I agree that his job is difficult and that he probably has to do a lot of predetermined shaping of his reviews, and I have recently defended Todd against unfair complaints in the comments section, but Portia is not a lovable character and Shylock isn't reprehensible. Really, the play is very complicated and full of…

Ripper:  "No, I mean when they tortured you, did you talk?"

Handsy, maybe… date rapist? I doubt it.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Pete."

I forgot Harry tried to pay a whore with travler's checks….

"… you know you can't work here."

Ah, many things this week:

Right? And Shylock is a very wronged man looking for what little revenge might be offered him in the one possible instance he could look for justice.

Pete looked around and asked himself:  "Who is the smartest man in the room?"

Can't read this review until I wrap my mind around a minor misunderstanding of Freud and a major misunderstanding of Shakespeare.

Marge:  "Oh, I wish I could just crawl into a hole and die!"

@disqus_ngu6Yzuu3T:disqus If it were a bird I would have tried to catch it for release, I'd try leaving a window open for a fly before swatting it… I'm not a monster… but it being a bat, I was afraid my pets might catch rabies.

@avclub-10002631234370cc43d1ef36d9fd2f5b:disqus  feel like I'm being argumentative without meaning to be… Sorry. I think we mean the same thing…

Even in these modern times one bigoted notion does not, of a necessity, beget another.

*Modern Office*

… not one person in that office is a sociopath. Morally bankrupt, maybe; narcissistic, sure… but not a sociopath. Mostly they do rotten things for a reason and they all seem to experience emotion.

… to be fair, very few people in actual existence are "really nice"

Each bigotry can stand alone or find company in the heart of the bigot. That Campbell supports civil rights does not, by itself, mean that he supports homosexual rights.

I had to kill a bat that had come down the chimney last year. I used a tennis racket. Picking the dead, twitching, possibly rabid creature up off the ground was…. terrifying.

… although I suppose his real mother probably worked in a brothel, too