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1. In Chris Smith’s interview with the famed Daily Show host�and newly minted film director�Jon Stewart, the comedian reflected �on his life in the satirical-news business and the legacy The Daily Show will one day inevitably leave behind� ("In Conversation With Jon Stewart,� November 3�9). He also suggested that the United States should institute a service draft, a viewpoint that offended at least one commenter, SteveGregg. �So, Stewart wants to draft people to work on the liberal programs he likes,� he wrote.�Why is it that every liberal wants to force people to do their bidding?� YoureAllCrazy responded: �Did you read the sentence right after the one that has made you so upset? He clearly states that he thinks we have, as a society, lost the idea that we are all in this together. That everyone has a stake in the game.� Commenter Joanie1 thought that Stewart has lost his edge: �I’m not quite as enamored with Jon as the rest of his fans are. He’s been coasting a little for a while now, not being tough in interviews when he has the chance, making lame excuses for his all-male writing staff year after year.� Of course, some of those enamored fans couldn’t help but indulge their adulation. �I saw Rose�water last night, and it is terrific,� wrote �Dehrenstein. �The last thing anyone would expect is for Jon Stewart to make a deadly serious Costa-Gavras movie�but that’s what he’s done.�
2. �My Little Pony is a worldview, and a way of life, for millions of non-creepy people who find the show entertaining and amusing, yes, but who also say it provides them with the personal guidance, moral lessons, and comforting perspective that previous generations used to find in places like church,� wrote Lisa Miller in her story on the television phenomenon (�Staring Into the Eye of Pony,� November 3�9). Commenter Classicist read the show’s popularity as a sign of social decline: �The success of My Little Pony among an adult audience is yet another example of the chronic infantilization and obsessive nostalgia for childhood that has much of our generation gripped by the throat.� Jed.Blue thought that taking such positive messages seriously, even if they are meant for kids, could do the world some good. �Our society does not permit adults to dream of a meaningfully different world in any kind of positive way � Is it any surprise, then, that adults looking for such a thing would turn to children’s entertainment?� Commenter Kadath thought the answer might be a bit simpler. �It’s not a gender revolution, it’s not a conspiracy,� she wrote, �although we do welcome our new pony overlords. It’s not any substantial thermometer of some supposed sociological regression to puerile impulses. It’s just a quite smartly written show. As in every smartly written work (as humble as a show about colored ponies might be) you can see whatever individual reason you most tune in with � A lot of people like MLP because it’s cute and funny. No poignant lucubration. End of story.�
3. �George Martin knows that his millions of fans (and his collaborators at HBO) might wish that he chain himself to a keyboard until he finishes The Winds of Winter,� wrote Jennifer Vineyard in her profile of the Game of Thrones author (�801 Minutes With George R.R. Martin,� November 3�9). �Why is the fool not chained to a chair and desk,� asked commenter radzfman. �He really should be finishing his books.� Ericrocksmyworld responded reasonably: �Because he’s not a slave and if he decides today that he’s done writing, that’s his choice.� �True,� replied Davissa, �yet he must be bound to a contract of some kind. No one forced him to obligate himself to eight books, he did that all himself. I’m glad for his success and he deserves to enjoy the spoils, but he’s also accountable to finishing what he started.� �He’s not accountable to anyone,� wrote Mja. �His world, his rules. Nobody forces anyone to read anything. As for the publishing house, that’s private business between himself and them, concerning absolutely no one else.� Our own Jennifer Vineyard stepped in and ended the conversation. �Typing with flayed fingers,� she wrote, �makes it even slower.