You can find out anything you want about a car now, and especially every bit of information about the price, without relying on the dealers.

Now we're e-mailing and tweeting and texting so much, a phone call comes as a fresh surprise. I get text messages on my cell phone all day long, and it warbles to alert me that someone has sent me a message on Facebook or a reply or direct message on Twitter, but it rarely ever rings.

I think coexisting with another life form is a very rich experience. It's why people keep plants and animals.

I approach stories as a private educational enterprise: I want to learn about something. I teach myself through research, reporting, and thinking, and then, when I feel like I know the story, I tell it to readers.

I feel somewhat responsible for the Borders Books bankruptcy.

Oversized houses, like oversized cars, seem to be a particularly American fixation.

I rarely listen to commercial radio, and when I do, I'm shocked by how many ads there are, and how annoying they are, and how bad the radio station usually is.