United.

On a long flight to Hong Kong from San Francisco, there was something wrong with the movie system and we got NO movies. Also, food was terrible. At one point, about halfway through the flight, the stewardesses handed out packets of ramen noodles and walked down the aisle, filling each passenger's cup with hot water. Our plane was almost all Asian passengers, and I thought it was really terrible that we were given this ersatz "Asian" meal...

On the plus side, the best airline I've ever flown was Asiana. They give you Korean food, which is so yummy!

I had to laugh about this one. I'm a writer married to an engineer and, in this economy, engineers -- especially California engineers -- ARE quite grumpy.

I was about to object and say that depressed people can't be good decision-makers (b/c of the self-absorption factor), but your post isn't really about depression. I mean, grumpiness does not equal depression. Right?

randolf hurts:

Of course it's the opposite:

"... did not get a single good night's sleep in the previous month ..."

Am so glad there's a whole state of people who can commiserate with my insomnia ...

MORE people are reading now, because of the internet.

When people say, Oh, no one will READ anymore, we're producing nations of illiterates. What? The internet is ALL about reading! And reading! And more reading!

People are reading The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times, that would never have read them before.

The internet asserts the primacy and durability and yes, necessity, of this activity . . .