Wait, wait—let's go back to that toss-off in the parentheses. WHY??

You missed Top Secret!, which is as penetrating a spoof of Cold War Elvis Musicals as the subject is likely to get.

Assuming this is just a username/content gimmick joke? No?

Oh God—you're right! Someone, stop the presses!

I don't remember that, but it might be in there. I do have memories of a long scene toward the end where the girl is definitely starkers and tied down to a lab table.

OK be nice now kids or crazy daddy Ted will come down with his rifle guitar and shoot y'all.

He's done some good stuff. I'd especially recommend Pastoralia, and especially especially the story "Sea Oak" contained therein.

Wow sick burn bro!

Beyond all those quantum measurement paradoxes, there must be a very simple explanation.

Sort of both. The speech came flush with comments about that if I'd gotten myself into this position just coz we [self & fiancee] were having sex, they were happy to propose the possibility of "renewed virginity," which, believe me, is a topic even less pleasant to discuss w/ your crazy evangelical parents during…

Sort of both. The speech came flush with comments about that if I'd gotten myself into this position just coz we [self & fiancee] were having sex, they were happy to propose the possibility of "renewed virginity," which, believe me, is a topic even less pleasant to discuss w/ your crazy evangelical parents during…

Engaged! Wow, cool! Or, as my parents put it when it happened to me, "You know, it's still not too late to back out…."

Engaged! Wow, cool! Or, as my parents put it when it happened to me, "You know, it's still not too late to back out…."

Mr. Brooks is an entry in The New Cult Canon. [Serious pause.] So any criticisms are null and void for that fine film from the fine filmmakers of other such masterpieces as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. (No, really: same writers. But still not sure which is better.)

Tutu, definately—a la The Tooth Fairy, obviously!

This is a great new way to review fiction! "Beloved: My wife loved it, but she didn't put out. Zero stars."

He had been denied the usual honorary degree by Arizona State

I know, right? In his poem, Franco contains a phrase ending in a colon within parentheses, so it looks to this casual observer like a sloppy smiley-face emoticon without any parenthetical closure! Crazy kids nowadays!

"Sea Oak" is my favourite Saunders story…so good, in fact, that everyone who hasn't read it should follow this link (goo.gl/XtXqu) and correct that immediately.

My favourite is still Pastoralia, but Tenth of December is a close second, and probably technically speaking a more accomplished book.