Dear Bitter Butch: When my husband and I were engaged he bought me flowers, huge amounts on my birthday (the day before Valentine’s Day) and Valentine’s Day. The other guys at work said he should stop making them look bad. I love flowers. He promised me he would keep doing it. In the twenty-one years…


Don’t Ask Alice: An Academic Advice Column By Way Of The Ladies’ Home Journal
Back in October of 2014, the AAAS decided to start an advice column for graduate students and early career scholars. This is possibly the worst plan ever enacted, not because the scholar chosen to answer the questions is lacking, but because anyone who has undergone a PhD program recognizes the incredibly dysfunctional nature of the…

Everyone Is A Jerk: Real Talk For Aspiring Grad School Students
If you’re thinking about grad school in science or engineering, you’ve probably read some advice columns on how to succeed and avoid common pitfalls. I mostly found the “feel good” type of advice – essentially, that if you work hard and you aren’t a total dick, your science career will basically be smooth sailing. Frickin’…