I just impulsively gave up alcohol for Lent this year as an excuse to get out of going to a wine club (as opposed to just being like, "sorry I don't wanna"). I might actually try to stick with it, because I could use a drying out anyway.

What got me out of my Ayn Rand phase was reading "The Passion of Ayn Rand," and gradually realizing just how fucked these people were. "Ouroboros of fuckery" is right.

I didn't know much about Devers Branden, a.k.a. sister-wife #3 of Nathaniel Branden, which prompted me to read this: http://mol.redbarn.org/objectivism/Writing/Nathan... This is an account of the time 3rd sister-wife goes to confront the ol' Aynster, like something out of General Hospital:

"I wanted to cut that off, so I stood up and said I was thirsty and did she mind if I helped myself to a drink of water or juice. Then I walked into the kitchen. 'What are you doing?' she cried, following me. I opened the refrigerator, located a glass, and was pouring myself fruit juice. She protested that I was a guest in her house and that if I wanted juice, she would serve it to me. I told her I didn't want to bother her. She could see that all her shouting meant nothing to me."

Who even *are* these people? Who does shit like that? Oh, right, totally *self-reliant* Uber-mensch type people.

Yep yep yep, relate so hard to this article. I have yet to come up with a good strategy for dealing with the mildly racist comment, because you're right, there is just no way to win - you're either a party pooper or a coward who let racism happen unchecked. I might try the "what do you mean?" tactic because it beats just getting up and leaving, which has heretofore been my thing.

Y'all - long time lurker, never commenter, but fear is driving me to type a thing. Is there a slasher on the loose, picking off all the indie news sites? Should we be scared for The Toast?

sucks about the UTI! But what a good pumpkin idea. I can't believe I didn't think about that. I'm over here drawing Hamilton stars like I did Smashing Pumpkins hearts when I was in middle school...

One of my coworkers does this, and one day I just snapped at him and asked "where are your verbs?!"