Dad's view, live animals belong in nature, which belongs far away from him. I had pet hermit crabs when I was about seven, and he wouldn't go within about ten feet of them.