We do an epically bad job of acknowledging one another's work and checking our sources.

I hated sports. I hated sports, and I hated people who played them, and I hated people who watched them, and I hated people who didn't hate people who watched or played them.

She taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry. She made me different.

Sometimes I don't get you,' I said. She didn't even glance at me. She just smiled toward the television and said, 'You never get me. That's the whole point.

Right, except I'm not going to lie to my mom, because what kind of (man) lies to his own mother?

How strange and how lovely it is to be anything at all.

But why Alaska?' I asked her. 'Well, later, I found out what it means. It's from an Aleut word, Alyeska. It means 'that which the sea breaks against,' and I love that. But at the time, I just saw Alaska up there. And it was big, just like I wanted to be.