I wondered if that was some running gag, actually — is it that he can't do a trilled "r" or that the pronunciation got Anglicized over time? That happens.

There is some of that. But take a look at who the leaders of various countries are, and what a gigantic deal it was that Evo Morales was elected in Bolivia — a country where something like a quarter of the population is indigenous. He looks a lot less white than the leaders of Chile or Argentina or for that matter,…

True, I've not watched the show in years and little of that, so I am missing a lot of its evolution. I as thinking more the stereotypical stuff like Raj — but you're right.

This. There's two currents you might be seeing: one is an anti-intellectual streak. The other is the fascination with what it can achieve.

I think the problem is partly one of a lack of diversity. A film like Garden State is fine — I saw it again a while back and I didn't think it was terrible. And Little Miss Sunshine is I think, a far better movie because even with the crazy it has a lot of genuinely affecting moments and performances that are worth…

Part of the reason is that within many countries — well, take look at Argentina or Chile. Almost everybody would be white, and is descended from Spaniards, Italians, Irish and Germans. (After all, one of the founding fathers of Chile is Bernardo O'Higgins). That's because in those two countries, as well as Uruguay,…

I have a lot of Card's stuff on my shelf and have read a number of short stories of his. (I actually interviewed him back in 1992 or '93, and couldn't sell it). Anyhow, I think to an extent his Alvin Maker novels are better writing, but the two books that I think were unjustly less remembered are Pastwatch and Lost…

Have you rad anything else by Adams? I have his book Last Chance to See and it makes me simultaneously sad he died and sad for the species he writes about — and he relates THE funniest story about trying to get the sounds of river dolphins in China.

By the way, since the Middle East comes up so often these days in the news, I want to recommend a couple of books that I thought were really good— a well as worthwhile for any American to rad as they provide some alternative viewpoints we don't often hear.

OK, some of these I read a little while back and some I am in the midst of..

You don't really need to read any of those. When I was younger I soldiered through all the books trough God Emperor of Dune and honestly, by the time I got to Heretics I don't even remember a lot of it. Frank Herbert is remembered for Dune but there are several other books he wrote that are a lot more interesting (and…

You're probably right — it's too obscure. On the other hand that might work in its favor… never been done and all that. Oh well.

I have had "turkish delight" in Turkey, as it happens. It is pretty darn good when done right, but like a lot of desserts the processed versions are often too sweet or the texture is off. If you ever get it from a pastry shop as opposed to the box you can taste the difference.

I must have missed the mention - when was it?

I'm gonna throw this out there and see if anyone else remembers this (the AV Club used to do a whole column of half-remembered pop culture detritus, so maybe folks can help me out here).

"Crazy-ass" describing the dildo is a compound adjective, thus hyphenated. An insane dildo for the posterior is a "crazy ass" dildo, unhyphenated, because the adjective is describing the noun "ass dildo."

This may be the disconnect I am seeing in some of the comments. The Cosby Show went off the air in 1992, and there are people who have graduated from college since then and don't ever remember it on the prime time airwaves. So they say "Hey, what are you talking about" as though th connection weren't there because for…

Also, Harris id his best to get rid of his Bronx accent as a young man— supposedly inspired by theater (Yiddish) in New York back then. (In case you didn't know, the guy was Jewish, and presumably spoke enough Yiddish to understand the plays).

I am curious how many of those quips Harris did were ad-libbed or scripted.

Actually there's a way around that — why don't you go flying off the earth every time you jump? Because relative to you the force of gravity is pretty big. You can basically treat it as a stationary object.