:

E.J., I gotta say, thank you for going through all the stages of grief re: Rick Warren so I didn't have to. Here's the thing: Really, who cares. It ''sends a message''—nah, don't care. As Peggy Noonan said of Jeremiah Wright, I'm finding it hard to be truly upset about this one. Maybe just distracted by my upsetness over the questionable future ...

Today at the deli while waiting for my egg-and-cheese I found myself speaking in affectionate tones to the obese white cat that resides by the cleaning products. It was a strange moment, because for the first thirty years of my life I had a sort of borderline autism (Catberger syndrome?) regarding my relationship with pets. I've lived with many, ...

(Okay, Kim Kardashian would probably be a lot worse.) So, I hope it doesn't violate any unofficial policy to discuss times certain of us XX Factorians have interacted ''In Real Life'' because I am going to mention the fact that some of us met Eliot Spitzer on Monday night at the Slate holiday party. Not because I care if he's sufficiently sorry ...

Jennifer, I don't think my reaction to 'Gender Bender' was so different from yours. Ultimately I just found it unsatisfying. Because you're right: it's a problem both genders share. So why? What does it signify? And what can be done? About 10 years ago I took a class with the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who was in the process of ...

If there is a cultural phenomenon about which I can really do without the expertise contained within the average weekly magazine feature on the subject, it is the one about women who live in New York and drink more than they ought. Still, I am a female contributor to a female-centric blog, and women have savored women-getting-wasted stories at ...

Dear Mattel CEO Bob Eckert, Happy holidays! You're welcome! Background: Just over five and a half years ago, I wrote a story about something I found totally hilarious: It turned out the Bratz dolls, a multibillion dollar line of dolls with pouty lips and dazed barbiturate-addled eyes that emerged from nowhere to utterly excommunicate the Barbie ...

Not to, like, stereotype of course! The media is instructing feminists to direct our feminist outrage at Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell over a wholly innocuous especially for Rendell comment he made in support of a female potential cabinet member. Normally I would file this under the category of never-clicked headlines I call ''Media Doesn't ...

Sometimes I feel like I am the last sane person to insist on not believing the worst about everyone. I never believed Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country or faked her pregnancy to cover up Bristol's. I don't believe our economic crisis can be blamed on greedy jobless people who signed onto mortgages they knew they wouldn't be able to afford. ...

I'm with you, Susannah, on Alex Kuczynski and her (college-educated!) rent-a-womb. There are worse villains to vilify at a time like this, Internet haters! Right? Why does it continue to be so profitable for self-respecting media institutions to incite reader rage over harmless rich socialites who are not asking for as much as a penny of TARP ...

Numbers are supposed to explain everything that happens in the economy, and there are numbers that can help illustrate why a couple thousand people assembled in a Long Island parking lot were so hellbent on out-consuming one another that they were not above stepping on a thirtysomething overnight stock worker named Jdimytai Damour as he literally ...