The quality of Cucumber/Banana surprised me…I thought I would just get a light, soapy comedy-drama, but there was a lot of pathos in those shows. I hope they get more love in the UK.

Same here. I just can't care very much about action scenes – I don't hate them, but they do nothing for me other than providing distracting and sometimes beautiful visuals. I also don't usually care very much about the mythology of superheroes, which I seems to be a big part of the enjoyment of my more…

As a teacher, I sometimes feel the same way. I wish could always tell what kind of day each of my students are having…Calvin and Hobbes shows how often hard assed/mean grown ups are actually just clueless grown ups. (Also, I wish Calvin's teacher was half as nuanced and sympathetic as Calvin's parents.)

Thanks for the sane analysis. I'm currently in a education grad school program, training to be a middle school math teacher. You'd be surprised how many people believe that there are two types of teachers: the inspiring, Dead Poets Society type teachers, and boring/lame teachers. In reality, teachers really run the…

Cul de Sac. Watterson actually made a drawing of one of the characters a few years ago after the author was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

During college, I remember hating people who claimed college would be the best part of my life. It made me feel both that I should be having a better time/should be grateful to be at college, and that I should be rating the years of my life from best to worst.

So true. Becoming an adult just means all the problems and worries of childhood are replaced with new, different problems and worries. In my experience, adults are nostalgic about childhood because as children they didn't have to worry about all the things they worry about as an adult, and forget about all the things…

Frank has moments of humanity, where I understand and even root for the character despite his obvious flaws.

What's a TI?

I just finished reading The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Philips for the second time this weekend. I can't stop thinking about that book, it's hypnotizing. Basically it's a 180-page novella which feels like a mixture of Twin Peaks and a Haruki Murakami novel, only with a GREAT female protagonist – sensitive, hopeful,…

Yeah, same. Sue seems like such a stereotype…she needs a personality trait that distinguishes her from the generic bottled-up, stressed out dissatisfied housewife type. Unfortunately I just finished the sixth episode, and I don't think that really happens. Same with Maureen: she has some funny lines, but she's a…

Deadeye Dick is the title of a Kurt Vonnegut book…guessing it's a reference to that

Heart of a Dog, directed by Laurie Anderson! Not least because it shows Laurie Anderson's dog Lollabelle playing the piano purposefully and (for a dog) skillfully. I have never seen a dog musically expressing dog emotions before this movie.

My favs change constantly, but right now I've been particularly into:
1. Up the Wolves, because it's a great song about not being able to forgive someone/still being angry even when you don't really want to be
2. The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton, for giving us a few sentences that tell story that's sad,…

Couldn't believe Ali was 33. She acts more like a 23 year old (her mooning over the poet character was actually pretty adorable). And what has she done with ten years of her life besides go to college classes?

Might as well post my list:

Yeah, exactly…I'm not sure if she loves him…and even if she does, it doesn't necessarily mean that she can live with him and be happy and satisfied day to day…which is the reason I'm pretty skeptical about them getting back together.

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Philips deserves to be here. It's the most readable artsy/surreal book I've ever read. The main character is alternately paranoid, optimistic, loving, and completely realistic and relatable. It switches from romance to horror and seems completely flawless, because we are with the main…

Put in a spoiler warning, please!

YtW is so real I'm unaware of how good it is until after I've finished it. It sneaks up on you because it's so much like life.