living in Los Angeles was like being an extra in a movie that was starring other people entirely.

Nowadays, it is possible to perform various forms of Low-Impact listening via the telephone. The advent of technological advances such as computer games and online services (like ones that let you check stocks) have enabled Low-Impact listeners to endure family phone calls much longer than in the past. Dangers include mouse clicks, heavy typing, or a sudden loud buzzer that goes off when you have finished Boggle.

Los Angeles is the nation's cultural scapegoat.

All autobiography is fiction.

Parental anxieties: A timeline. Pre-1800s: Potato famine, death of entire villages. 1900s: Trying to keep dad's job through depression so entire family does not starve or have to sell off children to agribusiness. 2000: Infringement of Parenthood on sense of Personhood.

living in Los Angeles was like being an extra in a movie that was starring other people entirely.

Panic is efficient. Panic is effective. Panic is the way I get things done! Panic attacks are my booster rockets!