From time to time, even our spectacularly intelligent, thoughtful and hilarious commenting community runs into a spot of trouble. That's okay! It happens—pretty much every four months or so, something here provokes heated feelings and words. (And often that's a good thing, in the end. Sometimes, less so, sure.) But in general, things are so relatively well-oiled here (sorry, that sounds gross?) that when there's some conflict, it's surprising and even upsetting! Upsetting to the feeeeeeelings. READ MORE

Were I more professional, were there world enough and time, I would hold off on mentioning this front page New York Times expose that blows the lid off the whole teenagers hugging "phenomenon" until I had something illuminating to say about it. But it's early, and I'm tired, and Jesus, what DO YOU EVEN DO ABOUT THIS? READ MORE