I'm sorry, but I do. I don't like it either, but not everyone is familiar with my background. I try to make it as short as possible.

The ropes are mentioned in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. Three volumes, but fascinating. Anyway, they are attached to the top and the tree is swayed back and forth until it cracks. There are guards watching, and the line of 'escape' is unmarked. They hope a prisoner crosses, because then they were allowed to shoot…

In new York higher education was defunded 20 years ago, but is back now via Bard and private donations. It brings out the best in men...

Yes; your comments were right on the money. There is a small group of sadists who take the job because they get to hurt and dominate other humans without consequences, but most do it for the benefits and as a result of dying industry and mechanized agriculture.

First of all, write your book.

I have been robbed twice myself, and I sympathize with the fear it introduces into your life. However, I laughed it off and didn't even call the cops. As for me, I paid very dearly for my crimes, and don't need you to sentence me to more. The fact that I write about my unique experiences is making something good out…

I suggest you go to my site, and see for your self how I've spent my last ten months:

One more thing. I spent a year in a joint where I could have a TV in my cell, but also a bunkie. With four channels of PBS, suddenly BBC was available, and I gorged on 'Are You Being Served', 'Keeping Up Appearances', 'Eastenders', 'Upstairs Downstairs' and 'Blackadder'. My bunkie watched with me, but at one point he…

Get ready for this. On those shows, plus Parks and Rec and the Office, the characters simply spoke too quickly for many to follow. Plus, the humor is heavily referential and the population never got it. And as for the humor of absurdity, forget it. Way too much. They found Tyler Perry very funny though.

Replying to both you and the next commentator: Please stop reading my mind. I have already written a one-off Van Winkle piece for a German paper, but would love to do a series on what has changed in a decade. It's not long enough for people to really notice the differences, but they are obvious to me…. As I plan to…

Born in Manhattan in 1978, true… but raised Russian to the extent that I had to learn English at the age of 5 in school…so I never learned to play a lot of games popular here… while foreign ones were familiar to me.

There is much more at www.danielgenis.net. Thank you.

If I was going to make such a bold statement, I would make sure the grammar was correct. And as I live off my pen, I think I can say I am a writer.

Perhaps reading is not your interest?

Very good point. And consider the risks taken for the drugs. Humans really want them. Others humans stop them, while using drugs themselves. Who is the war on in reality?

Sorry, baseball and softball are not my sport. I'm Russian; we don't have them.

The wives got caught all the time. Prisoners are often selfish, uncaring, unloving parasites. Sometimes these wives are women they snared while incarcerated, whom they manipulate and discard upon release. But even family men have done this, because the desire is so strong… usually in those cases the wife is a user…

In one jail, where there was only one campaign at a time, no sex offenders were allowed, but women killers and guys who were low on the totem pole were.

I've seen this before. They were called 'cell gangsters'. In the evenings, when everyone was locked in, they would disguise their voices and yell insulting things, sometimes personal, sometimes racial. No one took these cowards seriously. Personally, I'd never write anything I wouldn't say to a man's face.

Lockup? I actually don't have regular TV, instead I watch all the foreign film and independents I missed, plus the good series. For fun I watch 30 Rock, Community… All of that television was despised by the audience in prison, who kept the channels on music videos, sports and BET. So I savor 'Melancholy' instead of…