Yes and no. At first, cellular phones were a luxury item, and then a nice toy. Now they're turning into something like a necessity. I'm a teacher, but if I didn't have Whatsapp and had to actually find a landline to call my clients while away from home, my job would be very, very difficult to do. I uprgraded my cell…

Oh, nonsense. If she's so opposed to Obamacare, she could do the principled thing and sought out other insurance options, which she hasn't. That would be the principled thing to do if she believed her own rhetoric. People have gone to jail for their beliefs: she can't go without health insurance for hers.

Traci Lords did porn when she was like, 15.

Yeah, I think you've got something here. Trump's faults are all lizard brain: hatred of immigrants, arrogance, vindictiveness, egomania, a love of luxury, of beating your adversary. Not everyone who voted for Trump acts as he does, but there isn't a human being alive who hasn't felt some of these feelings at some…

I don't know how left your politics go or which liberals you talk to, but I still think this is asymmetric, frankly. I think a lot of liberals liked Obama — or liked the personality they saw in him — very much, but that may or may not mean they agree with his policies. I have a feeling I'd like the guy if I met him,…

Good point.

No, the chess piece.

Okay, that was badly expressed. But there's so much time you have in life and a lot of books to read. I've never been drawn to Potter, for whatever reason, even though I thought "The Magicians" and "The Magician King" were just fab. I skipped right to the angsty teenage wizards! Maybe I'll get around to them…

"Today Is Gonna Be Mine" by David Kilgour, probably.

Uh, are you suggesting that RS's readership deserves anything but being patronized?

I thought that On Beauty was awful. It's one thing to play with opposites in sort of a metaphysical sense, but it's harder when you do it with characters in what's supposed to be a so-real-you've-been-there setting. Oh my! An erudite black conservative and a hip white liberal! A mom who's comfortable about sex and a…

Do not take the name Andrea Battleground lightly, for she shall end you.

I've never read Harry Potter because I fear that if I didn't like it, I'd have to tell everyone exactly why and people would find me unbearable.

I bet Thomas Pynchon is sorry he can't use "Manohla Dargis" as a character name in one of his books.

Well, I'd settle for some good ones, wherever we get 'em. I'd like to think white guys have a few good novels left in 'em, but then, I'm a white guy myself, so go figure.

The thing about the Corrections is that it ably predicted many of the ways that the current American century, then on the horizon, would suck eggs. I'm also convinced that many of the annoying tropes of the new century also have their genesis in that book. That either makes Franzen a prescient genius or an…

To be honest, I find David Foster Wallace unbearable, and the Twilight books are significantly shorter.

Yeah. God forbid some critic someplace say "you know, this isn't very good, is inferior to other works, and isn't worth your time." Where do they get off on having opinions like that? What do they think they are?

Huh. Interesting. After George W. left office, I figured we'd figure out whether he had gone back on his sobriety or was still on the wagon. Nobody's talked, and they've had time, so I figure he was well and dry throughout his tenure. You figure that someone will spill the beans and say that everyone in the Trump…

I'm old enough to dread my birthdays.