Why would you say "sorry"? Just curious!

Clearly lots of people do feel it was worth it, or they wouldn't be telling their kids the same thing. :) Personally, I'm glad I was raised with the legend. It trained me early in the habit of imagining all kinds of impossible and wonderful things.

I'm already on to Matt Smith. Love Tennant, but love Eccleston too!

Oh geez. I am a recent convert, and that is SO me. Love it!

Tenant is very talented, and I wound up really loving 10, but it's SO SAD that Eccleston was only on for one season! I liked him so much!

Ooh, but especially Jack's! I would love her as The Doctor.

IT'S GREAT! Start with the 2005 season, with Christopher Eccleston.

Ah, I didn't catch that. Very good point. I've heard criticisms of poor black people and cell phones so many times, and I was reacting to that.

Yikes. Well, there's always the "hide" button.

Not iPhones per se, but most smartphones. Of course there are all kinds of plans and ways to do things, but in general, it's cheaper to just have a smartphone than to have both a cell phone and a PC with a plan for each.

Oh my goodness, that is fascinating! It really did look just a bit like an Easter bonnet to me...now it makes sense! What a fantastic thesis. I want to read it!

Here is my other comment about smartphones: according to Gene Marks's article this week in Forbes, "If I Were A Poor Black Kid" (yep, that is the real title)...[www.forbes.com] poor people should take every advantage of the Internet to learn, and better themselves, and bootstraps and such.

Another reason for me to love Herman Melville.

In your experience, do welfare recipients usually use iPhones? Because that's not my experience at all, though I admit my experience is somewhat limited. I believe this young woman is very much exaggerating the number of welfare recipients with iPhones.

Well, she did buy 50 tix?

Thanks! I was wondering too...never saw that before.

I used to be dirt poor, and now I'm doing well, too! (Though not nearly as rich as you are, so congratulations.) But I somehow avoid making judgments about how other people live their lives when I don't even know the particulars of those lives. And I know that one of the reasons I'm doing well now is sheer luck, and…

Exactly. I mean being a cashier is a tough job (though a little less tough if it's just your summer job in between years of college, in my opinion), but it's a job tons and tons of people do...yet she seems to believe her fortitude is remarkable.

Her column starts out: