I doubt Beneke Fabricators is publicly owned. What I understood to be happening is that Beneke is receiving revenue that it is not booking, hiding it from the IRS and the local tax authorities, and using it to provide under-the-table benefits to employees. On the other hand, Skylar complained last week about…

Fixed, thanks.

His softheartedness causes him to get high, which causes Jane to get high, which causes Jane to give Jesse heroin, which causes him to be unavailable when Walter needs him. I just didn't like it to be that convenient.

The line that made me laugh the hardest was when Paul Schneider was describing how the pit was already a fantastic park: "This is the greatest park I've ever seen. I wish we could turn it into a pit!"

Miranda at the Glass House
You're welcome, Ellen, and I look forward to being equally delighted and provoked by your choice, when it comes around!

Where were the hometown reunion montages? I tuned in to see Conway, Arkansas on national television, darn it all. At least Claire put the Simon Park bandstand on the map with her photo choice in this post. Thanks, Claire!

It's easy to hanker after a film version, especially during the loving description of the carnival acts and denizens. But it's so ugly, so dark, so unredeemed for so long. Could you really take Arty in the fishy flesh? Or in the CGI, as the case might be? I don't know that I'd really want to see a lot of what…

To me, Chick is the most effective example of seeing the other characters through Oly's eyes. She really feels for him because she sees how Arty is twisting his natural empathy for the usual horrific Arturan ends. But she has almost no energy to spare to try to protect him. I felt like I understood Chick much…

I knew that was an unfair characterization of Miss Lick … but I'm glad I wrote it, because you all have produced some much better descriptions of her project than I could have in a single clause.

There's going to be several more separate posts leading up to our live chat on Thursday. Hey, it's the first time we're trying this — let's wait and see how this format works.

Arturism perfected
Zack, I'd like to know what you mean by wishing Arturism had been "further developed." To me it's one of the most developed threads of the narrative — chapter after chapter devoted to it, the whole Norval Sanderson character dissecting it, Oly as obsessed with it as she is with Arty himself. What…

I found it very moving the first time she addressed Miranda in the midst of her narrative — a quick aside, just the name "Miranda" inserted into a sentence. The revelation of an unknown audience and an unknown motivation … gave me chills.

The fire and the twins' lobotomy both happened really suddenly, and the description seemed far shorter than the significance might have indicated. I was quite haunted by the fire, though, because that chapter starts: "Yet the day we lost it all was nothing special."

It might be interesting to compare the elegant description of geeking to the slimy and repulsive descriptions of Arty's act.

Poor Mumpo. Never got to have a personality. Though I was always chilled when Dunn described how he sucked all four of the twins' breasts flat … *shudder*

Noel's reaction to the range burner POV shot was "I had a glass skillet just like that in college."

Yep, he was shaving his head and rinsing off the razor in that brown rust water from the old heater. Erghghhghghrw.

I got a charge out of Robert Palmer's "Every Kinda People" playing during the party scene.

I checked everyone on my couch, but since there were no experienced tweakers on my couch, I went with cocaine. It kinda looked like that when Richard Pryor was doing it in "Jojo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling."

Tuesday. Noel covered it here: