In the family sandwich, the older people and the younger ones can recognize one another as the bread. Those in the middle are, for a time, the meat.

How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.

For most of my life the only ceremonies I've been to at which women were the stars were weddings. So I like weddings.

The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.

I'm going to live long enough to live in an America that will assume universal health care is a basic right. That will be amusing and terrific.

I have a cat, the pet that ranks just above a throw pillow in terms of required responsibility.

However, there will be a Republican Party platform that will coalesce around their convention. Unless I miss my guess, it will be considerably more conservative on these issues, perhaps even than Governor Romney is, and I think that that will give Americans a clear set of choices about all issues, but about women's issues too.