It has been very hot. Two days ago I ate too much sushi.

This sounds great! I loved The Savage Girl and have been looking forward to this, so I'm glad this got a positive review. Also, Alex Shakar was my graduate advisor and he's a great guy, so you all should probably buy this in hardcover.

"Will you accept a collect call from a Mr. AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH?"

These books are great, you should read them.

I wrote Beverly Cleary once and received an actual letter in return! I must have caught her on a less busy day.

Hell yes Gordon Korman! I still reread the MacDonald Hall books (except for the last one) about once a year. And "I Want to Go Home" and "Who Is Bugs Potter?"

Sweet soldier boy…
(sniffle)

I love that episode too. Made me cry though.

I think that's more of a "sign that they had a sign reading 'Freak-Out '76'".

Hee hee hee.

Tim Lieder — I watched the second season of Angel for the first time a couple of months ago. I totally loved the whole Pylea sequence of episodes. Funny, harrowing, creative, sad.

Goddamnit
Free rein. Not free reign. The idiom is about horses, not royalty. Why doesn't anyone know this?

My thumbs are up for you as well!

I like that movie with Julia Stiles, but not Center Stage. We must have gone to different kinds of ballet schools. :)

Pronch
I laughed super-hard, in a public place, at the Erik Estada joke. I feel like that might not be something to be proud of.

I can't remember where this comes from (an online MSTing?) but I now always think of this episode as "Die Hard/ Die Fledermaus".

Me too, Donna. "Cheaper By the Dozen" also taught me the beginning of the Morse code alphabet:
a-BOUT
BOIS-ter-ous-ly
CARE-less CHIL-dren

Regular Gonzalez, I thought it was just me!

I met him at a conference and concur — huge dick. He kept flatly contradicting people when they tried to talk about their own experiences.

DJ Shadow
Endtroducing, always. Keeps a good mood going, dispels a bad one, provides good background for creative work.