Yes, I would try it again. Life Aquatic is also one of my favorite movies and I liked Fantastic Mr Fox a lot.

It's not "traumatizing" at all. There's actually very little onscreen death in the movie, it's almost comically gentler than your average all-ages action movie. We get a tale of what happens at Sandleford, and some abstract art realizing Fiver's visions, but it's mostly imagination. What jeopardy and violence there is…

I mean, eventually, there's going to be a dog loose in the wood, you know?

I'm much more confident in your recollection than mine. For each season, I watched the show, then caught up in the books, so I often mix them up.

Again, no idea where you're getting "strangers" from. You didn't say it and I didn't say it.

The shoe thing in particular drives me nuts because it affects me personally. Even at "good" stores if you look at outdoor activity shoes for men and women, the disparity is ridiculous. Waterproof trail runners? A bajillion options for men, varying subtly in fit and function, and, like, three choices for women, most…

I don't think that's the text, nor the author's subtext, but I hate what it says about what Martin thinks about sex and prostitution and sex workers, so I've always imagined something like this behind the scenes.

I didn't say anything about random strangers, solicitation, or "should," but it's true: another option is to be a dick.

Gratitude is an option.

This kind of thing is when I decided a long time ago not to be discouraged by negative reviews, only encouraged by positive ones. In other words, I'll let a positive review influence me to see a movie I might not have otherwise been interested in, but try not to let a negative review influence me to skip a movie I am…

I'm a sucker for the subject matter, they'd have to really lay a stinker to get me to not wait around patiently for the new show to hit its stride.

Can you do a "Michael Shannon," "Michael Sheen," "Martin Sheen" informagraphorial?

I fall behind when trying to count them up. I tried a few of 'em, but I rectum.

He's not a smart man.

Look, it's all a ruse and a cover-up, as you would expect from a professor of Symbology.

To me, there's always been a pretty stark distinction between Generation X, which was conceived in the Coupland novel as baby bust kids between booms, and (what he unfortunately called "Global teens") the children of baby boomers, which is what I am.

Mine is a simpler taxonomy: among superheroes, you basically have your Batmans, Spider-Mans, X-Mans and Supermans. Batmans don't have superpowers, and just have training and toys, so Batman, Iron Man, and Doc Savage are all Batmans. Spider-Mans have had something happen to them to give them superpowers, so the Hulk,…

It is basically unrealistic to have any kind of actual employment contract, with a termination clause that penalizes the employer, for a major (or minor) Silicon Valley company. The lawyers were talking about severance pay and termination clauses that accelerate stock option vesting—you simply won't find this in line…

It's okay. I've been amid mass layoffs many times for real, and for cockamamier reasons, and they always crack me up, too.

It's just you. People are vulgar in all contexts, times and universes.