Blog Posts by Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff

Photo: Getty Images/PhotonicaYou can now officially add "plumbing problems" to the list of things that a woman's period is blamed for.

That's according to at least one dodgy San Francisco landlord, who has been harassing a female tenant for allegedly causing his plumbing system to go all out of whack, and demanding that she hang a "Do Not Flush Tampons" sign in her personal bathroom.

"The building has some plumbing issues for which I have been repeatedly blamed (they have been going on since I moved in)," the tenant wrote to the San Francisco Appeal's Tenant Troubles column Wednesday, prompting Jezebel to pick up the tale.

"My landlord has started calling me once or twice a week to tell me how I have caused the problem and how stressed I am making him," she wrote. "I've been told I am using too much toilet paper, that grease has been leaking out of the pipes when the plumbing backs up, and other disgusting things that I'd rather not include."

That's when she was instructed to hang said sign over her toilet. "Can

Read More »from Why are our Periods Blamed for Everything? Plumbing Problems are Latest Menses Fallout.

Give peace a chance, girl! M.I.A. in 2012. Photo: Getty Images/Larry BusaccaIt may finally be time for M.I.A. to shut down her Twitter account.

Her past Tweet battles have had her embroiled in controversy with folks from the New York Times to Sri Lankan nationalists. But this one veered into weirdly personal, disturbing territory, with the rapper losing her shit about the custody battle with her ex over her 4-year-old son Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman.

“BEN you cant take my son away from me… Just because you have money doesnt mean you have the right…” she Tweeted, naming her ex-fiance, Seagrams heir Ben Bronfman, who reportedly has a net worth of $100 million. “THE BRONFMANS WANT TO TAKE MY CHILD AWAY FROM ME. WHAT KIND OF S- IS THAT? THEY NEVER SEE HIM.”

She added: “Every child needs the MOTHER , I GREW UP WITHOUT A DAD . If grew up without my mother i wouldnt be here.”

Her Tweets were taken down within a half hour of being posted, but had already been recorded by a handful of outlets, including Radar Online.

The Twitter account of Bronfman, meanwhile, a Read More »from M.I.A. May Want to Disappear from Twitter; Latest Rant Makes Child Custody Battle Public

Pope Francis I. Photo: Getty Images/Christopher FurlongThe Catholic Church introduced its new pope Wednesday—Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, of Argentina, who chose the name Pope Francis I.

He's the first Jesuit and first Latin American pope ever, and known for a few key facts: He's an advocate for the poor, prefers public transportation over chauffered limos, opposes abortion and euthanasia, and thinks that gay marriage and gay adoption are the work of Satan (though he once visited a hospice where he washed and kissed the feet of a dozen AIDS patients).

Oh, and there's this: In 2005, a human rights lawyer apparently accused him of conspiring with the military-led government to kidnap two Jesuit priests because of a difference of opinion on how to respond to the new dictatorship; no evidence ever surfaced.

Jo-Renee Formicola, political science professor at Seton Hall and Catholic Church expert, offered this nugget of hope while commentating on ABC News via Yahoo.com: “Jesuits have notoriously been critics of the church,” as well as

Read More »from We Have New Pope. High-Profile Ladies Weigh In.

Hannah Simone. Photo: Getty Images/Jon KopaloffOn “New Girl,” Cece is a woman who says what she means. And Hannah Simone, the actor who plays her, doesn’t mince words, either—especially not in a recent interview, when she’s very clear about unacceptable terms for her body type.

More on Shine: "Perfect Woman" Weighed 171 Pounds

“Curvy is just a polite way of saying fat. And I’m not,” Simone notes in excerpts of an interview attributed to the April issue of the Canadian women’s magazine Glow, as picked up around the web. “Curvy and voluptuous—that one also got dragged through the mud, that poor word. It really just means a woman with breasts. [But] I’m confident with my body.”

