Being Lutheran, Mother believed that self-pity is a deadly sin and so is nostalgia, and she had no time for either

Face it: a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.

Eating a little was like vomiting a little, just as bad as a lot.

My generation was secretive, brooding, ambitious, show-offy, and this generation is congenial. Totally. I imagine them walking around with GPS chips that notify them when a friend is in the vicinity, and their GPSes guide them to each other in clipped electronic lady voices and they sit down side by side in a coffee shop and text-message each other while checking their e-mail and hopping and skipping around Facebook to see who has posted pictures of their weekend.

You've got work to do. Don't put this off. And don't take the long view, here. You know? Life is today and tomorrow and - and if you're lucky, next week.

Spending time in a church does not make you religious, any more than spending time in a garage makes you a car.

America of the future will be all malls connected by interstates. All because your parents no longer can their own tomatoes.