Keep in mind Moore doesn't believe it's the character he puts forward, but that it tells a better story to be the character he names. He wants to indict an era, and does so successfully.

I sometimes work with kids & music, and it's a great app for youngsters getting started. The auto play features are something they enjoy, and it's got a fun sampler built in. I can't tell you how many little boys switch on when you show them they can make fart noises then play it like a piano. Plus it's free! A great…

Hammet is amazing!

Heard of? 9/10 (who's Adams?) Read? 4/10—Lewis, O'Neill, Milay, and Frost. Really liked? Frost & Milay. Frost is amazing & Milay was a real kick-ass. I think Dos Pasos was writing before this. No one reads him outside of college, but pretty good! I have to agree Wolfe & Hemingway should be there, though I'm not a fan…

Most people don't know Pynchon was also "The Unknown Comic" on the The Gong Show.

Most people don't know he was also "The Unknown Comic" on The Gong Show.

Flare on at The Crucible in Oakland.

Children's Fairyland in Oakland. The oldest children's park in the country (1950) and an inspiration for Disneyland. Oldest continuously running puppet theater.

Any word about going uphill over the tehachapis? That's what makes taking the train from SF to LA such a pain.

Neverwas Haul is truly a sight to see. They have a library, a viewing platform, and a camera obscura. Very cool!

Hate to be a downer, but some of the stations are so close together the train would be stopping every two seconds. With the add-on stops within San Mateo city and Contra Costa, for example, the train would never get any speed.

I'd bring rocket technology to the 1960s so we could go to the moon. We'd have space colonies by now.

Yet another item the government has banned because a child might get hurt. Thank god there's no way a child could misuse a gun. Then they might ban my precious Mr. Bangy.

It's taken half of our sun's lifetime to generate us, and we're just an eyeblink in time. I do think it's possible that we could be the first intelligent life in our area, but time is so massive, if it is us, then intelligence is vanishingly rare and precious. Still, let's say we develop ships that move nearly as fast…

I heard him speak in the early 80s when I was attending San Francisco State. That day changed my life. He exhorted us to use the library as our university, to open books in the middle and read our way out. He told us to fill each day with as much wonder as we could hold so that we could go to bed at night knowing we…

Anything where eight-year-olds act as if they have to use diapers to keep from pooping themselves, or any other rectal bodily function from any character. That sort of gold should be saved for the paying audience.

There's one at the exploratorium in San Francisco. The table is a pendulum that swings on one axis, and the pen-pendulum (The pen-ultimate?) swings on two axes. You can make you own art if you don't mind standing in line.

Hmm, I thought Captain Blicero launched Gottfried into space...

One of my favorite things: the eyes of the fighter pilot tasked with diverting Hulk. Throughout the film I really had a sense that everyone, not matter how small the role, backstory, had parents who loved them, had friends soemwhere who would miss them. Each shield v shield death was felt. The destruction of the…

the hatter's watch no longer tells time, despite being filled with the very best butter.