I think the problem here is some people seem to think that Bernie is supposed to be the perfect liberal candidate. He isn’t - he’s FDR, updated to 2015, which is a damn sight better than what we’ve had in a long time. But don’t expect him to have the perfect liberal response to every moment.

And if she wanted to ask…

Or just super cheap hotels. I used to be ready to sleep anywhere - now I’m like nope, I’m going to the place where the sheets have that fresh washed scent, the AC actually works, and there’s coffee and bad pastries waiting for me in the morning.

Oh absolutely. Even in my poor grad student days I was just “everyone hand me some cash” and hope that it came somewhere within range of the actual bill. Having waited tables myself, I was sure as heck not walking away leaving a measly tip on a big table.

It’s an attitude I do not get. But then I was raised by two college professors. I can’t imagine spending the major part of my life with someone who wasn’t well-educated. As for money - I suppose it’s all too straight forward why this bothers some guys, but they seriously need to get over it.

No, great way to cut yourself, using a knife - particularly if you are pulling the corns off of un-cooked cobs. There are various things I make with loose corn for which the frozen stuff just won’t work, as it’s too watery. A properly made corn shredder is a lifesaver, especially when I have a party and need to do…

Close, but your Terry Gross questions are for the most part too short, and do not go far enough in attempting to answer the question before the interview subject even gets a chance to say anything. I am always amused when Gross sets up some long, elaborate theory and the subject just says, “No.”

Certainly physical juvenilization takes place. What’s really fascinating is that we also did that to ourselves. If you compare human babies to great apes babies (gorillas, orangutans, chimps/bonobos), the babies all look fairly similar. Yet the other great apes grow up to have a number of adult features, such as the…

There does actually seem to be a genetic component that influences how easily a species can be domesticated. That said, I don’t know if anyone as actually tried the Russian method on bears.

If bears had the domestication gene, we would all have one, food costs be damned. How could you not?

Recently had a discussion with a relatively young woman who thought our use of the word “trump” came from The Donald. Being an Old I knew better, but I then needed to know the real answer. To the OED! Our current use of the word in fact goes back to around 1580.

And when Republicans start talking about “real Americans,” do you find that condescending?

It matters you idiot because a guy with a gun can kill many more people a lot faster.

My Dad, brand new father (someone scribbled “one week old” on the back, so this must be one of my very first pictures):

A slow, slow line if humans who just spent many hours on multiple planes, buses, trains - is going to be a bit rank. So many times I am grateful that I am about 50% asnomic (i.e., the inability to smell)

Choose again.

I learned we had filtering at work when I tried to check my Powerball numbers. Access blocked, Reason: Gambling.

I will be wearing none of this, thank you.

I wear black jeans all the time, needed some new ones. Went to the local Gap, asked if they had any, and in the snootiest voice possible, was asked, “In summer?”

Um, yeah, and I’ll probably wear it with a white shirt sometime in the fall. Whatever - I have since depended on the local outlet mall for my black denim,…

Trying to understand Israel by going on Birthright is sort of like trying to understand the United States by riding a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Why do people care so much? I suppose that people are really, really wrapped up in the idea that there is some empirical definition of race, something that exists outside of us, that would be true whether we though of it or not. Well, there isn’t - race is an arbitrary distinction that exists in our heads. Now, that…