Sheldon said "spaded"??? I thought his English was much better than that.

How the heck do you know what men expect? Do they tell you? They never tell me. Seem to "expect" me to know. Which I don't. Which probably is part of the reason why things never work out. But I don't read minds well. I can interpret body language about the same as anyone else, but guessing expectations is beyond me.

JB, you found a picture of me!

That's easy, famous poet. Not that I care about being famous, but I wanted to write poems that were so good I'd have to be famous.

Once I realized that wasn't going to happen, I wanted to be an environmental crusader.

As for life "style," going to a lot more symphonies and plays would have been very attractive.

An 11-year-old said that? What a disturbed child he must have been. How did he even know what rape was? I shudder to think what his home life must have been like.

I trust that nothing really came of his nasty threat. Like you say, a horrible way to make an impression.

Bummer, I'm disappointed.

Self-confidence can only START with an attitude change. You need to have something to base the attitude on, in order to really feel confident. So if you can write well, but have trouble speaking in public, practice reading what you've written. In front of a mirror, alone in your bedroom, whatever. Keep it really short at first. Maybe you could ask your best friend to help you role play a little.

One important part of the attitude change is to keep reminding yourself how much better you'll feel after you've been successful. Praise yourself for what you've done right, and be easy on yourself about the things that didn't go so well. We're always harder on ourselves than anyone else is.

Good for you! You know what they say: Living well is the best revenge.

Sounds to me like you have a gripe about how one particular man treated you. Although I'm not sure, because it also seemed like you said you didn't have a man right now. Maybe that was someone else and I'm misremembering. Either way, I think it's ridiculous to try to dictate what every man should do for every woman.

The very best Valentine's Day gift I ever got was a tiny handmade heart-shaped card that just said "Happy Valentine's Day" on the inside. It came by mail and was totally unexpected. The relationship didn't go anywhere, but I still cherish it and still have it.

Hey, I just ran into an ad about that ultrasonic bark thingie. Let me know if it works, will you? I have yapping dogs on three sides of me.

I love them both. Star Trek will always have a special place in my heart because it was the first show (other than Twilight Zone, which was nowhere near as ambitious) that took science fiction seriously. In addition it had the idealistic message, which appealed to my teenage self. Sure, it was pretty simplistic sometimes and sometimes even childish (Halloween show), but it was the first time extraterrestrials had been shown as possibly interesting, even friends.

Remember the famous bar scene in Star Wars? That could never have happened without Star Trek laying the groundwork that aliens were all different, had their own issues, and yet could still be worked with by humans.

The Star Wars series (the first three films, which were all I saw) had better special effects, a great story line, and more complex characters. But over the years I've found that Star Trek seems to resonate more. The subsequent series added a lot of depth, all the way through the Ferengi and Odo characters, and I even thought the movies were all good additions too.

But I wonder if that deepening would have happened without Star Wars to prod them on.

Sounds perfect! Good luck.

Since you ask . . . I detest this sort of thing. I think it goes beyond rudeness to viciousness. I believe it both demonstrates and contributes to the breakdown of civility in society.

My opinion--you asked for it.

Haha, I used to have a dog and cat that I swore worked together to get meat off the counter. The dog was only medium size so he couldn't quite reach it if it was all the way to the back of the counter. But strangely, it would end up on the floor anyway. I'd catch the dog scarfing it down and the cat on the counter looking down at him like, "Not my problem now."

Those two loved to chase each other. Actually the dog loved being chased by the cat. The cat would lurk in a corner and then ambush Woody as he went by, and then the case was on.

Anyone seen this video? D*(&# it's cute. I've never had a cat that athletic.

If you don't allow yourself to be happy for fear it won't last, then you're spoiling your present life for fear of something that may or may not happen.

I went through a very painful breakup a long time ago. It took me years, but eventually I realized two things: (1) the painful breakup DID NOT take away the joy that I had experienced in the relationship, which I still cherish today, and (2) there are many other things in life that make me happy, and some of them I wouldn't even have found out about without that experience.

Don't let fear rule your life. Look for things that make you happy and figure out how to do more of them.

I think it actually is pretty difficult for a lot of people to do this. It's much easier intellectually to apply a stereotype, or project one's own hatred back onto others, than to allow people the simple benefit of the doubt. Witness some of the jaw-dropping replies in this very thread.

Thinking for oneself, getting out of your rut, is hard. It requires energy, and there's not any instant payoff because the rewards are subtle.

The cancer was before his races, I thought.

From what I've read about his interview last night, he is nowhere near ready to actually come down off his high horse. He says the words but doesn't act like he means them.

Whoa, someone who gets the big picture. I was beginning to lose hope.

For some reason this made me think of catsup.