Our dishwasher came with the house we just bought.  We think it’s the original dishwasher, and it has a recall on it.   (Apparently this model has a disturbing habit of catching on fire.) We’re hoping that we can get a good enough rebate to be able to afford replacing it.

I was witness to a similar story to your Ken Howard story.

Remember Kadeem Hardison (Dwyane Wayne from A Different World)?  I was with a friend of mine when we were introduced to him by name, and told he was an actor on a project our mutual friend was working on.

He was my favorite actor on that show, so as soon as I heard the name I knew who he was.   My friend, however, went on for about 5 minutes (with me trying to get her attention the whole time). 

Her: You look like that guy

KH: I am that guy.

Her: No, that guy from that show. 

KH: I am that guy.

This went on for at least 5 minutes and by the end all 3 of us were telling her he was the guy from the show.  She’s still mad at me for not stopping her.  Kadeem was very nice about it, though.

…I hope she doesn’t read these comments.

I don’t know…

I used to have a friend with older parents.  She was a late "surprise" when her mom was just shy of menopause, so in her case both parents were pretty old.

I always felt kind of sorry for her.  She was already having to take care of them somewhat in high school.

That poor kid is going to have a really hard time making friends because no one will want to play with her.  

Maybe ifthe friend can approach it that way, and then suggest counseling or some kind of family program to help them, it would go down easier. 

I think it’s unfair to assume that his friends didn’t try to talk to him about his issues.  If someone is unbalanced and addicted, you can talk to them every single day about your concerns and it may not do any good.  In many cases, even threats of or actually ending the friendship don’t work.

I don’t know if he was innocent or guilty of the pedophilia, and I don’t see how any of us who weren’t there can claim to know.  I’m tired of people assuming they know.  I’m sorry if you were molested and that’s a horrible thing, but it still doesn’t mean that people accused of molesting kids can be deemed guilty until proven innocent.  Likewise I don’t think that it’s safe to assume he’s innocent just because the evidence wasn’t clear.  We just can’t know for sure. 

He was a great musician, and a pretty screwed up person.  And he’s not the first person who fits that description, nor will he be the last.  I always felt sorry for him more than anythiing else.  With his childhood he had NO chance of growing up to be normal. 

For letter #2, my personal theory is that it’s a combination of the junk food and the schools taking out gym class and recess. 

I honestly would have been one of the ADHD kids if we didn’t have gym class and especially recess when I was a kid.  I was a total spaz and daydreamer, I always did better in the classes after gym or after recess than the rest of the day.

I don’t think kids are spoiled as much as overprotected.  When we were growing up, stitches and bruises and scrapes and even the occasional broken bone were accepted as part of growing up.  You fell off a bike or out of a tree, you tried stuff, like ice skating or whatever, and got hurt while learning.   Now if a kid shows up at school with a bruise the parents are suspected of beating the kid. 

 Sure, less kids die because of accidents, but I think now it’s carried over into more emotional mistakes and pains.  Kids aren’t allowed to get hurt in all the little was that we did, so now when the bigger hurts and disappointments come along they can’t deal. 

 As for letter #1, I see no problem with being single if you are truly happy that way.  I was a lonely single until I dated a real scumbag just to be with someone.  From the time I dumped him until I met my hubby, I was perfectly fine on my own and in fact wasn’t really expecting to ever get married. 

So you might find someone who surprises you, who you actually want to spend the rest of your life with.  Or not. 

As long as you aren’t just telling yourself you like being single because you’re scared.  Which I kind of get from your negative descriptions of relationships.  If you were fulfilled and single and willing to admit that there are people that have great relationships, then I wouldn’t think this so much.

I wholeheartedly agree with DeBurca.

If someone gets work done and they just look like their younger selves, that’s one thing.  Unfortunately, even presumably expensive cosmetic surgery (such as the celebs get) seems more often than not to result in changing the faces so as to be not only unrecognizable, but unrealistic.  My husband used to have a huge crush on Nicole Kidman, and even he doesn’t always recognize her photo in magazines.  I remember during the Oscars thinking Helen Mirren was the most gorgeous woman in the room, and he agreed with me.

And it’s not only the women.  Kris Kristofferson looks absolutely scary. 

I once was in a relationship with someone who, while not in prison, did do jail time while we were together and was just generally a slime ball.

I agree with the previous posters that the best way to get her to break up with him is to prove infidelity.  They can lie all they want about their criminal exploits and the women can rationalize it away.  When it’s something that is a blatant lie to her, though, it becomes real. 

They should see if the guards or an investigator of some sort can help them find out if he’s also communicating with other women, and get proof if possible. 

His name was Tom Tallman.  My family became friends with him through his son, Tom Jr.

Tom was a banker, but in his heart and soul he was a musician.  He played drums with a local jazz band for years. 

The funeral was in a beautiful Catholic church.  My dad said that this was unusual, but they let his friends play the music.  Jack played sax, and Warren played piano.  They were some of his oldest and dearest friends as well as bandmates. 

I don’t remember all the songs, but they played his favorite, which is also mine - a Jerome Kern song called "All the Things You Are".  I remember Jack wiping his tears away between phrases.  Hearing that music in a church was so beautiful. 

It rained all morning, all the way to the graveyard.  As we were walking away, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  We thought that was the way he would have liked it. 

Thank you, Shannon T, for saying exactly what I was thinking.

A friend of ours was dating a guy that no one thought was good enough for her.  He also didn’t have a steady job, among other "issues" and we didn’t think he would treat her well.  However, when her best friend tried to warn her about him, it ruined the friendship, so we all bit our tongues and said nothing. We figured this way we’d at least still be around to help her when he failed her. 

Boy, were we wrong.  The first indication was that he asked her to marry him, which no one thought he would ever do.  At that point, some  of us decided that if they were going to get married, maybe she saw a side of him we didn’t.  We decided, in other words, to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

They got married, and within a year of the wedding she got cancer.  He has been everything one would hope a husband to be in that situation, and more.  He proved our original assessment to be completely wrong.  In fact, now we’re all glad she married him.

The "issues" this woman describes are very superficial, and remind me a lot of what we thought of our friend at first.  (Now that we’ve accepted him, he is a friend.)   If you feel you are actually giving yourself cancer over this, than maybe you need counseling.  Once your children reach their 20’s, you don’t get to pick their friends (or dates) any longer. 

I love the Impressionists, it’s hard to pick a favorite as it changes regularly, but it’s pretty much always an Impressionist.

 I also like Hopper and Magritte. 

My husband makes me laugh every day.

Yesterday I also laughed at The Police playing around on their Certifiable DVD, and at a scene in the book I’m reading (Agnes and the Hitman) where a bride gets so frustrated by her grandmother and future MIL she dies her grandma’s dress hot pink and tells them she’s having a flamingo themed wedding in an effort to get them so upset that they would agree to her original wedding plans.

I am with Candace Bergen. The Kindle is saving books. The early statistics are showing that people who have a Kindle buy the ebooks in addition to paper books, not as a replacement. So Kindle = more reading in the long run. To me, this is the best part of the Kindle. If it makes us a more literary country, I’m all for it. I don’t have one yet, but I am thinking of getting one at some point for travel. It would definitely save space in my carry-on, as I usually take at least 3 books on every vacation.