Millenials are the children of Boomers, so they share characteristics. That said, Millenials have nothing next to Boomers when it comes to a sense of entitlement. Millenials strike me as a bit baffled and angry about not getting the world they thought they were promised.

I just always remind people who try to lump me in as a boomer that Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X, was born in 1961 as are the characters in that book. I think we're the irritated younger siblings of the astonishingly self-centered Baby Boomer generation.

Yeah, one kid not speaking might be the result of screwed-up kid, but both kids not speaking to you? Red flag all over. And you know that the letter was not the only thing, it was simply the final straw.

I kind of wonder about the writer having BPD—people with BPD are great at hoovering—pulling people back into…

Yeah, I'm in a similar boat. I liken it to an amputation. It hurts and you notice that the limb is missing, but some relationships are so poisonous, that you need to get rid of the gangrene.

It's been more than ten years, I often feel sad about it, but I never regret it.

No, the funny thing about Neelix is that the show creators actually thought he might be the break-out character. *They* thought he would come off as cute and lovable.

Well, they got that one wrong, way wrong. The show got better after Seven of Nine came on, though they should have dumped one of the other actors…

Not even distant. First-cousin marriages are often deemed quite desirable in small, isolated groups. Kinship is a big topic in anthropology, so you see a lot of that.

Incest (i.e. sex with a first-degree relative) is nearly always taboo, but with a couple of notable exceptions—i.e. Hawaiian, Incan and Ancient…

Yeah, something's weird about the whole story—I mean, besides the obvious. I've read a couple of police interrogations of child molesters and the delusions and rationalizations are all over the place. Some of what she said was a bit like that.

I got that part, but she wasn't an adult, regardless of the age of consent, when the sex began. Plus, not in Jersey.

Consent depends on the state. Doesn't matter though—incest is still illegal.

"Sociopath" is a term that gets tossed around a lot, but the actual disorder is pretty distinctive—no empathy, no anxiety. So, yeah, some are womanizers and manipulative as all get-out, but being a manipulative womanizer doesn't automatically mean a guy's a sociopath—a garden variety narcissist can be a womanizer.

Bu…

But probably part of the reason it works so well is that they're *not* romantically involved. He's supposed to be a serial cheater/manipulator, while she's bi and seems to be a bit of a loner. Their relationship as it is is probably pretty healthy—just not a typical romance.

Yep, if someone publicly says "I'm a terrible husband." *believe him.*

So, my take is that Fred's a rotten boyfriend/hook-up/husband. No reason to think, though, that's he's not an okay buddy/scene partner. I think he and Carrie have found a relationship that works for them—as creative, not romantic, partners.

Some…

I think it is a classic, certainly in Japan, but in the U.S. as well. It is, after all, the one anime to win the Academy Award. It's the gateway anime for a lot of people. My kid's 14—she and her friends have all seen it.

It could have a higher profile in the U.S., but I think it's around for good as films go. It…

Yep, what I was thinking. The movie's just a taste of the character in the manga—who loves her bugs, but is also willing to be pretty damned ruthless.

Fine with ruins and ghost, not so fine with the cold weather and lack of daylight during the winter.

Oh shoot, I usually get a Winter cold. None's arrived yet, but knowing that there's this much stuff around way ups my chance of exposure.

So you do realize most of what you just said is inaccurate? Disease wiped out most of the indigenous American population (some estimates show as much as 90 percent of the native population getting wiped out by smallpox and co.—often before many of the victims ever saw a European.)

And, no, not all Asian-Americans…

I was taught it in school, my school was mixed. My own kid though has learned amazingly little history—the subject's become so controversial while simultaneously being ignored by the test-everything regime in schools these days, that all sorts of basic history gets short shrift.

I think this story is different, though—Ellen and her husband weren't passive victims and they didn't strongarm their way to freedom. They were cagey and did it on their own. I love, too, that it sounds like they had happy, productive and interesting lives afterwards.

Lots of people were illiterate at the point in the United States, not just slaves—though slaves were punished for literacy when other people weren't and, of course, weren't allowed to attend school. But at this point, there was still a real class and sex division as far as literacy went.