It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality.

The Academy is paranoid about its image.

Skateboarding is forever, and things like college and girls only ruin an endlessly savored adolescence.

The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented.

It's funny that there was so much disturbance about having a Catholic in the White House with Kennedy, and when we finally get a religion in the White House that's causing a lot of conflicts, and concerns, and disturbances for a lot of people, it's in the Bush Administration.

When I write a political column for the Chicago Sun-Times, when liberals disagree with me, they send in long, logical e-mails explaining all my errors. I hardly ever get well-reasoned articles from the right. People just tell me to shut up. That's the message: "Shut up. Don't write anymore about this. Who do you think you are?"

An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its 'self-help' section: 'For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.