Man, I'm glad I've rarely purged my wardrobe of things that are too small, because I've totally been shopping in my closet for skirts and shirts and underpants lately.

I worked at a library where adults unaccompied by children were not allowed. However, It was 1 ) mostly used to keep adults off the children's computers 2) Keep the room free for children to use ( people using the room for books great, lingering...) 3) keep the nosy children complainers out of the room and 4) keep the sex offenders out o that room anyway. ( We have megan's law in Ca and yes - there were a few in violation of their parole caught at the library)

However, I was't crazy about being enforcer for that rule. partly because it was arbitrary. when I've seen it for parks - mostly it has been HOA parks or smaller areas of large parks --

What would you want to know about a potential roommate?

also, drug/alcohol use and any issues you may have with that?

also, drug/alcohol use and any issues you may have with that?

Ooh, yes, especially here in Seattle I have to ask if you smoke pot. And I"m kinda irked that the roomie was quitting smoking (and agreed to smoke outside) when he moved in...and then gave up and still smokes like a chimney. It's not bad in the living room, but I worry that when he moves out, even though he doesn't smoke indoors, the carpet in his room will reek--I know his jacket usually does.

I also feel like behavior should dictate the need for law enforcement intervening.

In practice, this IS what usually happens. But I see the need for a bright line not based on any subjective interpretation of behavior, because when the rule is "nice looking people are ok, shady looking people are not," you wind up with seriously ugly racist/sexist shit. I am personally far more comfortable with an official blanket ban on child-free adults than an unofficial blanket ban on child-free black men.

(And to repeat myself, in practice? The ugly racist shit goes on all the time. And it sucks. Which is why in a weird way, I like hearing stories of well-behaved white women being kicked out of the playground too.)

Which is why in a weird way, I like hearing stories of well-behaved white women being kicked out of the playground too.

I'm with you on that, too. I'm just as glad not to get a pass for looking "respectable" or whatever, as a generally well-behaved white woman.

(I do completely agree that a court summons for violating a parks & rec regulation is absurd - a simple "You can't be in here without a kid, go sit over there instead" would have done just fine.)

(I should interject here that in Michigan and in LA, park and playground were interchangeable.Parks were the playgrounds and vice verse.)

NSM anymore. Lots of the parks have fenced in playgrounds. I don't know if there are rules for no-admittance-without-a-kid (and I wouldn't be surprised if there were). I've generally assumed the fencing was designed to pen the kids in.

On a completely other topic, how awesome is this lemon-powered alarm clock???

Going back a bit, I just want to be amazed at the dog-climbing video that Consuela linked. I wonder how it figured that out, or if the owner helped at first?