David Plotz

Hardened into a diamond-core of loathing and rage. When will Americans wake up and see Pandagate for what it is. The Chinese government charges extortionate rents for us to house, feed, breed their dumb animals. When babies are born, the Chinese take them back, and then rent them to another high bidder. Zoos are literally wasting millions of dollars on this shoddy merchandise, when they could be stocking up with made in America otters or brown bears.

God--what a jerk! I was unprepared for the essentially unpleasant, rageaholic nature of my God. I assumed there was some lovingkindness in there somewhere--I know the Christians have that--but there was very very little. On the other hand, the most admirable people in the book are the people who argue with this implacable, rageful, irrational deity (abraham, Job, Gideon, Moses).

Also, basically every woman in the Bible is a prostitute.

Echoey, Sure. I went to an all-boys, jocky private school in the mid-'80s. It was a school where homophobia was explicit and never questioned. I absorbed enough of that to make me feel ashamed, and I carried forward homophobic ideas into college. Gay marriage was never really something anyone talked--I probably first heard about it as a serious idea in the mid-90s. At the time, I thought: oh marriage is special. It is a particular, defined institution for men and women, for historic reasons, and we tinker with it at our peril. I was all for civil unions, but I stumbled at marriage. Then my then colleague John Cloud talked to me about gay marriage one day, and explained why it married, and why civil union was a non-substitute, and how important it was to be free to love who you love and make a family with that person. And I realized that I had been an idiot, and have been for gay marriage ever since.

We monetize! How have you missed the ads we do for Audible and Stamps? They are probably not profitable dollar for dollar directly, but they are so good for our brand that we might do them even if we didn't make a dollar on them.

bradspahn, Second question first: I discourage couples from living together before marriage when they can, for this reason. If you don't live together before marriage, when you get married, you start together fully anew. It is a complete clean start. And it enables you--or perhaps compels you--to overlook the annoying habits your spouse undoubtedly has that would infurirate you had you been living together beforehand. If you discover, once you move in together after marriage, that your wife cannot properly load a dishwasher (which she still can't!), that doesn't cause a fight, a schism, a point of friction. It is just a small fact that you must adjust to, because you're married. People who live together are constantly being rubbed up against their partner's minor flaws and annoying habits, and it wears on them. I like moving in after marriage because it trivializes the trivial.

Hanna Rosin is amazing, but you know that. I don't know that our marriage is really equal. It is more that the inequalities flow back and forth. We don't split things 50/50 or anything like that. It is that there are periods when I have more responsibility for the kids and periods when she does, periods when my career is front and center and periods when hers is. And we are pretty good about watching out for each other. We've just come out of a period where Hanna has been traveling a huge amount for her book, and it's clear that she'll be a bit more domestic in the coming months, and I may be less. I don't think it occurs to either of us that our own career or life is more important than the other's. We went into marriage knowing that, and we've done a pretty good job sticking to it. Plus, we have incredibly generous parents who help out, and a great babysitter, and great friends, and wonderful children, all of which simplify the complexities of family and work life.

Also, I have a question for you. We're doing a live Gabfest tomorrow night in D.C. at Sixth and I (tickets still available!), and we haven't settled on an interesting/fun third topic. If you have an idea for us, tell me here.

MrJM and ihniwmansb, John was actually hand carved out of black rhino horn, then brought to life with an incantation involving spider webs by a benevolent witch. He can do only good in the world, and eats only cotton candy. John is more or less how he seems. Very smart, superhard worker, very funny in a disarming way. Excellent guitarist. Talks too much about Dylan.

perhaps because I have lived in DC for so very long, I have been exhausted with speeches. Any politician worth a dime can deliver a great speech, and most of them can write them. But so what? It is very very very rare, vanishingly rare, for a political speech to make a difference in the world. Politiical change never happens because someone makes a nice speech calling for it. It happens because poltiicians and interest groups commit political capital and labor and money. The Obama speech was a moving, effective speech, well delivered. I don't think anyone will remember it in a week, much less in a year. Can you remember anything he said at his first inauguration? I can't.

DanKois--I just noticed this was you!

Original. The black cherry is gross. The peach is vile.