@#23
Is THAT where they've been hiding Patricia Wrede? I never get through the entire alphabet in YA...I get a few letters before and after the author I was searching for and end up breaking my budget for books this trip....although in used book stores, I spend a lot of time looking around with fond memories, just tracing the spines of books I love (even when I have copies at home for my young one).

I love posts like this because the comments section becomes a shopping list. "Authors to try..."

I read a lot of Heinlein as a kid, and my parents channeled me in the direction of his juvenile fiction as much as they could. By the time I was reading his racier works I was pretty well prepared for it mentally.

@#15
I just picked up Johnny and the Dead in YA by PTerry also. My boyfriend read it and Wintersmith and enjoyed them. :)

~sheepishly counting the songs on this list that I really really like~

I guess I'll be checking out YouTube links at home tonight...

Werewolves do it with man or beast? By the light of the full moon?

Ninjas do it silently.

Amusement parks for your feet!

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2267873,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexology_path

I too go barefoot or in sock feet at work, often.

It's nice to read of a message of peace, but horrible for it to come in this context...I wish I'd read of her sooner. May she rest in the peace she loved.

I suppose it must be more satisfying to imagine shooting someone for idiocy when you can actually fondle your weaponry while doing it....

I am overwhelmed by superior geeky knowledge. Wheeee! Must have must have must have...

I'm just imagining my daughter, 10-20 years from now, reproducing some of her most adorable photos. I can't wait!

Sounds like a great addition to my library, and my daughter might enjoy (when she gets over reading Nancy Drew).

My pair of darlings will love these!

Vac beds are highly sexual for those with mummification and latex fetishes (while totally squicky for those of us with claustrophobia issues and immobility issues).

I'd get a highly charged sexual thrill from being able to put a partner into one of these, then tease and torment their body with the barrier between us, before moving on to more intimate tactile play.

I just wish I could see a picture of this NEXT TO A PERSON.

Dear Takuan
You have a fan. I just thought I'd let you know.

Adoringly admiring from afar...~E

Is there a link to a list of the Time top blogs? I went to the site and read the reviews of all the blogs, but can't find anywhere that lists them all for easy reference.

Antinous
I'm personally a penetration girl, but I also collect sex toys so I've got a wide variety. But I switched in the past few years to exclusively 100% silicone for insertables...
So I'm a big fan of www.tantusinc.com and www.tantusdirect.com

Bonnie - Mythbusters took that one on at one point. If you find their work to be helpful, anyway.

@Antinous
You prove my point. :) Length only matters for insertion. And while some vibro eggs have "tails"...a pretty popular vibe is this one:
http://www.beecourse.com/Products/Sex-Toys-for-Beginners/140/Dinky-Vibe/854/
No tail included (or needed)

And might I point out that you asked about the length in the first place. ~wink~

@Doyouthinkhesaurus - Grown up silly putty:
http://www.puttyworld.com/

Having lived in Alabama, I'm pretty sure Barry is legal for sale there. Though I can't speak to the actual laws, I can speak to what they sold at local lingerie shops and such.

It's too bad though, that if they don't sell it as a sex toy they don't have to use materials safe for internal use on humans. Phthalates=bad in sex toys.
http://www.babeland.com/sexinfo/features/sex-toy-phthalates/

@Antinous, #7
You said "At a measly 5" long, does it really matter?"
Depends on the girl! 5" might not do it for the penetration depth oriented, but since most women use vibrators on their clit - who cares how LONG it is? The question is how STRONG it is!!

They have 4 eyes.

There are days I'm ashamed to be a US citizen, and US citizens I'm ashamed are allowed to claim citizenship.

Congratulations -- you are ideally suited to be a Virgle Pioneer; so ideally so, in fact, that one wonders why you aren't already living on a remote South Pacific island, serving as a biosphere test subject, washing dishes at a North Pole research station during the depths of winter or writing a highly intelligent, articulate political blog. At any rate, we want you for one of our upcoming Virgle launches. You'll love it -- the pay is great, the view from the spaceport should be spectacular, and we're told that algae and spirulina actually start to taste good after the hundredth consecutive day. Anyway, if you want to give Virgle a try, you can submit your video here

#27 Antinous - you have to have a license in San Antonio, TX. Requirement to get a dog license? Current vaccination certificate and $20.00 for intact animals, $5.00 for spayed/neutered animals. That's yearly.

My dog has a license. Neither of my two cats has a license.

Also, sorry to hear about your acquaintances that are dog owners. :( My boxer, Duchess, is an indoor/outdoor dog, who receives much love and attention, baths when she's muddy, but walks rarely. She spends her days outside in the backyard, her evenings in the house with us. I wish all dogs got love and attention.

