Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could while away every single waking minute on My Yahoo and Google News, while someone far more qualified than you scrubbed your bathtub and walked your dogs and paid your bills and breast-fed your baby and massaged your husband's feet?

Well, no. It might be nice for a few days. But, this is the stuff of life. I've had some of the best, most introspective moments of the last few years of my life while walking my dog!

Keep up the good work! I enjoy "I like to watch."

Only a Salon.com reader would confuse A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Neil Young.

Dear LW,

Don't be dissuaded from your dream by the frustrated and failed academics who've written in. (ABD stands for "a bitter drag.") If you want that Ph.D., then get it. I can tell you from experience that it’s a noble and rewarding pursuit.

However, you should be realistic about what it will take to get that teaching job. Even in the sciences and engineering, competition for these jobs is stiff. To get the job, you will need to do an outstanding dissertation. Once you get the job, you will need to work long hours until tenure is achieved. Also, you may indeed get a job in North Dakota. The reward is the academic job itself, where you have a lot of freedom to do what you want. The interaction with students is great, they keep you young and alive.

It’s true the pay isn't as good in academia as it is in industry or government. However, the freedom that comes with the job and the security that comes with tenure is impossible to find elsewhere. Also, the pay isn't terrible, it’s enough for a good life. Besides, money doesn't guarantee happiness anyway.

I would recommend that you investigate what financial aide is available through the school before you do the videos. They could come back to haunt you later. At the very least, you can get student loans. Teaching and research assistantship may also be possible, depending on your field. There are also some fellowship programs available.

Also, maybe you can't support that family member anymore if you go to school. You didn't say what the situation was, but one reason we pay taxes is so that a safety net is available for those that can't provide for themselves.

So, my advice is to go for it. Life is short and you only get once chance to live it.

Recent accounts of Reagan and his administration tend to portray him as a kindly old man and the Reagan era as some sort of golden age. This article is a good reminder that his administration was a brutal time in US foreign policy. I also enjoyed the author's take on Carter's foreign policy. Perhaps its time for the left to look back at Carter and his policies and challenge the widely-held belief that his administration was a failure.

Good work!

Having suffered through many years of poverty in graduate school and living away from our families, my wife and I are experienced at getting through the holidays without going broke.

Plane tickets are the most expensive part of the trip and the reasonably priced ones are non-refundable. So, you should go. Otherwise, you will just be pouring money down the drain.

Here's how to save money: Stay at someone's house and eat free holiday food. If expensive visits to restaurants are planned, offer to cook for eveyone instead. To the extent that gifts need to be purchased, set a small limits on gifts, maybe $25 per person. (Use the Katrina card as an excuse if anyone asks, which they wont.) Don't rent a car, have someone pick you up at the airport.

Family is important. When times get tough, they can be all you have. Also, the parents will not be around forever and grandchildren are very important to them.

Cary is right, you should go.

The "Bush is dumb" argument does not hold up to the facts. Even this new twist on it, "Bush is not self-aware," doesn’t compute. The man has gotten himself elected to POTUS twice. He got most of the country to agree that an invasion of a country that did not threaten us was a good idea and that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. The man is an evil genius. His bumbling public speeches are calculated to convince us that he is earnest.

What we need to focus on is not the man’s psyche, but how he can be defeated and forced to pull out of the war. It seems unlikely that the congress will be willing to cut the funding on their own. So, we the citizens should find ways to force a withdrawal. Public demonstration and civil disobedience are called for now. This ended the Vietnam war and it can work now. The lives of our soldiers and millions of Iraqi civilians depend on it.

This is an excellent, insightful interview. Nice work!