More on Yahoo!: Zooey Deschanel: People Obsess About My Style

Simone, the 32-year-old former model and current co-star of “New Girl” alongside Zooey Deschanel, also talks about feeling grateful to the show’s creator and executive producer Liz Meriwether.

“I remember thanking Liz, and saying, ‘You’ve no idea what you’ve done, that you’ve put this Indian actress in

Read More »from Whatever You Do, Don’t Call Hannah Simone 'Curvy.' Got It? Good.

With the exception of Chelsea Handler's measly (but awesome) half-hour show, late-night talk remains a good ol' boys club of shameless, boyish hosts who can't get enough of their hotties in the hot seat. And believe us: Jay Leno's crazy-flustered "Interview" with Halle Berry Monday night was just the latest in a long line of offenses.--Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff

The royal couple. Photo: Getty Images/IndigoRoyal officials have been given the go-ahead to make improvements to the likely future country home of Prince William and Kate Middleton, it was reported Tuesday.

More on Shine: Kate Middleton: Royal Pregnancy Mysteries, Solved

News that the royal couple would likely be gifted the Sandringham Estate mansion Anmer Hall was reported in January by the Telegraph. And now approval of plans to improve it have come just as another overhaul, at the royal couple’s Kensington Palace home, nears completion.

While some of the planned work is needed to update the ancient structure of Anmer Hall, much of it is meant to better shield the expecting Duke and Duchess of Cambridge from public view.

More on Yahoo!: Prince William and Kate Middleton "To Be Given Country Home by the Queen"

“Privacy, obviously, is huge,” royal expert Victoria Arbiter told Yahoo! Shine, noting that it’s still “all speculation” that this home is indeed for the young couple. But if it does wind up being the case, she said, the

Read More »from William and Kate's Assumed Country Home Gets OK'd for Renovations

Erin Callan. Photo: Lehman Brothers via NYU LawFormer Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan joined in the ongoing public debate on work-life balance this week, telling the world she had regrets over the sacrifices she made for success, and prompting renewed buzz on the topic. 

More from Shine: Sheryl Sandberg on Women, Work and the Need to "Lean In"

“I can’t make up for lost time,” she wrote in a Sunday New York Times opinion piece, “Is There Life After Work?” In it, Callan, who resigned as CFO in 2008, describes how work always came first for her, often at the expense of family, friends and her marriage (which eventually ended in divorce). It also got in the way of her starting a family, though she is now remarried and has stepchildren.

“I missed having a child of my own,” she writes. “I am 47 years old, and Anthony and I have been trying in vitro fertilization for several years. We are still hoping.”

More from Yahoo!: Survey Shows Telecommuting Provides Better Work/Life Balance

Reactions to her piece have been thoughtful and numerous,

Read More »from Former CFO Erin Callan Regrets Not Having Children, Reignites Work-Life Balance Debate

"I wanted people to see how I felt," Cioffi-Petrakis said of the video she made (see bottom of post for full video). Photo: Elizabeth Cioffi-PetrakisA Long Island mother of three has become a postnuptial hero, after a prenup nearly cost her everything. In a landmark case, Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis, 39, won an appeal overturning a bizarre premarital agreement with her millionaire husband. Now she says she may be entitled to half of her ex’s worth when their divorce becomes final.

The win, say matrimonial law experts, is huge.

More on Shine: What I Wish I Knew Before I Got Divorced

“This is unprecedented in the family law world,” celebrity divorce lawyer Vikki Ziegler told Yahoo! Shine. “This is a landmark decision that will likely be litigated a great deal in the future in similar cases for those who feel their prenups are unconscionable.”

So how did it happen?

“I won it because I pretty much did it myself,” Cioffi-Petrakis told Yahoo! Shine. “I had three prior attorneys who messed up my case big-time. And I was pretty much dead in the water until I got educated.”

More on Yahoo!: Why You Should Say "I Do" to a Prenup

To win the case, Read More »from Wife of Millionaire Wins "Unprecedented" Case to Overturn Prenup Agreement