Here's a heart-breaking post from a woman who had a blighted ovum, explaining it to her three-year-old daughter. I think she handled it very well -- I think that's how I would have wanted to handle it -- but in a post several weeks later she noted that her daughter had to have it explained several times before she really got it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:28 PM on November 16, 2008

Doctor Harbl. It's the nerdiest name ever because it references (a) Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog; (b) LOLcats; (c) Doctor Who, if only because we can refer to him as "The Doctor."
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:08 PM on November 10, 2008

One result of the credit tightening is that people are finding it hard to get mortgages unless their credit score is very good, like above 700 or even 750. I don't know how old you are or what your credit situation is, obviously, but it's something to consider. (Mine is lower than 700 only because my credit history is short, about two years.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:11 PM on October 19, 2008

"Lila the Werewolf" by Peter Beagle. It's been ages since I've read it, but the guy's a genius.

"Blood and Chocolate" is a very enjoyable YA novel about a werewolf girl who falls in love with a human boy. Another YA I liked is "Nevernever" by Will Shetterly.

The best source I've found on werewolf folklore is "The Beast Within" by Adam Douglas.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:53 AM on October 16, 2008

I have a tremendously long list of books to read. I think right now it's around 80.

Most of these are popular or award-winning young adult books that I think I should read to help me be a good YA librarian.

I had a lot of guilt over how many books I hadn't read until last year I realized that most of the much-hyped books that people were screaming over at the time... fell off the radar a year later, and it didn't actually matter that much... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 8:58 AM on October 9, 2008

You may get very lucky and find a used acoustic cheap; keep in mind you may be out $500 just with tuning and moving. Can you take a piano savvy friend along to look at instruments? At the very least play each key to make sure it sounds and doesn't stick.
If you go digital, you DO need 88 weighted keys, the ability to play loud and soft, and hopefully a sustain pedal. That will run you $500 at a minimum. But I'd rather play a decent digital than take my chances on a badly maintained... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 9:17 AM on September 19, 2008

My favorite YA novel of the year is "The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks," which is set in the present day but explores how the old-boy networks and patriarchal social structures persist despite nominal equality between the sexes.

I really admire Katherine Sturtevant's series ("At the Sign of the Star", "A True And Faithful Narrative") which is very honest and non-anachronistic about the social pressures faced by a printer's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 2:58 PM on September 16, 2008

I also have very large feet. I posted a similar question ... and what I actually ended up with, after a certain amount of trial and error, is a pair of Keen men's shoes. (Similar in style to these - they don't seem to make the exact same style any more.)

I love 'em. I can walk all day in them. They're the only shoes I've actually been complimented on!

Most of their women's shoes do go up to an 11, actually...... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 6:03 PM on August 29, 2008

Have you read Christopher Booker's "The Seven Basic Plots"? It's a heavy brick of a thing, about 800 pages, but it's written at a layman's level. One of the things it emphasizes really heavily is a 'comedy' as a story where the hero is able to successfully integrate his masculine and feminine aspects (which are personified as feminine characters) and a 'tragedy' as a story where this doesn't happen (the character is alienated from women and thus alienated from himself).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 12:50 PM on August 29, 2008

By the way, if you've never had a credit card or taken out any loans, there might not be anything on your credit report. I had some frustrating phone calls with the credit bureaus until they managed to convince me that I didn't have anything to report yet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 3:47 PM on August 22, 2008

I would not worry too much about formal reading instruction at that age. The best thing you can do to challenge her reading skills is read to her and make sure she has a ton of books and time to read them.

If she is bored, if she is restless, then it may be time to consider other options - but probably she'll do what generations of bookworms have done before her, zone out during reading classwork and then tear through books at home and at recess until she's reading even... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:24 PM on August 21, 2008

I think this may work better on a large campus where athletics (and rivalries) are a big deal, but my alma mater had a food drive contest with the rival college. It was a really intense rivalry, and they got quite a lot of food.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 2:20 PM on August 20, 2008

It doesn't get any more specific than this, from the end of Genesis 6:

You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 11:21 AM on August 17, 2008 marked best answer

I would recommend a book like Paws to Consider - it may help turn up some factors you hadn't been considering.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:07 PM on August 12, 2008

The first one sounds like it might be Paula Vronsky.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:58 AM on August 3, 2008

I've been hearing a lot about Skim, which just came out recently. It's about a girl who falls for her teacher at an all-girls private school.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:04 AM on July 28, 2008

I second Bardolph's advice. I'll add:
-Breeding time is good for songbirds. Migration time is good too, even more so for raptors and waterfowl.
-I've had the best luck right around the crack of dawn.
-You'll get more interesting birds walking around in the wilderness than setting up a feeder, even if you had space for a feeder. But if you would like to put a feeder up, you can get one that'll stick to your window.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:32 PM on July 14, 2008

There may be fora that are specific to your particular situation; there's a library_mofo community on Livejournal for example, for library staff to bitch. Most commenters are anonymous and lock their posts so that only community members can read them. (One commenter did get fired for his postings; he posted frequently and without locking his posts, though.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:02 PM on July 8, 2008

However, I don't think participation in any writing group would help me much unless most of the other members were much better writers than me.

