Updike was more than nuts-and-bolts description, his volumes of literary criticism and art appreciation have more humanistic and engaging flights of fancy and appreciation of the human spirit than DFW ever achieved in his short career as a misanthropic depressive scold.

He doesn't completely suck, but he is vastly overrated, yeah.

It really was that unmemorable and uncharismatic. When I read that it's the #1 movie of all time I wonder if it's some accounting hoax. I've never known anyone who loves Avatar, or has ever mentioned it. It doesn't seem to get much love online, either. I barely remember seeing it, it was so unengaging.

Were your friends both with broken ankles parachutists or trapeze artists or something? Unusual to have so many friend with broken ankles at once! Did they get together and blame you as the common link in their misfortune?

Yeah. I was a bit annoyed with the media hype about it in 1997, but seeing it years later without that baggage, it's extremely well done, dramatic and entertaining, and Kate Winslet is a vision. It's a classic, up there with the best Hollywood films of the 20th century.

I love surfing dogs and people having silly Californian fun more than cranky sighing old fartboxes.

The taxpayers fund the BBC, so i can see the point of their complaints for mere newsreaders making so much. What's worse is here I think, as in: How the fuck does a vapid person like Matt Lauer make $20 million a year? When it seems any goofball could do the job? I gather the answer is, morning shows are hugely…

I love those goddamned dogs.

Now that you point out that blockquote, it's terrible and nonsensical. Why shouldn't Amber like fit men, jocks? How does that contradict that laundry list of contemporary liberal concerns the author churned out? It's that laundry list of current but rapidly aging buzzwords is why I'm pretty sure i'm never going…

Ha, I have been plentily annoyed over the years by the Harvard frat boy writers' room finding gay men and male rape endlessly hilarious, and i'm too drunk to fully appreciate your point. But it's okay.

Was just thinking recently: If I were a novelist I would stay far, far away from things like the internet, memes, social media. Or at least not overuse them, I would keep them minimal. Because the Internet is this nonstop river of news, memes, ideas and language, it never stops changing. (Currently, Maxine Waters'…

Chris Pratt and Anna Faris are legally separating. A shame, they seemed good together as a couple. I wondered about what sort of stress Pratt's new A List status might have on them, and now i guess we know.

I thought the joke or point of "It's Pat" was how it described the feeling of confusion when one meets an androgynous person. Not necessarily transgender. And I don't recall that Pat was transgender anyway, just confusing to people. In retrospect, maybe I could see how some might be offended, but Pat was created in…

Thank you, Chicago could be great I guess. But it doesn't even try, and I guess all the gunshot murders don't make it an appealing destination for tourists. Except the ones who want to see American decay and dysfunction up close. There's definitely an adventurous tourist segment who will take on the likelihood…

WE SHOULD BE ANGRY ABOUT THIS because, things and Justin Bieber.

Pizza you have to eat with a fork is not pizza, it's a goddamned casserole.

And fuck Boston. Ugh, Boston sucks so badly.

I accept your throat punch, I'm from the Bronx and can take it. We are animals.

Chicago is a great city that is resting on its laurels as a great city. It keeps telling itself it's a great city, but Chicago seems to do jack shit nothing to attract people to it, they are in competition with hundreds of other cities internationally. To attract visitors, culture, the arts. culinary events maybe?…

MM's Karen was the only bit I liked on this dumb bland show. Which has already exhausted itself in syndication, I don't know why people are hyped for them to do a tired revival. Original new ideas really seem dead in TV land.