I tried, I really did. I think they're terrible. I thought "A Boy's Own Story" was incredibly boring when I read it in my late teens or early 20s as a budding fag. I wished I could just slap the protagonist, and when it was done I thought "there's a few hours I won't ever get back."

Gore Vidal is one of my idols, but he's partially right about Gore. He's a very old man who's bitter and clearly in a lot of pain all the time.

But saying that his historical novels are mere taxidermy is just low and stupid. They're not. Some are better than others, but the best ones are brilliant, "Lincoln" and "Burr" illuminate people who have merely become gods or, in Burr's case, forgotten. I also loved "Julian."

Whether or not Special Factotums (I personally prefer that word) should be appointed to fulfill special functions, everyone misspells the word TSAR.

In Russian there are 33 letters in the alphabet, one of which has the sound 'ts'. Thus the name for the former Emperor of Russia is TSAR, not CZAR.

I've no idea how this bizarre misspelling entered English but it's completely wrong and has always bugged me since studying Russian many years ago.

Please use the correct spelling of this word, Salon. Thanks.

This reminds me of the scene in "Mommie Dearest" where Joan Crawford screams at her daughter Christina:

"Why can't you give me the RESPECT that I'M ENTITLED TO!"

and Christina replies:

"BECAUSE.....I'M NOT.....ONE OF YOUR FANS!"

In the end Christina got the last word.

I predict the son in this case will too. In the meantime, the parents are just self-involved twats who clearly just used their kids for material. That's just gross, IMHO.

and he almost lost me with the long ramble at the beginning....but this is just about the best, most concise advice you can give in this situation.

I really like what this writer is saying. Kids need to learn how to deal with the real world or they're going to be 18 year old college students not knowing how to do the laundry or figure out how to get the bus to the other side of campus.

I grew up in a college town in the midwest of 130,000 people (Champaign-Urbana, IL) and rode my bike or the bus everywhere from the time I was 7 or 8 years old. I rode my bike to school, the swimming pool, the roller rink, the library, and everywhere all summer.

A few years ago a very average 30-ish woman I knew ((the mother of two small children) who lived in a suburban type neighborhood of Chicago (NW side) was sitting on a bench in the park near her house reading a book one day. She saw two small girls walk by and looked up and said hello to them.

She then heard a loud bark, "Emily! Brittany! Come here now!" It was their Mom.

Mom: "Do you remember what I told you about Stranger Danger?"

Kids: "Yes"

Mom: "Can Stranger Danger Be a Mommy?"

Elaine wanted to slug her.

That about sums it all up in a sentence. The world is not perfect, but those are going to be either two very very frightened 20 year olds, or they're going to be crack whores because they'll quickly figure out that their Mom is full of shit, and asuume she's full of shit about everything, like pre-marital sex, alcohol, drugs, school, etc.

Kids aren't stupid. They will learn that lesson VERY well.

I don't want the state to legitimize my relationship, I just want the opportunities that others have.

I also think that you're completely incorrect in your reading of history to say that much of our civil code comes from religious institutions. They have been highly influential in our society (much less so in Europe in the past 50 years) but our civil code comes from English common law by and large, and not from religion.

No one is trying to force any religious institution to do anything it doesn't want to do (and that's a complete red herring of an argument in my opinion). Bringing up the New Mexico case you refer to is even more of a red herring since it didn't involve a religious institution.

If your religion forbids blacks and whites from marrying, you have a right to say "we don't marry blacks and whites." You don't have a right to say "blacks and whites can't access civil marriage." It's a completely different issue.

OK, let's be honest. RIM's products have the world's WORST user interface. I can't undestand how anyone puts up with that horrifyingly bad user experience day in and day out.

The Storm is just the latest in a long line of horrible user interfaces. The "click" of it, is pointless and stupid, the fonts are nearly DOS terrible on many of the screens, and its impossible to find anything, particularly if you don't know it well.

Even a Windows Mobile phone is more intuitive than Blackberry. I just can't figure out why people love them so much, they're horrible pieces of crap.

I've supported many a curious device in my time working in IT (more than 15 years) but never have I encountered something so popular that is so mystifyingly badly designed.

Because lots of the writers struck me as whiny and tedious. But this is an incredibly helpful, humane, and empathetic response. Thanks Cary.

I used to work for a big Alzheimer's charity in the Bay Area, and know something about this, but you gave me a new way of looking at it. I hope it never happens to my rapidly aging parents who are now in their early 70s.