FYI, and only because you're explicitly asking for help with usage, traditional grammar would have "much better writers than I [am]." I don't think traditional grammar is right about this, and I don't monitor it in my own writing.

Personally, I think that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 6:53 AM on July 7, 2008

I've switched over from LibraryThing to GoodReads, but they're both useful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:04 AM on July 3, 2008

Sorry, bad link. GoodReads.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:05 AM on July 3, 2008

I don't have an answer, but some points to consider:
"The camera adds 10 pounds" is actually true because of the way we perceive sizes in 2-dimensional images rather than 3-dimensional real life. There are some people who are very gorgeous in real life but who would be too heavy to be supermodels.

The AMA says that female models should have body proportions of around 34-24-34 and be at least 5'8" tall - once you exclude everyone with more... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 3:19 AM on June 29, 2008

These exercises have been helpful for me in a similar situation.

Squats, not so much - they put a little too much pressure on the knees.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:10 PM on June 27, 2008

It was just my personal experience that they made things worse rather than better.

Now, I had done squats in previous years without any problem - but not when I already had a minor knee injury to deal with.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:13 AM on June 28, 2008

Electronic dictionary, if that's in your price range and she doesn't have one already.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 6:42 AM on June 28, 2008

Your description makes me think of the band Hem. Funnel Cloud, maybe.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 11:49 AM on June 26, 2008

At my friend's friend's bridal shower/bachelorette party, we hung a piece of gauze up on the wall against a window and pinned butterflies to that. We also hung them from the hanging lighting fixtures.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 11:35 AM on June 26, 2008

The Spanish dub of Futurama has "Díselo a mi brillante culo metálico," which I believe translates literally to "Tell it to my shiny metal ass." I don't recall what dialect of Spanish is in the dub, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 6:57 PM on June 22, 2008 marked best answer

Please don't try to carry on a conversation with me if you are carrying on a conversation with someone else on your cell phone. It makes it really difficult for me to tell when you are addressing me and when you addressing the voice on your Bluetooth headset. (This goes double if you're talking to your doctor, or breaking up with your boyfriend.)

Please speak in full sentences. Okay, this is pretty much only a problem with surly teenage boys, but they will say things to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:41 AM on June 21, 2008

It helps me to acknowledge my fear/anxiety/sadness and just "sit calmly beside them" -
"I feel bad now. I'm worried and scared. And that's okay. I'm worried and scared because I'm in a worrying situation (or because my hormones are acting up, or because I got the kind of criticism that I tend to take personally, or whatever.) It's okay that I'm feeling worried and scared. But, it's just a feeling, and it's completely separate from whether what I'm worried about will... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 11:53 AM on June 20, 2008

On the order of $10,000 - $15,000; that's figuring 10-15 cents a word (I would be very surprised if you could get a good literary translation for 10 cents a word, but 15 might be possible) over 100,000 words. There are many, many translation agencies that can be found online, though literary translation doesn't make up the bulk of what they do.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:41 AM on June 6, 2008 marked best answer

If you have a good idea, people will say "That's a good idea" instead of pretending they don't hear it until a white male says it.

You may be interested in this list of privilege lists (able-bodied, average-sized, straight, male, and more!)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 6:24 PM on May 29, 2008 marked best answer

Bojangle's is fast food, but I'd consider them a notch above Popeye's and KFC -- in Bushwick on Broadway a little west of Gates.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 1:51 PM on May 29, 2008

Dog's Death by John Updike

Four-Feet by Rudyard Kipling; I LOVE it but at the same time find it somewhat too well-known/sentimental. But it's no Rainbow Bridge.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 10:06 AM on May 29, 2008 marked best answer

I moved to Brooklyn in January. I make a librarian's salary (~40K) and live in an inadequately heated apartment with too many roommates.

I'm a quiet, mousy person, who is made nervous by large crowds and casual swearing. Stupid decision, right?

