Yes, DS and I both find it very relaxing. I often fall asleep on it! DH just finds it painful and can't use it (although he only tried it once, so he didn't really give it a fair shot imo), so I guess it depends on the individual. It is uncomfortable/borderline painful for a minute or so but then deeply relaxing. I guess with so many little spikes it is bound to hit some good pressure points. ;)

This movement is meant to eliminate any residual sexual discrimination, so on official forms the two options would be either Monsieur or Madame. Kind of like introducing "Ms" in the US was meant to eliminate sexual discrimination. You can think of it as why should unmarried men be addressed as Mister (not the term "master" reserved for 8-12 years old and younger depending on source, but at any rate still very young boys) yet unmarried women continue to be addressed as Miss, the same as when they were young girls.

Shakti mat.

This Guardian article features a simulation of how measles spreads depending on vaccination rates in the community: http://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2015/feb/05/-sp-watch-how-measles-outbreak-spreads-when-kids-get-vaccinated?CMP=share_btn_fb

Why those greedy bâtards! Keeping all those radish tops for their own soup! Unconscionable!

It occurrs to me that you might want to dedicate part of the first class to teaching knife skills. If one can't use a knife quickly and easily, cooking becomes a lot slower and more difficult.

I think I would concentrate on low-cost ingredients (legumes, eggs), mostly meatless meals and on utilizing ingredients that people generally throw away (off the top of my head, radish tops that make delicious soups but that usually are discarded). Also, thinking about soups, learning to cook without being bound to recipes.

DS votes funeral pyre. Of course, he also suggests an osteological analysis afterward, but I am of the opinion that beloved pets should not become science projects. I actually rather like the funeral pyre idea.

Either, but first I take d-mannose to see if I can get rid of it. I used to have UTIs all the time, but I haven't had a single one since I started taking d-mannose.

Martha to the rescue: http://www.marthastewart.com/275543/entryway-organizing-ideas/@center/276989/organizing#850786

Do you have a back or side entrance? Our entryway is small, but in the winter especially I am so happy to have one. We have some old gym lockers in the entry, but that doesn't deal with wet boots, which go on a tray filled with pebbles until they are unmessy enough to put in the entryway closet. Wet coats go in the bathroom to dry and then get hung up normally in the closet or else (for DS) on locker hooks.

I just posed the question to my husband and he immediately answered that it is VERY important. I agree. Most of our friends/colleagues seem pretty well-matched intellectually. I have seen mismatches when old rich men divorce their wives to marry much younger women, but I don't think in those cases that the men are really looking for *intellectual* stimulation. ;)

Oh, no, deadly serious. Most people I know say it as a joke, but I actually had someone try to argue with me about it not long ago. Nutters.

Hippressurecooking.com has good tips and recipes: http://www.hippressurecooking.com

No, I worry that people who don't vaccinate will cause diseases that were very nearly eradicated to make a deadly comeback. I worry that people who are unable to receive vaccines and rely on herd immunity to protect them from illnesses will die because people who can vaccinate don't because they are misinformed/misguided.

Huh? Target is not French! :). Not the word or the company. I hear this so often and usually people are serious (perhaps you are just joking though?). As for nutella, I had it first in Italy so pronounce it the Italian way. I was so excited when I found it in the US, it's a great ingredient. Sudden dinner guests and nothing for dessert? Mix nutella with some crème fraîche or Greek yogurt and call it a mousse - that one has saved me many times. ;)

Nothing exciting, but DS enjoyed Key to Geometry.

If it were based just on airports I would fly into West Palm, the most relaxing airport I've been to in a long time. The best food I've had in recent memory came from the strangest little place in Pompano Beach... It's actually situated in a gas station (!), but man, is the food good: Miyi La Cubanita on N Dixie Highway. Watching the guy open our coconuts with a machete, stick a straw in them and hand them to us reminded us of being back in Mexico. :) Closer to West Palm is the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, which is lovely and also offers kayaking and paddle boarding. But we only go down a couple times a year to visit MIL, so other than that (and really, you have to eat at the gas station!) I'll defer to the Floridians. :)

Not Dialecta, and I don't know about other European countries, but there has been an increased amount of emigration from France to Israel. In fact, in 2014, for the first time since the state of Israel was established in1948, France was the country that had the highest number of people emigrating to Israel. (6600 in 2014, also 3400 in 2013 according to Le Figaro http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/01/13/01016-20150113ARTFIG00119-pourquoi-les-victimes-de-l-hypercacher-sont-enterrees-en-israel.php)

LOL Just the kind that will cloud your stock, nothing harmful. When you roast the bones you are doing the same thing - getting rid of fats that will muddy your stock. When you want a white stock boiling the bones first is a way to get rid of the fats. :)

Absolutely. That is how a white stock is made. In the future you might want to blanch the bones to get rid of the impurities first, however. eta blanched for a white stock, for a brown stock you will need to roast.

The only thing that bothered me was the guy insisting that male pronouns and male examples be used. One of the reasons I went to a woman's college (and a female prep school for that matter) was precisely because I wanted to avoid having to defer to the male point of view. My college was part of a consortium and the graduate school was coed so there were sometimes guys in the classes, but still, it was a different experience being in a majority female school and IMO a very good and empowering one. I'd be fine with trans men as long as they knew who ran the show. ;)

I went to a bat mitzvah recently that had a slideshow, but it was run on the wall during the (crazily extravagant) party, not something separate to be sat through. Which was good, even if she was a very cute baby. The people that knew the girl really seemed to enjoy the pictures, so that was kind of nice. :) When my friend died at a much too young age, his family asked for photos and had a slide show going during the reception after the service. They also later mailed discs to all of us. I still haven't been able to look at it, but one day I will and I will be happy to have it. So, in short, no problem with slide shows. As long as no one expects me to do one. ;)

And for OP: I suspect these are urban myths propagated by racist and islamophobe sites to incite fear and hate. There are certainly "zones urbaines sensibles" in France, but I have never heard of zones that operate outside of French law.

A quick google search turned up this: http://christandpopculture.com/muslims-stoning-christians-in-michigan-not-quite-updated/ Sounds a bit more complicated...