I PAY for the privilege of using a website whose essential function brings in millions of dollars of monthly fees and hasn't improved OR CHANGED in a decade. Gawker's decade has been a lot more sophisticated, protean and FREE.

Are you intending to sprout comical hair?

I guess we'll see!

Chia seeds are a newish fad. Fiber. Omega-3 fatty acids. Calcium.

Gawker's decade has been a lot more sophisticated, protean and FREE

It is definitely free, and I can't compare feature set, but it's not sophisticated by many measures. It has more features than b.org, for instance, and serves a user base many many times larger than us, but it does so not just badly, but with a really clumsy software development lifecycle. It's stupendous what they wrap in a bow and declare good enough. I guess Gawker IT firings don't make news, but anywhere I worked, there'd have been a torrent of them by now.

I have no idea how protean applies in this scenario. It's a piece of software designed to make it difficult for any of the vocal users to do what they've said they want to do, and it does so badly. If he'd achieved his goals, at least that would just be a difference of opinions on what makes a good product. But Kinja doesn't do (still) bits of what it said on the box.

Any Kyle XY fans here? I can't remember having seen him in much else, but Matt Dallas announced his engagement to Blue Hamilton today, also tidily coming out of the closet.

Not a fan of the show, but I've been waiting for him to tumble out of the closet since I saw him as a cater waiter on Kathy Griffin's reality show years ago. Have to say, an engagement announcement is about the best reason for going public that I've seen.

So my grandmother had a mink stole (probably a gift). It's been kept in a bag in the closet for the last forty years. It's in really very good condition.

What do we do with it? Can you sell it? Is it worth anything? Is it ethical to sell an old fur? (I am thinking about heritage diamonds, where the sale doesn't cause any new damage.)

And of course, I'm not sure we should sell it, since it's my mother's. But I do wonder.

When my grandmother didn't want her furs anymore we gave them to the costume shop at my undergrad theatre.

We gave the fur coats to my sister, but that might not work in your situation.

My grandmother had one of those mink-eating-its-tail stoles that's currently nonliving in my mother's guest bedroom closet. It both appalls and fascinates me.

I am not up on the current fur philosophy. While the sale of any fur, like the sale of any ivory, can conceivably facilitate current slaughter, it's not like we can bring back a mink that's been dead for 40 years. I could never get terribly exercised about mink, because mink garments have largely been made from farm-raised mink for a century or more. It's hard to justify eating beef and wearing leather but objecting to mink. I feel entirely different about killing wild and often endangered animals.

I have my grandmother's mink capelet (in sad condition), an antique seal fur muff that Pete gave me ages ago, a vintage black fox stole that I found at a yard sale, and an antique scarf-thing made from multiple minks eating each other's tails. I'm against the fur industry, but have no problems with wearing vintage or antique furs.

I think donating the stole to a theatre group is a nice idea.

As a theatre costumer, furs are one of the donations I want. I don't want your old t-shirts, though