But I'll second the desire to see more coverage on how Obama's identity as a black man (if, indeed, Salon editorial guidelines allow us to refer to him as such) and how it affects his campaign-- how he 'packages' himself, and how others perceive him. Does Aretha Franklin make him more 'womanly', or is it a sign of support for African-American culture?

I miss the old Salon. Much of the new Salon seems shallow, calculating and cold, and this article typifies that.

If your letter was how I 'read' the article, I wouldn't have been annoyed. But I felt it was far more reflecting overall gender stereotypes, rather than contrasting the traditional, more 'masculine' campaign style of Hillary's, with the softer, more personal and 'feminine' style of Obama's. In fact, that's one of the reasons the article irritated me-- it felt like a superficial treatment of electoral politics, with some stereotypes thrown in to get a stack of letters posted. More and more, I feel like Salon chooses 'controversy' over substance, which is what my complaint-- and what I suspect many others complaints'-- are about in the end.

Whoever controls the Middle East controls the Holy Land, and if Bush really is the Christian he says he is, that's far more important than a tiny little tragedy like Darfour. Especially if he wants Israel to dominate-- that's one of the conditions for Armageddon in Crazy Christian Thinking.

You've brought fanfiction and a blogger who thinks she can improve on the source work into the post.

Bring on the flames!

More seriously, I think you're right; digital distribution means conventional control is lost. But I hope-- probably vainly-- that our culture will focus less on getting things 'first' and more on the shared experience, whether it's reading Harry Potter or watching a movie.

The fact is, fanfiction is written in as many different styles and for as many different reasons as original fiction is. Some is pure porn, some is exploring issues not explored fully in the original canon, some is playing "What If?" Ask five different fanfiction writers, you'll get six or seven different answers.

If you're interested, clicking on my name will link to the weblog of Henry Jenkins, author of "Textual Poachers" and one of the most prolific academics writing about fan culture today.

And thanks for the respect for fanfic, Farhad. It's appreciated.

My name links to a great blog post showing how much "Progress" we've really made. (Thanks, Ezra Klein!)

I bet I could do more damage in the prison yard with a broken Snapple bottle than these guys have ever done in their whole lives.

More seriously, great post. Makes me so angry on behalf of the people I know who do serve in the military, though.

LW, you sound like one of those people so taken aback by your own happiness you'll stop at nothing to screw it up.

Don't make the fact that you googled her a dark, dirty secret-- but by the same token, don't take Cary's route of confession. It's a fact, like the fact that the sky is blue. You don't bring up the sky being blue all the time; it should be the same with your googling. If googling comes up, consider it then, not out of the blue with a Big Important Sit-Down.

And don't look at the ex's blog. It is a trainwreck, and a trainwreck neither you nor your current girlfriend want to be caught in. If you want drama, there are plenty of other places to find it on the Internet. (Like reading advice columns!)

...right until the end. I'm not going to claim the author was a bad or lesser person for going with Alton Brown; if the cake was good, it was good, and the family being together for the wedding is really what matters.

But I do recommend she talk to a baker-- perhaps the good folk at King Arthur Flour-- and listen to the posters about what went wrong. It would be a shame to have the true recipe lost. (And if you do figure it out, share-- it sounds delish!)

That al-Qaida is resurgent? The Administration seems more interested in flooding itself with information than putting any of it to a useful purpose, and many of its policies seemed focused on inflaming Arab extremists rather than calming or outmanuvering them. When it's more important to fire gay soldiers than keep Arabic linguists, then failure is inevitable.

I like going to the movies.

Beef suet's pretty easy to find, actually. They use it for bird and animal food and the occasional heritage cook; usually you can find it in the meat section somewhere.

I was fortunate; my grandmother did most of the adaptations for my family. I still see a 'mix like a cake, put in a pan and cook' cake recipe I want to try once in a while, though!

Think, for a moment, about a grown-up, slightly sociopathic Encyclopedia Brown, suddenly given the power of life and death.

And that's why I started reading Death Note. There are other excellent reasons-- the cat-and-mouse games, the utterly amazing art-- but that was the hook that drew me in.

It's nice to see a relatively mainstream site like Salon discussing manga. Can you review Saiyuki next?

May well be misplaced, but:

Israel's fight is his fight. Israel's values are his values. And Israel's hopes and dreams are his hopes and dreams.

Lieberman here has such a strange and scary definition of both "Israel" and what the hopes and dreams of Israel are.

If Couric had shown Elizabeth Edwards and her cancer more sympathy than this pampered train wreck celebrity.

Salon should publish much, much more like this.

Trucker, thanks for sharing your story. It's a grey, murky day where I am, and suddenly it feels like the light has come in.