That's one of her key arguments!

well done buffistas. good advice. tell them thank you

P-C, lots of luck to your FSIL.

Is there a polite way to compose an "Is there a baby yet?" email to someone who was due a week ago and hasn't been online since then (at least, not that I've seen). I don't want to be pushy, and I don't want to be all "Baby! Baby!" if, G-d forbid, something went wrong. But I have a present to give her and I want to say congratulations and stuff. Usually people in the math department will announce babies in the weekly newsletter, but she's pretty private about a lot of stuff, so I don't think she will.

Hil, I guess it depends on how well you know her. With a good friend, I think an email asking if there's any news and wishing her well would be fine. For someone you're not all that close to, I'd wait a while longer to see if there's an announcement. It's not uncommon for babies to be one or even two weeks overdue, so if you haven't heard anything, there may just be nothing to tell yet. But in the unlikely event that something has gone wrong, she may want to wait a while before telling people, and if the baby was born she's probably not getting much time on the computer these days.

Any tips for her?

You'd probably best ignore me, because my first thought was "Have a backup clip."

Any tips for her?

To understand and accept that there is nothing that she can do or say that will make your parents like her. Therefore, she need to be polite and respectful, and conduct herself in such as way that her mother (or anyone that she respects) would be proud of her. She should also speak to your brother ahead of time about the possibility of needing to leave if she is being treated badly. They should decide if they will leave together or he will stay. If he stays, he needs to make it clear to your parents that they discussed it ahead of time, and he is not choosing them over her, just that she supports him trying to maintain a relationship with his parents, but she will not accept their poor treatment.

Much, much luck to your FSIL, P-C. Also very glad to hear Strix is alive.

Continued~ma to JZ and Matilda.

As for me, I'm trying not to scare new foreigner-friends that are emailing me because of news and they're not used to the stupidities of my country and its government and to my morbid sense of humor. So I'm trying very hard not to reply with "well, you know" and adding the YouTube link to Alice In Chain's We Die Young and such.

But dear God, I want to.

Edit: Oh. Vortex is wise.

Vortex said it all really, really, well.

Vortex said it well and much more tactfully than I would have.

She doesn't think they'll treat her poorly, but they have discussed leaving just in case.

She's really scared because she never thought this would happen, not until they had kids if at all. Like my parents, she'd given up hope.

Google is changing its algorithm to bury pirated copy deep in its searches

Pirated copy of what?

She never thought she'd meet them? Damn.

What Vortex said. I suspect that they will not mistreat her, but that your brother will get an earful after the meeting.