I just read an Asimov short story on this very subject (albeit, of course, spun out to the extremes a la sci fi)...

Good Taste

I really dig this dress, found on their website...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/2294164521_3a77dfd068.jpg

And this piece that seems to be made of nothing but the ends of suit sleeves...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3144/2294967252_8f58906424.jpg

@Nerdkiller #23 - Rare as it may be for strobes to trigger seizures, on a website dedicated to epileptics it isn't surprising that such an attack managed to hit it's "target" audience (optic triggered epileptics). And if you read the linked article, at least 2 users of the sight specifically attested to migraines and seizures attributed to the attack.

A local homeschool supply place has great "ethnic" (wide variety) dolls, including a set of adaptive equipment for dolls with disabilities.

I remember being impressed with the variety of dolls you could buy there, but I can't find the ones I'm thinking of on their website.

I think I like the hot dog levels better. :)

I know a hell of a lot more whores I respect than politicians...

It's gratifying to see not only that such positive things happen, but that they are being REPORTED.

This makes me furious. I have ~no choice~ about being in airports 3 or 4 times a year because my daughter lives with her father in Alaska. The ONLY way I can see her is if she flies to me (in San Antonio, TX). And because I'm meeting an unaccompanied minor, I go through security to pick her up, as well as being REQUIRED to go through security when I put her on the plane.

If TSA EVER tried something like this with me I think I would just lose it.

#31 Nick - I have jewelry that I wear in my nipples that I could do lovely things with, but they aren't exactly RINGS. Not sure I could hijack a plane with any of them either...although if I was allowed to use the contents of my purse I might manage something a bit more serious.

I just find myself worried about the consequences to unprotected orgy funness. Bad enough when one 14 year old ends up pregnant, but to have a slew of them, not to mention the STD cleanup later. Yeeesh.

I don't know I'd ever wear any of the clothes, the patterns/cuts don't appeal to me. But the prints/fabric patterns and the faerie purses appeal greatly.

Here here! (or is it hear hear?) Reads like a great moderation policy to me.

More books on my list of things to buy...thanks for the recommendation.

#54 "do you guys consider the string of hot female teachers who've been consensually banging their underaged students in the past 10 years or so, to be pedophiles?"

I can't speak for anyone else, but I consider someone to be a pedophile if they are over the age of puberty and act on feelings of attraction for someone under the age of puberty.

I don't know the ages of all of the students you are referring to, but I think my answer would be "I consider some of them to be pedophiles, but all of them to be guilty of crimes."

I'm absolutely flabbergasted at the sanity and reason shown on this thread.

From the BDSM/fetish realm I'm someone who enjoys consensual age play, and I'm used to seeing absolute knee jerk reactions to this topic.

Huzzah to the sane, reasonable, balanced postings of BoingBoing readers!

Want. At work. Desperately.

Oh, I would pay to see video of that meeting. Now I have a new "must have" set of books on my to buy list, also.

I continue to be thrilled at the tributes to Gary Gygax' passing, including hearing yesterday as my boyfriend installed an update for WoW that it was dedicated to Gygax.

@Teresa #129
I think your comment is unnecessarily harsh. It brings up a lot of thoughts but I can't take the time to compose them all at the moment and they are rather long winded. I'll post back when I have them all written down.

@Worlord - I don't think that arbitrary and reason are necessarily at cross purposes. Manners are arbitrary, yes. But if you take an underlying premise for manners (such as, the point of manners is to make people comfortable) you can then use your reason to figure out what "good manners" is when you see someone uncomfortable. It certainly is arbitrary what makes one person vs. another uncomfortable, and emotions and feelings aren't often based solely on reason, but that doesn't mean good manners isn't unreasonable. :)

I've often had a problem with cultural biases that have no basis in logic. Or, for that matter, biases that were once important but are now outdated but still kept around.

But please do understand, not all trans people are angry, and certainly not all the time. Some of them are exhausted of being asked questions all the time (just because ~you~ aren't asking them all the time doesn't mean it doesn't happen), frustrated by how insensitive some people can be, and might have a mini-rant to get out some of that energy. Or might have a crappy day and a question that usually elicits a ~sigh~ instead elicits an angry rant about insensitivity.

Every trans person I've known has had frustrating days and encounters. But they've generally only gotten ~angry~ at the kinds of things that make most of us angry: being denied rights, discrimination, an unexplained dent in the car in the parking lot...

Unfortunately, what gets publicized is anger and expressions of anger. You don't read a lot of articles that say "a transman today had a great day today" because that's not NEWS.

