OK... my current wish list is quite boring - some spray-on travel sunscreen to take on my bike and a case of a new flavor of catfood because we tried one can and everybody liked it (and that NEVER happens.)

But I just had to mention this... I heard a story on the news that there's some crazy new fad where kids are putting Burts Bees lipbalm on their eyelids to get high. I kid you not... this is a real thing... just Google "Beezin". Apparently it can cause blindness, so I hope you're usin' that stuff on your lips only! :-)

Well, this is an enormous topic where I, once again, have a rather quirky perspective. I have very fair skin and burn easily. As a child growing up in the 70's - sunscreen wasn't quite as advanced as it is today, so my parents didn't allow me to wear anything that showed much skin. Even in the swimming pool I had to wear a shirt over my bathing suit. I know modesty was not the primary goal, but somehow the net effect was that I ended up feeling EXTREMELY uncomfortable about my body in general. Seriously, I was well into my 30's before I could emotionally handle wearing shorts or sleeveless tops.

It seems to me that what the whole thing boils down to is that many, MANY cultures have not quite figured out a way to be at peace with female sexuality... or, more likely, human sexuality in general. But the thing is, sexual feelings don't just go away when you repress them, instead they tend to get bigger, and feel more out of control and "dangerous", which just leads to all sorts of crazy stuff.

I don't have any answers here, but I don't think that demonizing female bodies or female sexuality is terribly helpful.

One other anecdote. A friend of mine rented her basement out to a Saudi Arabian exchange student. He got along great with her family, so a few years later when he wanted to bring his bride (an arranged marriage sort of thing, I think) over to live with him, my friend agreed. Well... the bride had grown up in a society where it was totally unacceptable to be seen by a man outside of her immediate family unless she was wearing a full birka. As you might imagine, this made life a tad bit complicated for my friend's husband! Anyhow, the part that was most interesting is that it was perfectly OK for my friend to see her without the birka, and what my friend found very strange was that when she (the bride) was hanging out she wore INCREDIBLY skimpy and provocative clothing. I'm not quite sure I can wrap my brain around all of the contradictions. I think the take away message is that men can somehow not be held responsible for their own actions/responses where female bodies are concerned? It makes no sense to me.

Hmmm... this might be a duplicate comment - not sure if it "took" so I'm trying again. If it is a dupe, please feel free to delete it.

I've sorta got the opposite experience from a lot of folks. I was raised as a strict atheist. My father, who was raised Catholic, has very bitter feelings toward the church and toward religion in general. My mother was never the hostile atheist that my father is - she always said that she thought religion and God were nice concepts that people believed because it made them feel better, but that they weren't really true. Sorta like Santa Claus.

But the thing is... my entire life I didn't quite believe my parents. Of course, I didn't believe the Christians around me either. What I did believe was in the whole idea of reincarnation and karma - even though I'd never heard the words or been taught about them. This was all very upsetting to my parents, so I quickly learned to keep quiet about it. But when I got older and learned about Buddhism it was an epiphany. I couldn't believe there was actually a religion out there that believed what I had always "known" to be true! At any rate, these days I consider myself to be what you might call an "armchair Buddhist". I don't really meditate, and I certainly don't participate in a religious community, but I'm definitely a spiritual person and I generally believe the things that Buddhists believe.

I have mixed feelings about religion in general though. While I believe that we are "spiritual beings having a human experience" rather than "human beings having a spiritual experience" I also believe that organized religion can be a scary thing. The opportunities for abuse are innumerable, and I think that far too often people use their religion as a stick to hit other people over the head with. And don't even get me started about the intolerance and that's built right into the fabric of so many faiths.

So... I guess I'm conflicted like everyone else... just coming at it all from a different perspective. I'll be very interested to read your upcoming posts!

Wow... boarding school... not something I even have a mental picture of except maybe for Harry Potter. The plate thing totally cracks me up - do you suppose that top plate ever got washed?

One year in college I lived in one of the oldest dorms on campus - like over 100 years old. Anyhow, the plumbing left a bit to be desired. So if you were taking a shower and someone flushed the toilet, all of the cold water would disappear from the shower and scald whoever was in there. It took me a while to train myself out of the habit of yelling "flush!" at the top of my lungs after using the toilet! :-)

Eee Gads! I think that's a much of a comment as I can muster!

Gosh... I think I'd be overjoyed if I accomplished even one of the things on your list! My goal for 2014 is to sleep more (or at least sleep earlier!)

I actually don't use a heater with my waterbed - instead I have about 3 inches of old blanket & comforters that make a nice insulated pad. I LOVE It.

Anyhow, the deal with latex is that it is something that people quite often develop allergies to - your risk of becoming allergic increases with exposure and people like me who are prone to allergies in the first place are the most susceptible to developing it. Apparently it's an allergy that you really, REALLY don't want to have if you can avoid it because latex is used so frequently in hospitals and medical situations - so it can be quite dangerous if you ever have to be hospitalized.

Plus... latex mattresses are essentially like foam rubber - and I can't really imagine that being comfortable. I can't even stand to use a foam mattress pad on my waterbed because it just doesn't breathe and makes me sweat.

Thanks for the tip on Ikea mattresses. If I ever decide to go back to a standard mattress I'll try them. Do you know if they use the bromine flame retardants in their stuff?

One source of phthalates that I haven't figured out how to deal with is my waterbed mattress. I think it's outgassed the worst of it by now, but it still concerns me. I thought about getting a regular mattress instead - but then there are the flame retardants... plus, I've never been able to sleep well on a regular mattress. So I thought about a laytex mattress, but my allergist said NO WAY. In theory they make phthalate free waterbed mattresses, but last time I replaced mine they were only available in Europe. Maybe I should get an old-fashioned feather bed or something!

Eee Gads! Perhaps some further research is in order. I always thought it came from the mineral just being in the soil, and I remember something about it being it tea. CatMan grew up in Colorado Springs where there is a LOT of fluoride naturally in the water and he's never had a cavity in his life - which he attributes to the fluoride... but you have certainly given me pause... nuclear waste?!? Yikes!

I'm actually in the "fluoride is good for teeth" camp, so I would like to find a toothpaste solution that contains it. Maybe that means I just need to stick with commercial toothpaste for sensitive teeth - truth be told, even that hurts my teeth some days!

Not sure how I feel about fluoride in water. I don't believe that it's a communist plot, and I'm up in the air about whether it's good or bad for you. Seems to me that if there is some concern about fluoride it would be better to have it in toothpaste, that you don't swallow, than in drinking water that you do. Still... it's not one of the things that has made it onto my list of things to worry about.