What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That's how the human species has done as well as it has.

It's normally agreed that the question 'How are you?' doesn't put you on your oath to give a full or honest answer.

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.

I have more than once in my time woken up feeling like death.

Which natural gift would you most like to possess? The ability to master other languages (which would have hugely enhanced the scope of these answers). How would you like to die? Fully conscious, and either fighting or reciting (or fooling around). What do you most dislike about your appearance? The way in which it makes former admirers search for neutral words.

No child's behind left.