Alexandra Silverman

When compared with your high school history book, Wikipedia is a beacon of transparency.

That Donald the Cat has his own line of screen-printed tee shirts, tote bags and buttons may be out of the ordinary, but that his preferences, emotions and spiritual beliefs are discussed casually and in detail shouldn’t surprise anyone with an internet connection in 2013.

Commuting by bike is also lonely in practice and socially alienating. While others get ready to go out, walk together to the subway or bus stop, maybe catch a cab, talk, laugh and show up looking the way they left the house, I travel alone and arrive sweaty.

There’s either red wine or blood on my tray table hook. You know, that sliding rectangular knob that restrains your in-flight, reading, writing, eating and sleeping surface?

Seeing that Ron labeled every candidate: Slytherin and forgot to classify George W. Bush entirely, the boys get into a pretty good row.

It’s not that the community is hip and preachy. This repulses me, but it’s not that either. Communities are good. In the big bad world, they serve individual members well and, with notable exceptions, have negligible impact on the rest of us; if the community is nonviolent and non-supremacist the potential for negative impact drops to zero.