Today in mildly surprising revelations: Bender is older than Jon Stewart Happy 62nd birthday to this guy

“If she is developed enough to be menstruating and become pregnant, and reached sexual maturity, she can safely give birth to a baby.” –a “pro-life” ob-gyn who thinks it’s fine to force a 9 year old to go through childbirth #SB8 nytimes.com/2021/11/26/hea… Not to mention that a nine year old who is pregnant was likely raped by a family member

The time my brother and his friend found the Muzak volume control knob at the little bank where he cashed his occasional paychecks. He was such a great writer. He dropped out of high school early and learned to write by reading. backfromheck.blogspot.com/2009/12/if-you… I was a big sister for 49 years and two weeks. It was part of my identity. My brother died suddenly this week—a drug overdose—here in Minneapolis, where he’d recently returned. #IYKYK

Gross brand of paternalism perfected by Minnesota’s anti-abortion lobby. Physicians have to comply upon penalty of law, looking a rape survivor in the face and claiming that her rapist will pay child support if she decides not to have an abortion.

https://twitter.com/unrestrictmn/status/1330911486693187598

Or this: you and your husband are raising three kids and you don’t want a fourth, but have a birth control slip-up. When you make your abortion appointment, the physician is obligated to tell you that your husband will be on the hook for child support if you change your mind.

“I was planning a bachelorette party in Los Angeles for 14 girls...” The opening sentence in this week’s “Travel Troubleshooter” is SOMETHING. And @chriselliotts is losing his patience with these people. First, WHY ARE YOU BOOKING A PARTY FOR FOURTEEN PEOPLE DURING A PANDEMIC? And second, if they are still girls, are any of them actually old enough to get married?

How it’s going Every day I open the paper to COVID graphs and I just keep thinking about the intense grief I experienced (and sometimes continue to feel) when my grandmother died in 2018, then try to fathom that multiplied by the thousands. What people are going through is unfathomable.

My google calendar reminds me that 22 years ago, on Friday, October 23, 1998, a "pro-life" sniper shot and killed physician Barnett Slepian through his kitchen window. Dr. Slepian, 52, had just returned from his father's memorial service at his synagogue and was heating up soup. Dr. Slepian's family was in the next room when he was murdered. He was an ob/gyn and was scheduled to cover deliveries for another physician that weekend. nytimes.com/2006/01/22/mag…

Happy Birthday to Joycelyn Elders, who was 60 years old when President Clinton appointed her Surgeon General of the U.S. and 61 when he made her resign because she spoke the truth as Surgeon General. She's 86 years old today. "I think there should be laws against stalking physicians who perform abortions. We don't allow people to stalk people for anything else. Why permit them to stalk doctors just because they are doing abortions?" — Joycelyn Elders, January, 1994 nytimes.com/1994/01/30/mag…