I can't think of a comparable level of cultural excitement about something since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the 1960s.

There are now some mountains that my brain can no longer climb.

I would love to have the power to stop waking at 3 a.m. every night to check my e-mail.

Could an android listen to the whining, requests for advancement, and entreaties for guidance and affection that pour from subordinates? Sure it could. Frankly, all that would be easier on the robot than it is on me.

Reading my way all the way through Sherlock Holmes gave me a lifelong love for crime and detective fiction.

After nearly 6,000 years of evidence on the subject, one thing stands clear: the people who end up as leaders in any organization, large or small, are often the craziest guys around.

"Hi," I said. She came over, licked my hand discreetly, allowed herself to be scratched for a time, chased her tail in a dignified circle, lay down again. I remember thinking: "There are times God puts a choice in front of you." I often had such thoughts back then. We took the dog.