Good for you for doing this! I’m looking forward to reading your posts about it.

YES to not understanding the aversion to doggie-bags! When I go to a restaurant I like, I usually OVER-0rder just so I can have nice leftovers and a good lunch the next day!

DON’T CARRY YOUR PASSPORT! Make a photocopy of the important pages and carry *that* with you. Leave your actual passport in the hotel safe.

* Walk. Start at Centraal Station and just walk. Walk walk walk walk walk wherever your feet and heart take you. Keep walking.

Thanks for pointing out the (unfortunately very common) misuse of “starving”. I successfully purged that word in its non-literal meaning from my vocabulary (in cases when it means “very hungry”) about 30 years ago and it’s still a pet peeve of mind when people use it non-literally.

What if our server is wearing a name tag? Does that make it automatically ok to use their name without asking? It seems like it would, but it always feels a little creepy to me.

I read this while drinking a Dr Pepper in a glass, and looked down at the glass, and the inside is coated with Dr Pepper carbonation bubbles.

So now I’m wondering - is this all true for sodas as well? Or just beer? (I don’t think there’s any difference between soda and beer carbonation - but maybe there is?)

I had a similar experience last year. I knew about the three month buffer before flying though, so I was just trying to get my passport two weeks before leaving.

For ME, the collections “Pastoralia” and “In Persuasion Nation” are the two standouts. In particular, the story “Pastorialia” and the story “Jon” (from Persuasion Nation) are my two favorite short stories of his. “Victory Lap” is definitely in my top ten though.

“Red Bow” (from Persuasion Nation) and “Exhortation”…

I more or less agree with you. I’m a giant Saunders fan, and I’d put Bardo only at about fourth or fifth in his pantheon. My favorite collections of his are Pastoralia and In Persuasion Nation, and my favorite two stories are Pastoralia and Jon (the latter found in the Persuasion Nation collection).

I’m writing this…

Josh Modell: you wrote

“Big chunks of the book are from historical source material—some
real, some made up”

Saunders has said in interviews that all the “historical source material” is real. Early reviewers seemed to assume that some were fake and some were real, and everyone repeats that now like it’s fact.

Agreed, 100%.

I partially agree with your fourth rule:

The fact that Adam Horovitz announced publicly that he stood with the women accusing his father SO quickly after the allegations were made makes me think he and his Dad have some father/son issues they need to work out.

1) Magnolia
2) The Master
3) Boogie Nights
4) Punch Drunk Love
5) Inherent Vice
6) Hard Eight
7) There Will Be Blood

Three notes:

1) I’m predisposed to like PTA because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, like he did (and where Magnolia, BN, and PDL were set).

2) Magnolia was named, in part, after Magnolia Ave. I grew up a…

1) Magnolia
2) The Master
3) Boogie Nights
4) Punch Drunk Love
5) Inherent Vice
6) Hard Eight
7) There Will Be Blood

Three notes:

1) I’m predisposed to like PTA because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, like he did (and where Magnolia, BN, and PDL were set).

2) Magnolia was named, in part, after Magnolia Ave. I grew up a…

I’m white. Are pesto (paragraph four) and avocados (final paragraph) white things? If so, why don’t black people eat pesto or avocados? Just curious.

Well, they didn’t ban me, but they *did* remove my post, and gave me a strong warning about community standards.

I just posted “Men are Scum” on Facebook, along with a comment to my friends with a link to this article and an explanation about why I posted it. I also asked my friends to please flag my post.

I’ll report back on the results.

Not sure the current sexual-political climate is going to hit Armisen. As I understand it, he’s a garden-variety womanizer. And somehow that seems to still be ok.