Everyone needs balance.

"The work/life balance is one of many child-raising issues that men can sidestep (starting with actually giving birth to the child). Men get credit for staying at home. Men get credit for going to work. Women get criticized no matter what choice they make."

Read the whole Freaky Fortnight series starting here.

"Precious"

"I am so used to having two faces. A face that I had for black America and a face for white America. When Obama became president, I lost both faces. Now I only have one face. But old habits die hard, and sometimes I can't remember who I'm supposed to be."

Chief Justice = fashion snob?

"[John Roberts' college roommate, Robert Bush,] also remembers Roberts as a stickler for formality. 'When he was considering law schools, John removed Stanford from his list because the Stanford interviewer was wearing sandals and didn’t have a tie,' Bush said."

Sent by email for someone at today's Chief Justice Roberts talk to ask at Q&A. I hope they webcast this...

What every Facebook comment should aspire to be

"when i was a kid i was watching the news during a snow storm and they were showing people using all kinds of stuff to sled down a hill. they were talking to a man who was using a trash bag and the caption had the guy's name and underneath it said 'bag sled guy'."

On Atlas Shrugged

"I remember it being a good enough novel for me to read through it at a pretty swift pace but I always viewed it as being a surreal work of fiction with comic book characters (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) rather than anything that was supposed to change my life."

That's a comment from this VC post, which I admit I enjoyed.

Closing the distance between preparation and consumption

"My family, like most families, generally lives on the go, and we rarely get to have a decent breakfast in the morning. So most weekends I make twelve muffins (a different flavor each week) as breakfast for the week. I'm sure that someone, somewhere is scolding me for feeding my kid a muffin for breakfast. But here's what I know. When you make Mocha Chip Muffins, as I did this weekend, and see the ingredients going in--the copious amounts of butter, dairy and sugar--it makes you think long and hard about what you're eating, and what you should eat the rest of the day. It's one thing to know that a muffin is fatty. It's another thing to actually add the fat in yourself. Moreover, it's another thing to see the size of your muffins, and then see the gargantuan muffins that are sold in the stores.

Cooking--and really cooking from scratch--creates a consciousness about food. It creates a respect, an understanding of what, exactly, you're putting in your body. It's not that cooking is magically healthier. I'm not convinced that, say, my fried chicken has less calories than KFCs. But that isn't the point. The point is doing the actual work of frying a great chicken. It's actually having to see all the oil and eggs (depending on your recipe) used in the process. For me at least, doing that, has made it unlikely that I'll fry chicken every day, or even every week."

Savage Love does not discriminate against zombies

"A question in the spirit of the season: Can zombie sex ever be consensual? Because I think if confronted with a zombified Zac Efron, I might go for it if he were properly restrained. Can you teach a zombie a safe word? Does it count if it's "braaaains"? It's not necrophilia with the WALKING dead, is it? What would you say is the sexual morality of this situation?"

"The facts resemble a scene from 'West Side Story' without the music."

Appellant was a passenger in a car driven by Ruben "Whispers" Juarez. Also in the car were Ramon "Munchies" Guerra, Rodrigo "Crazy Boy" Menchaca, Carlos "Chuco" Martinez, and Mike "Penguin" Escamilla. (Appellant's moniker was "Joker.") All were members of Sur Town gang. Juarez picked up April Perce and Georgina (Gina) Martinez, who were walking home from school. Jose "JoJo" Lucero, a member of Colonia gang, was walking on J Street with his girlfriend and her niece when Juarez's car drove by. Lucero yelled "Colonia," and someone in the car yelled "Sur Town." Lucero and the occupants of the car made obscene gestures and hand signs connoting their gangs to each other.
-People v. Fernandez, 26 Cal.App.4th 710 (1994)

When courts take on street gangs, the results provide a good chuckle.

Appeals are fun

On arguing appeals against traffic court pro per (self-representing) defendants: "It's like stepping on kittens."

Deadspin is subtle

"Dan Snyder, you are fucking worthless. You are a tiny little sociopath who should be wearing giant old person sunglasses and running one of the Koreas. You fucking suck, and it seems you're more than happy to bask in it. The only thing you can do to help your team at this point is to walk in front of an oncoming cement mixer. Way to ruin everything, shithead. DIE."

(Thanks to our good friends over at PaytheMoneyandTakeaShot for that one.)

I love my mom

"Has anyone in your building got swine flu? Since your neighbors are mostly Mexican?"

[Hope she doesn't kill me for this one.]

I prefer pastrami, but still

"The number of Jewish delis has declined substantially, and the remaining few are in jeopardy. Can a federal bailout be far behind? Personally, I’d much rather my federal taxes go to preserve good corned beef than bad Buicks."

For the record, the deli in my first- and second-year dorm at Columbia was pretty delightful. I hope it's still around.

A man died, T-Rex!

"By we, I mean of course the membership of the People Who When They Hear A Story About An Avoidable And Crazy Death, Laugh As Is Expected Of Them And Then Make A Mental Note To Not Do That Thing Anymore. Our slogan is 'Hi, you are probably already a member of our awesome club!'"

He means donkey. (I think.)

"Last year, America produced 3.6 billion pounds of yogurt. It is unclear whether this figure even includes camel- and ass-milk efforts."

Roseanne Cash

"Brain surgery is not for sissies, in case you were wondering. I had 19 staples up the back of my head. My morbid sense of humor really got me through it. I went to the hospital singing, 'If I only had a brain.'"