Joan Walsh really hit it with this quote "If Colbert came off as "shrill and airless," in Lehman's words, inside the cozy terrarium of media self-congratulation at the Washington Hilton, that tells us more about the audience than it does about Colbert."

Having watched the YouTube streams before they were taken down, I completely agree. I've long noticed that in comedy situations, the audience is almost as important as the entertainer for creating the environment of laughter that makes the entire performance feel more cohesive. (In fact, the audience can be *more* important than the entertainer when the latter is lame and the former came in the mood to laugh.)

The audience at the Correspondents' Dinner started out with that automatic, 'we're listening to a comedian so we're going to laugh' laughter, and slowed down only as the post-fraternity/post-sorority kids among them realized it might not be so cool to do that. Of course a comic performance without laughter feels "shrill and airless." No matter how brilliant (and I do believe Colbert was brave and brilliant) it was.

Having lived in DC for 5 years, I had flashbacks to that herd mentality, insincerity, and even high-school schadenfreude that I encountered everywhere. It's real, and it was at that dinner in spades.

Great commentary, Ms. Walsh.

I completely agree with elaine that those who could consider supporting the police actions lack imagination and empathy. For a helpful dose, try this NPR piece in which reporter Laura Sullivan bravely lets herself be tased on the air. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4571973

Empathy lesson #2: Remember back to the days when you were of college age. Probably occasionally unreasonable and hotheaded. Excepting you perfect types.

Empathy lesson #3: Imagine a time when you overreacted out of surprise, indignation, or fear.

For those who think that when someone steps out of line they deserve what they get, please consider as well that lines aren't always clear or correctly enforced, that a perceived violator is not always an actual violator, and that proportion in punishment is essential in a civilized society.

Mr. Manjoo's concern about such a huge price for an everyday object is borne out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ficharker/sets/72157600594051928/

It would be helpful to follow up this article with a historical explanation of why train travel is such a limited and expensive option in the United States. If it were cheaper than flying, and more flexible (eg more trains between major destinations), it would be an obvious choice, especially in the Northeast corridor.

Also, I wonder whether the extremely poor management of flights and the abysmal treatment of passengers will serve to discourage flying more than any environmental concern. Anecdotally, I've spoken with a few friends, frequent leisure travelers, who are now planning vacations closer to home simply because flying was so unreliable and unpleasant. I also hear from business travelers that they're cutting down on trips to clients, because they are often delayed and miss the meetings anyway.

I really enjoyed Audiofile - it's one of only two music blogs I visit. I didn't visit often, but when I did I'd download everything I had missed.

I noticed it was never heavily promoted on the front page; sometimes I had to dig to find the link. That might explain why you weren't getting the traffic you wanted.

When I tell people the perks they get when subscribing to Salon, this was top of the list. I must say it's a huge mistake to let Audiofile go, both because of its quality and because of its potential to attract subscribers. Online music is huge. If you weren't getting enough visitors, I'd venture it was your own lack of commitment.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but from the limited information in the post, it appears that the economy was hurt by razing farmland to build a plastic bag factory, thereby making everyone dependent on that one factory. Probably at the expense of their health and quality of life as well.

I don't want to over-glorify farming. But it sounds like short-sightedness and the neglect of environmental resources hurts the economy more than shutting down a plastic bag factory.

I recently decided to try freelancing. Actually, I recently decided to no longer work at a rather toxic office and to start to take my friends and acquaintances up on their tantalizing offers of fun, short-term projects. It is fun. But I realized pretty quickly that I'm not just doing some work and getting paid for it, I am an institution. I need business cards, a (better) Web site, more cell phone minutes, time-tracking software, healthcare, a tax management system, etc. Ms. Price's article was extremely helpful, as well as therapeutic.

One thing that I am finding as a huge stress in my self-employed life is technology. This is ironic since I am an information designer for Web and mobile. With each client comes a new requirement to set up their email accounts, access their staging servers, be on instant messaging, and so on. Generally, I can handle that. But two things have truly been a headache: 1) installing new software as part of client work I'm doing, or 2) installing new software in order to find the right blend of interoperable productivity tools. I download one thing and it breaks something else. I spend at least 5 hours a week simply debugging my system because no one tests their software against all of the major use contexts. When I finally break down and contact the software's support group, they absolutely cannot help.

These are not just little guys - my biggest problems are with Apple and Microsoft products. I am horrified by just how broken our computing systems are. This is no cliche, this is a serious fact of contemporary life that keeps me -- and I'm sure many others -- from simply getting good work done. And taking advantage of the supposed freedom we have as freelancers!

All that said, it's still a great life. So far.