How do you respond when someone is leaving a party, grabs the teddy bear she brought in with her and announces, “Oh, this.  Well, my daughter died and I had her cremated, and the ashes are inside this.  And I don’t like to leave her home alone on holidays.”

It gets worse.  Even though the daughter was stillborn, she’s been lugging the bear around for a year and a half.  And last year, she had a 1-year birthday party at a Beverly Hills hotel for the “kid.” The teddy bear was sitting at the head of the table, dressed up in partywear with balloons decorating the table and everything.  (This, of course, begs the question… what does one buy a 1-year-old teddy bear with a dead girl’s ashes inside?)

Yeah.  As one of my friends said, “Well, cross her off the list of women I might be inclined to ask out.”