The people I'm talking about don't read and probably have never heard of the National Review. Neither are they (probably) rabid Trump supporters, though they may like his rudeness and his wealth and be full of resentment against the status quo. It is not impossible that if someone they like and admire spoke against…

Most of the people around here who love Stephen King only know him from his books. They don't think of him as a "decadent celebrity out of touch with REAL Americans." They think of him as a guy who writes stories they like to read, and they're proud that they've read his books and like him the more for that. If he…

Sadly, I'm one of the best. It's a chilly place to be.

I live in such a town, and I guarantee that most of the people here would probably be against apocalypse if they believed one were in the offing. But maybe your point is that they don't have the time/inclination to think about it, in which case, I agree with you.

The sad thing is that if Stephen King wrote something nonpreachy about why he doesn't like Trump, he might reach a person or two. I live in a rural town and know a lot of the kinds of people who might be drawn to Trump (I don't want to know, so I don't ask them). Often, King's are the only books they've ever read (one…

Slim Jims, Budweiser (excuse me—America), NASCAR . . .

I understood what you were doing (and thought it was apt and quite funny). Just trying to get the distinction between trolling and insulting—at least as you define the two—is all. With this and your earlier response, I now have a handle on the matter. Thank you.

I suppose they are well suited to the job, since they stay lit till the cap is closed. But, hey, why not improvise a Molotov cocktail and light that with the Zippo, you wasteful firebugs!

I don't know. A lot of the Walking Dead dialogue sounds like nothing a normal person ever uttered, too.

So does this comment make you a troll now?

I'd probably shower with my clothes on, too, if they were covered in zombie muck. That preliminary rinse would make all the difference come laundry day.

It drives me nuts how often Zippos are treated like disposable lighters in fire-setting sequences on TV.

How was nella palude's comment trollish?

Wouldn't the zombies still be pretty fresh?

Wine doesn't burn; the alcohol content is too low.

Plus it's a lovely movie.

Yes, it's a horrifying business. I am much closer to my mother than I ever was to my father, so the prospect of losing her is almost unthinkable. Although at least we are prepared for our parents to die. My sister died slightly less than two years ago, and that was a much harsher blow than my father's death,

My father is Daddy (still, though he died—god, almost three years ago already?) and my mother is Mummy and will be forever. Nothing cultural about it in my case. It just never occurred to me or my sisters to stop calling our parents what we had always called them.

How do you feel about "mummy"?

You're better off not tainting your fondness for her by watching Private Practice. Her character was mostly insufferable.