@WORLORD
You can certainly discuss whether you think it should be rude or not, why you feel trans people shouldn't be offended by it, why if you did it you would not intend to offend. But whether it IS rude or not? Nope, not really.

I've never felt that manners and politeness were unreasonable, although they are certainly arbitrary. But then I was raised with a belief that manners are inherently based on making people feel comfortable. Once you have that as a basis, most things that are considered good manners seem reasonable. (Note: I'm not talking about etiquette, which while similar is not the same.)

Now, why something makes someone uncomfortable I may not ever understand. (I don't get why it makes women uncomfortable to be asked their age. Their weight, maybe, but not their age.) But I can understand that what makes a question rude is the fact that it makes someone uncomfortable.

And honestly, no I wasn't assuming you did anything in the first place. The point I was making is that "I didn't know that was rude" is an excuse only until you know. Once you have been informed that something is rude then you can change your future behavior.

@WORLORD #114
You said "Except that I *don't* know that its “just plain rude;” in fact, I don't think it is, and I don't see that anyone here has shown it to *be* such. Repeating the assertion is not some sort of support *for* that assertion."

I don't ~know~ that it's just plain rude to ask a lady her age. Some people arbitrarily decided it is rude, despite the unrealistic nature of that decision.

Who decided? Probably a number of LADIES. Because it made them uncomfortable to answer the question.

Who gets to decide when personal questions are rude? THE PEOPLE YOU ARE ASKING THEM OF WHOM IT MAKES UNCOMFORTABLE.

Rude vs. polite, and manners in general, are very arbitrary and depend upon our culture. When a new situation arises then the new "rules" and manners dealing with the situation will be just as arbitrary.

But it isn't just about trans people. Asking someone you hardly know intimate details of their sex lives and medical history is considered impolite. Whether they are "normal" (cis-gendered) or appear to be abnormal (look like a transgender in transition).

Certainly it's natural for you to be curious. But it is RUDE to ask them intimate questions as long as they continue to be a casual acquaintance.

Does it mean you are TRYING to be rude? Certainly not. Does your lack of intention do anything to make the person being asked more comfortable? Possibly, possibly not. It is natural for someone to be curious? Definitely.

But now that you have been told, you probably won't thoughtlessly indulge such curiosity by asking a stranger such intimate questions in the future.

@TIM #127 - Consider your invitation shared. :) I'm posting the permalink to this BB article on my journal with a particular note to the hottest leather transdaddy I know to please read it and share feedback. :)

@Porori #55

You asked "As a parent, what would be a good way of letting your child know that you`d be accepting of their transsexualism?"

Raise your child not to be judgemental of other people. Explain to your child that bigots are wrong. Let tolerance, love, and acceptance overflow in all areas of your life. Tell your child that you want him/her to be happy and live in a way that shows you mean it.

Expose your child to transsexualism. If you have trans friends, treat them as normal people and let them be around your child. If you don't have trans friends, let your child see imagery of transgendered individuals, crossdressers, etc. and explain gently in age appropriate words that these people are ok.

My daughter, at 8, is very comfortable with crossdressers because I refused to tell my friends "you can't hang out with me when my child is here". I explained gently to her that when my friend T*** was in women's clothing, to address her as N***. When she asked why, I said that N*** likes to wear women's clothes.

I've handled other delicate subjects in the same manner (nudity, kink/bondage) by being frank, honest, and age appropriate. I am confident that my daughter will grow up to be accepting of alternate sexuality / gender identity because I raised her in a way that showed her it is an OK way to be.

I'm sure that you will do just great with your own little one.

JJasper @ #88 - I'm aware of what is respectful, and what reference ~I~ would use (the individuals' self identification) but not everyone has considered the issue.

Personally I've known far too wide a variety of sexual orientations, identifications, and genderqueers to care very much about pointing and saying "such and so is gay" or not. The only issue I'd be concerned with is whether such and so is attracted to ME or not (ok, or my daughter) and whether the attraction is returned.

Erm...so what are we calling gay?
Someone genetically female, psychologically male, who lives as a male, who likes women? Or the same guy liking men? The argument could go either way.

Gender pronouns can be a tricky issue, but thankfully most transgendered people make it simple - even when going through transition, they are approaching one gender as a firm goal.

It's even harder when dealing with a crossdresser - calling the CD him when dressed as a male, her when dressed as a female, and trying to decide which pronoun to use when speaking of him/her when he/she isn't around.

Most transgendered people that I know are not offended by being asked "How would you like to be addressed?" However they ARE offended when someone who knows them uses the wrong pronouns, particularly after the individual has been asked more than once to correct their speech.