At least, a response, if not an explanation: Following the reading of the adventurous and risky feats by many women — let’s just use Liz Smith’s Chilean adventure as an example — it could possibly be dangerous to explain my comment.

Whoopi: I never thought you were mean either. In fact, I thought you once were a nun.

And women speak of a condition known as machismo in males!

To seek to offer my opinion on the question asked by “Diane M.,” one’s religion shouldn’t matter in global politics, though it does matter among fundamentalist extremists in the U.S., Israel and most of the Moslem world. As you have undoubtedly learned by now, Barack Obama has been found guilty among the media talking heads of having been associated with a Christian minister who made controversial comments some times. However, Barack Obama’s attitude toward diplomacy — his expression of a willingness to talk with enemies as well as friends — would make a big difference in regaining friends in the rest of the world. To leave it at that, it is worth stating that Hillary Clinton also would be more likely to use diplomacy more than military force. The truth is that Jews, Moslems and Christians came by their religion from a common thread and know many of the same gospel tenets. Extemist fundamentalism is what separates them most.

Barack Obama’s genes are derived from many cultures. It is clear that those who find the contents of this photograph “silly” are ignorant snobs, which is an oxymoron anyway. Is it his race? His ethnicity? The suggestion that he was Muslim? Does he need to convert to Judaism? I felt better after reading all of the comments and realizing that most of them were of a tolerant nature.

A relative’s father died. The father and the mother had been married for many decades. But they divorced about 10 years before his death. The adult children seemed upset that their mother came to the funeral. One said the mother thought she was too good for the father during their marriage. One of the adult children asked me if I thought it was appropriate for her mother to attend the funeral and visitation. “Who knew him better and longer than her,” I asked. This little story relates to the comments by Marlo Thomas about remaining friends with former lovers, to use or abuse a word. Is it not usually a problem that stems from jealousy by new friends, particularly lovers? Or is it that the women heading this list are strong enough to do what they damned well please?

Having had to move around a lot, it is striking that my most vivid memories of friends, regardless of the duration of the friendship, were with “characters.” The grey-type personality of the Wall Street clerk, to use a character from a short story, disappears almost entirely unless some specific aroma or event brings it to the forefront of my mind. And “characters” tend to be so much more fun!

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were forced to admit: There never will come a time when Al Quaeda could not re-constitute itself or Iran could not increase its influence in Iraq. That was in response to a clever set of questions from Barack Obama during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. So Liz Smith’s ambivalent feelings are justified by the realities for the future.

While I have been impressed by nearly all the conversations on this list, the chat about politics seemed to teach me nothing. It seemed to trip so lightly as to lack adequate depth. And I know it was conducted by intelligent people. What it tells me is that the participants, accustomed to relatively high level discussions, felt they needed to dance around the personalities of the politicians with euphemisms. The Bosnian story was as much a lie as a rose is a rose. It was covered with another lie — sleep deprivation by a woman who has asked us who we want to answer the phone at 3 a.m. and be sharp enough, presumably, to deal with an international crisis. As for John McCain, it appears the Republicans are intent on electing another candidate with less than a half-empty glass of the facts, let alone the truth. If Candice could have found a way to reprise Mortimer Snerd, we would be hearing more intelligent banter, and Mortimer would have had a smarter adviser.

Well, you know: They won’t get to sit in the front rows and listen to harp music all day.

Bless your poetic soul. You deserve the status of a goddess in a world where everyone is a learner and everyone is an educator.

I also miss her friend and fellow Texan, Molly Ivins, and wish they would rejoin us in the flesh as well for the celebration of George W. Bush’s downfall.

What do I think? Methinks your heart is intact and working at its optimum.

I do not remember anything before my birth and don’t expect to remember anything after my death. A quotation believed to be attributed to Seneca: “Death should hold no terror. For so long as we are there is no death. When there is no death, we no longer are.”

The biggest lie(s) that I have believed were that I was loved for sterling character rather than sterling material.