Mine is awaiting a promised picture from my beloved. It has been under construction (yeah, right) since St. Valentine's Day. Just pretend it's an hourglass with wings. 

Kill this article with fire!

Calling on the editors to allow a non-CoC compliant is unnecessary. Convey what you will (as others have done quite successfully) without VIOLATING the CoC as this does not just once but every other bleeping paragraph. (See what I did there.)

Juvenile behavior 101: "But, Mommy, I'm not saying a bad word. I'm just repeating what someone else said."

No

My standard shtick in such situations is to ask the kid in a kind and curious manner (but a voice that carries nonetheless) what they're doing. It usually draws the appropriate adult attention (parent or store employee). If not, we'll chat about the cool but inappropriate thing he or she was doing/looking at/about to be devoured by... until something changes to make it a safer or better behaved situation. Curious kids are some of my favorite people. We usually get along pretty well.

Oh, yum! I'm in! If the meetup date doesn't work I'm still stopping by for the food sometime soon. Natty Boh rings!

In the words of  the immortal Louis Jordan, "Get your business straight, and don't be late, and set the date"

I was in Columbus a few weeks ago on a family run. The entire drive home was in a snow. Thank goodness my mother reminded me at the outset that no one, and she meant NO ONE, should drive that far at that time of year without extra windshield washer fluid aboard. Every 100 miles (of  a 300+ mile trip) I stopped to clear the headlights, taillights, license plates, and refill the washer fluid. I love my mom.

You're right. Not a discussion between spouses but between sweethearts. These things should be known, discussed, and agreed upon before marriage.

I have always appreciated people who knew they wouldn't be good parents, or simply didn't want to be parents, and stood by it. Better childless than to neglect, abuse, or completely muck up everyone involved. 

I've seen enough bad parenting and its outcomes to ever push anyone who had the slightest hesitancy about having children.

Oh, puh-lease! "Skyfall" is just a lounge song compared to the pulse-quickening "Live and Let Die".  Not to mention that the latter captured the attitude of Bond so well - "What does it matter to ya? When you got a job to do you've got to do it well. You've got to give the other fellow h***!"  - innocence is gone, attitude and competence is all.

Plus, the lyrics actually rhyme. Unlike "Let the sky fall when it crumb balls".

The Princess Bride by William Goldman is at least an annual pleasure.

Three Men in a Boat, (to Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome is reread whole or in pieces - though starting a piece usually leads to a full re-read - throughout the year. I buy used copies to give away to friends and fellow readers-especially fellow campers.

Most any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books with Sam Vimes appearing.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

The Flashman books by George McDonald Fraser

How far back do you want to go for comparisons?

- Are you rich if you have your own phone line, rather than a party line? Or are you rich if you have your own phone that you can carry in your pocket?

-  Are you rich if you can watch movies of your choice in your home? Don't we all have more available via the library or local rental or NetFlix than wealthy movie stars used to have in their oh so impressive home theatres?

- Are you rich if you have fruits and vegetables year-round? (George Washington had a hothouse for growing exotic fruit indoors. He was a rich man.)

- Are you rich if you don't have to feed the fire in the morning after banking the coals the night before?

- Are you rich if you routinely expect pregnancies to end with a live mother and children who live to adulthood?

- Are you rich if you own books (plural)?

- Are you rich if you can read?

Oh, yeah. I'm rich and I know it. Modern medicine, indoor plumbing, literacy and education for the masses... I'm rolling in it.

Worked with a fellow years ago who with his wife did an amazing thing. They worked with an adoption service as caretakers of newborns who were to be adopted. They took infants into their home and cared for them during the cooling off period where a bio mom could change her mind. After the magic number of days passed, the baby was handed over to the adoptive parents and all was airtight.

Newborn after newborn. He was always happy when a new baby was on the way. I was impressed that they would happily go through a month or more of interrupted sleep and diaper changes time and again and help protect against broken hearts. They had children of their own and wanted to help others.

Great folks.

Now you've done it. The pipes call and so I am off to re-read "The General Danced at Dawn" by George MacDonald Fraser.

Maccabee(agle)

I always thought, "I am but a man" was an acknowledgement of humanity. We are not perfect beings. We have feet of clay. But, oh how we can shine! Especially when we do it for love.

Layla - Great costumes! Clearly, though, you live where it's a bit warmer. We'll be in the 40's tonight when the trick-or-treaters are on the prowl. 

Hallowe'en is family and friend time - carving pumpkins, watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", assembling costumes (bats, mad scientists, pirates, construction workers, book and tv show characters) though the occasional store-bought or hand-me-down mixes in, and getting just the right blend of candy in the house.

"Halloween is the only remaining holiday that routinely draws people outside to interact with their neighbors." Yes!