Proprietous

Mr. North you are super amazing and I admire everything you do. You have provided me with so many laughs! The highest laughs-per-minute of any author I have ever read. And I have read all of your writings! So that's a lot of laughs. And as I am a PhD student in computer science, those laughs are much needed. I've got your Dinosaur Comics whiteboard on my desk at school and it has made me A HIT. (I'm the guy that keeps sending you whiteboard comics on twitter!)

My question: how do you grow such an amazing and lustrous beard?

Second question: will you please sport your beard forever because it is AMAZING and pushes your already awe-inspiring handsomeness to unprecedented levels? (Card carrying beard enthusiast here.)

Third (real) question: do you ever suffer from procrastination when things are tough, and what do you do to combat it?

I feel as though many people below the age of 30 have little idea what politics was like from 1950-1980, probably because most high school US History classes never actually get to the last few chapters of the textbook.

Are there any political lessons you think the US learned in that time period that non-politicians have forgotten today? Things that it would be prudent for us to remember?

And, heck, why not, another one: for those of us who have not yet had the pleasure of reading the book: Moynihan emphasized that culture determines the success of a society, and that politics can save a culture from itself. But it seems that modern "always on" media culture puts pressure on politicians to pander to the pervading zeitgeist, no matter how uneducated or warped it is, at least in public, to earn people's vote. Does Moynihand (or do you) offer any suggestions that might help reverse that trend? Does politics still have the power to save culture from itself?

Morning, Zach. Bonsoir, Boulet. :)

What books do you remember having a big impact on you as a kid?

How does it feel to know in a decade or two you're going to start meeting people who grew up reading a story you wrote/illustrated?

What are the biggest achievements in evolutionary biology that you foresee the scientific community completing within the next ten years? Within the next one hundred? Are there any questions that you wish we were closer to answering?

Also: are there any stories of evolutionary foibles that you're particularly fond of? Animals with extremely odd adaptations or convoluted traits clearly caused by sexual selection?