I kind of adore it.

Remember that it's a different (not wrong, just different) culture and try hard not to take anything personally; and give yourself lots of slack in taking time to adjust.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 8:59 AM on May 20, 2008

Ratatouille in ramekins is very nice. You start with a little drizzle of olive oil, layer on thin layers of zucchini, onion, eggplant, bell pepper, whatever other veggies you have around, then garlic and a little more olive oil, and roast that in the oven for about 40 minutes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:14 PM on May 16, 2008

My ex-library has a nice If You Like Jodi Picoult reading list.

Alice Hoffman, Anne Tyler, and Elizabeth Berg are, I would say, on the more "literary" end of that spectrum, and Luanne Rice is on the more sentimental end. Anne Tyler would probably be my first choice - my own mother loves her books.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:29 PM on May 9, 2008 marked best answer

Someday This Pain Will be Useful To You
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 1:46 PM on April 26, 2008

A lot of potential epic series, or even potential trilogies, don't become series or trilogies because the first book doesn't sell well enough. Or the first book sells well enough, but the second book doesn't sell quite as well (Sometimes bookstores will give up on a series if book #2 sells even a little less than book #1). Often you'll see books advertised as book 1 of a "planned series," or "planned trilogy," but you have to allow for things not going as planned.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:51 AM on April 21, 2008

Oh, and I'll second Scott Lynch's series.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:52 AM on April 21, 2008

It might have been Nihongo Journal; it's apparently out of print now, but it's still possible to find back issues.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 9:36 AM on April 20, 2008 marked best answer

There's a J-rock band called Dark Moor that apparently did a metal version of Dies Irae. But it has lyrics.

Take a listen to this and see if it's at all close...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:25 PM on April 18, 2008

Apologies, that is the Battle Royale version.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:28 PM on April 18, 2008

I'm a terribly easy crier. Whether I'm depressed, not depressed, it doesn't make much difference.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I could easily have cried during both those discussions. This is what I would've been thinking:

a) Why does zeusianfrog want to prove so much that he's right? Does he think I'm dumb because I disagree? Does he think I'm a bad person? Does he think that his artistic judgements are automatically more valid than mine? Do I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:54 AM on April 16, 2008

I have recently come to the realization that I have been "self-medicating" my anxiety through a series of repetitive manual hobbies I've taken up since the age of seven: knitting, cross-stitch, studying Japanese (writing out Japanese characters far more often than was really pedagogically necessary), sewing, doing sudoku and picture sudoku, etc. What these have in common is that they keep my hands busy and moving quickly, and they require me to concentrate but don't require me to be... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:31 AM on April 13, 2008

It will vary a great deal from church to church. I've been to very high-church [formal, kneeling and incense] Episcopal churches and very low-church [informal, no kneeling, no incense] Episcopal churches and they can be so different you couldn't even tell they're the same denomination. Actually, that's not true, because it IS the same liturgy (although the wording may vary in places), but there's no answer I could give you that would be definitively true for all churches.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 1:43 PM on April 9, 2008

The rubric that I've heard and liked is 50% for essentials, 30% for fun money, and 20% for savings. If you don't have to pay for any essentials, how about taking 30% of your money for fun money and 70% for savings? That should be $100 a paycheck or so for fun, which seems adequate to me. On the other hand, if you feel deprived, even saving $300 or $400 a month will be well worth it.

If I were you, I would put half in a retirement account and half in savings for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 7:11 PM on April 6, 2008

People don't write gothic novels any more, but Mary Stewart's "Nine Coaches Waiting" is reportedly one of the best. (I read it recently and found it highly entertaining but also very dated).

Georgette Heyer is probably the best writer for genre romances, and "The Grand Sophy" one of her best books.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 4:20 AM on April 3, 2008

Let me refer you to my friend Marshall (hi Marshall!)'s account of Time Warner's services in Queens, NY.

I've had three, possibly four, service appointments with Time Warner since signing up for RoadRunner and cable TV, and all of them have been Internet-related. This doesn't even count the tech-support calls that were handled by phone. Each time I was told a different story about what wasn't working. First, the cable was too long and the signal was degrading over the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 11:23 AM on April 1, 2008

Do you have someone you can go to to vent when you've had a terrible day?

Do you have someone you can go to for emotional support if you find yourself in a genuine crisis? Someone you can go to for practical support?

Do you have someone who can keep tabs on your day-to-day emotional wellbeing, who will notice and bring it to your attention if you start to, let's say, fall into a depression?

Some people are close enough... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jeanne at 5:02 AM on March 30, 2008