Love both Kristin's. Wiig is one of the funniest women around, and Stewart puts other young actors to shame. Plus Ryan Reynolds, with his sly sense of humour and great looks, well, my cup runneth over.

you said: I find him wooden, dull and lifeless--not the still waters they are going for.

This may be because you've never met anyone with a similar speech cadence - mannerisms. When I watch this show, G. Byrne reminds me so much of my father and other men I grew up around living on an island in the cold North Atlantic. I find his character so real as to be, literally uncomfortable for me to watch. The harried, irritable side just barely damped down under what used to be genuine concern but is turning to resignation, or exhausted frustration. Anyone who's worked in counselling, law, or teaching, knows the feeling. Byrne is simply stunning in the authenticity of his acting. I find it, not wooden, but definitely muted. Which accords perfectly with my experience of burnt out professionals. The show is almost too personal to watch at times.

I'd be interested to know more about whether their is any real link between violent video games and these kinds of massacres. On a purely superficial level, the way in which they are carried out seems to replicate some of the more graphically violent first-person shooter games, but that could simply be art imitating life rather than the other way round.

and I'm a woman. A woman who occasionally trims the hedges (swimsuit season) but sometimes lets the lady-garden get overgrown. But what in the helacious world is wrong with a sense of humour? The ad is funny. If we can't laugh about pubic hair hang-ups, what can we laugh at?

LW - you come from an older tradition, one that seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. And I know exactly how you feel. I was raised in a family where you didn't go over to someone's house for dinner without bringing some kind of an offering - a bottle of wine if you could afford it, a home made dessert if baking is you're thing, a fattie in the back pocket for the smokers if that's all you had. Just some offering. But the rest of my generation seems sometimes to be intent on making the word 'gracious' obsolete.

Same with friendship. I'm not the best at it, but I've had some friends that just go that extra mile. They call when you are down. They note birthdays in day-timers. They crochet scarves. They throw baby-showers. And every now and then they go ballistic when they realize that few of their friends ever do these same things for them. After having someone rail at me about being a lackidasical friend, I decided to turn over a new leaf, and I am determined to start adhering to the old fashioned mores of true friendship. Loyalty, constancy, and caring. We could all use more of these things, and maybe these traits are something we, as a society, need to start fostering and valuing more.

Best of luck to you. In the words of Ron Burgundy, stay classy.

Where the hell have you been?!!! It stresses me out and discombobulates my routine when there is no SYA column in the morning. Never stop writing this column.

This is not fiction. It is not articulate prose, calculated to produce emotion, dramatic pathos. It is, literally, people (ordinary people) talking about their lives. Keem'em coming Salon! I really like these stories, and they ring true, even as they deviate completely from my own life experience.

Thankyou - you beat me to it.

A

You always come up with a few interesting films that I would never have heard of otherwise. I will make an effort to see both documentaries.

I agree. Stephanie Z. got a near-insatiable appetite for Disney movie-of-the-week type films. The kind where you can turn off your brain and enjoy the hokiness of it all. The kind that garner withering reviews from other critics. But you know what? That's okay with me. By reading her review's I still get a pretty good idea of whether or not I'll head out and drop $20, or wait for video, or would rather have an extended root canal...this is because she is a talented writer, and she remains wholeheartedly true to her proclivities.

I can usually perform a simple, inverse proportionality analysis (the more she likes it, the less I will) to Zacherek's reviews. There are exceptions (I'm with you on Twilight, Stephanie!). And you know what? People who really disagree with her tastes, or don't like her writing, don't have to read her reviews. I enjoy them, so I read them.

Why are we taking gentle, sweet, imaginative children and incarcerating them in a humiliating, dangerous, soul-destroying institutional setting for 8 hours a day? I am so sick of this shit. It makes me feel like the ideocracy is being actively cultivated at school, lord of the flies style.

Bullies should be winnowed out and dealt with. They are predators and should be treated as such.