Scientists habitually moan that the public doesn't understand them. But they complain too much: public ignorance isn't peculiar to science. It's sad if some citizens can't tell a proton from a protein. But it's equally sad if they're ignorant of their nation's history, can't speak a second language, or can't find Venezuela or Syria on a map.

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals — the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

I met Patti LuPone and Elaine Paige in a party. I didn't speak too much with Patti, but she was lovely with me.

My step-mom would tell me that she would get complaints from adults that I stared too much at them.

I talk too much.

Well, you know, too much democracy is a sort of sad thing.