Holy crap, today's Ask Polly

"The cause of this rift is TRULY TERRIBLE HUMAN BEINGS." The answer was spot on. I am so grateful that my family on both my side and his are so supportive of my not deadly but annoying allergies. They are so careful. We all go out of our way for the vegetarian and vegan members too. Sheesh people! Why is it so hard to be considerate?

So I guess we'll see.

Debative can mean a lot of things. I hope it means more on the open to ideas end of the spectrum than like to argue side.

Good luck Dana, that is a lot to consider.

The person I spoke to with the full-time job yesterday did warn me that the culture is "debative", and it's hard to know if that means healthy debate or just people being assholes.

I don't know if I can do any Silicon Valley recon for you, but let me know if I can help. I could see if I can find any colleagues who work(ed) there.

Holy crap, today's Ask Polly

Holy crap those batshit, straight-up murderous relatives, but also, someone else out there who has a weird mushroom allergy! Since it's not a common allergy, most menus don't bother to mention the presence of 'shrooms, and it can be maddening when you're trying to avoid them and squinting at ingredients lists.

My Aer Lingus Dubin to San Francisco flight had mushrooms in both meal options, so I had to ask for a spare vegetarian meal that luckily wasn't using mushrooms as a meat replacement.

Holy crap, today's Ask Polly

It is shocking how often that kind of question shows up in advice columns, but that is far above and beyond! (Except for the grandmother who kept giving the allergic kid peanut candy...)

Yeah, this is one of the more persistently malevolent ones. Great way to never, ever know your grandchildren (because why would any parent think it would be safe to allow their children around them).

While I realize that emotions and relationships are more complex than what I'm about to say, this is a case for burning it all down and salting the earth. (I know the letter writer said they've cut off their family, but she feels guilty about it. BURN DOWN THE GUILT.)

Yeah, wow, that is cuckoo!

I hope the letter writer's husband just sends them the column.

I just subscribed to the Ask Polly column. I'm not at a common stage in life with most of the letters, but bluntness is comforting.

That's Polly Esther, going all the way back to suck.com in 1996.

Suck.com was one of my first favorite websites! I'm pretty sure I made my first internet friends on girlson.com, though.

someone else out there who has a weird mushroom allergy!

One of my high school friends had a mushroom allergy. Not as common as nut or shellfish allergies, but not unheard of. Lord, those in-laws sounded toxic. (Literally.)