I have a friend who walks her cat on a leash, which seems like a much more sensible way to let them explore the outdoors. Another friend has a cat who, when let outside (under supervision) will just very slowly and cautiously explore the area in the immediate vicinity of the door and then, once she feels comfortable…

You don't make your cat pay rent, huh?

I hope you were not too sleepy to pay suitable homage to her hunting prowess.

It's the toxoplasmosis. Cats are brainwashing us. For real!

It's too bad the president's only way of communicating with the outside world is through Twitter. But hey, that's what the framers of the Constitution agreed on.

Mike Pence is capable of rudimentary thoughts, and might even have developed object permanence.

No. This is not acceptable. Blueberries in bagels and pineapple on pizza were bad enough, but this is really crossing the line.

Eh, I can see being disappointed with that from the standpoint of the whole series, but at least "Endgame" was, in itself, a perfectly cromulent episode. "These Are the Voyages . . .", on the other hand, was bad on every level. As if being terrible in itself and terrible as a finale weren't enough, it even tried to…

A faster-talking Truman Capote is pretty much exactly how I'd expect David Sedaris to sound.

In other words, you'll be part of the problem. Have fun waiting until an ideal, rational electoral system sprouts up overnight.

But remember that it's not just a matter of winning or losing tomorrow (or in any of the special elections). It's the margin that tells us something about what will happen in 2018. A narrow loss and a narrow win are basically the same in terms of what they indicate about the electorate.

You're a continuity error? Watch out, there are Trekkies around here, and they look hungry!

The third season definitely had some merit, and was a solid serialized story overall, though not without a few bumps on the way. The fourth season was kind of uneven, but had some good stuff which was, unfortunately, entirely overshadowed by the terrible, terrible finale.

Did you ever notice that people who are black on the left and white on the right drive like this, and people who are white on the left and black on the right drive like this?

Yeah, the sagas of Icelanders are certainly different, and lack the mytho-historical appeal of the legendary sagas. And you're right, they tend to be more serious. I recall reading that the Bandamanna saga was probably intended as a semi-humorous take on Icelandic law, but if so the humor is not something that…

It's hard to think of a story that wouldn't be improved by the addition of a werebear.

Yeah, Hrolf Kraki is my favorite of the legendary sagas at least. Are you a fan of the sagas of Icelanders as well? I think my favorite saga overall might be Gisli Sursson.

I just finished Italo Calvino's Italian Folktales, which I read more as an Italo Calvino fan than a folktale fan. They were fun, for the most part, though their tropes are so persistent that by the last few you can more or less predict the whole tale from the opening.

Do you mean the Saga of the Volsungs? It's good, but there are better legendary sagas - if you liked it, try the Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, for instance. Also, the Nibelungenlied is worth reading for the rather different German version of (some of) the same myths.

Sounds like something he'd do.