This Week We Binged On Ex-Lax And Tyra

• We live video-blogged the premiere of America's Next Top Model, menstrual cycle 10! We got really meta and Tracie's dog peed everywhere with glee.
  
• We admitted the most destructive things we did to lose weight. Explosive diarrhea resulted.
  
• But Elle told us that dudes find 'rexy sexy, and we believe everything we read in Elle.
  
• The Sex and the City trailer leaked! Carrie gets jilted! So does Miranda! Charlotte gets knocked up! But does anyone really care?
  
• We put orange pits in our teddy bears' heads with Marcy from The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits

Welcome to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. This week, writer/reviewer/blogger Lizzie Skurnick rereads 'The Cat Ate My Gymsuit', Paula Danziger's 1974 classic about a sensitive, sardonic teenage girl with a few extra pounds and a whole lotta personality.

I feel bad for teens today. Their parents listen to them. Teachers are invested in their intellectual development and well-being. Books are published on their optimal care and feeding; violins brandished for their edification; trips abroad marshaled so they may broaden their horizons and spread this wealth to others, eventually spearheading their own microloan organizations and so forth. What the hell! That's no way to throw down.