Here are more alphabetized comments. The remainder of them are posted at my sf blog linked below:

K: My pantheon of favorite rock performs include several famous artists such as the Beatles and Pink Floyd, and several more obscure artists such as Chris de Burgh, Richard Thompson and the Strawbs, but my very favorite artists are still the Kinks, who were sadly underrated for nearly twenty years.

L: I was in college during the Vietnam War protests and the Summer of Love, but I was so immersed in science fiction that I hardly even noticed either of them taking place. In the aftermath of Kent State, protests took place on the Seton Hall campus a short distance away from where I was taking classes; I finally realized what was happening when final exams were cancelled my senior year.

M: I have serious doubts about mankind when many of the most renowned historical persons are basically a bunch of mass murderers. After all, doesn’t most of the fame of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon Bonaparte come from their success at invading countries and slaughtering millions of people? Are these people who should be held up as icons of “greatness”? And isn’t it revealing that while European conquerors, such as those listed above, are considered great heroes, Asian conquerors such as Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, whose careers were very similar, are considered lowly savages?

N: Isn’t it ironic that I have devoted a large portion of my life to reading and writing about science fiction, yet if I have any small recognition outside my school, it is probably because of a nonfiction book about the Nanking massacre?

O: Ocean City, MD, is a very nice place to visit, but were I to retire in that vicinity, I would probably select neighboring Fenwick Island, DE, which is much less touristy, has as much beach access, and resides in a state with incredibly-low taxes.

P: Most polls for the past few decades have shown that one of the leading concerns of most Americans is high taxes. Does this mean those people are not worried about the country’s infrastructure falling apart, millions of people dying from lack of medical coverage, or the fact that America has more crime and poverty than many non-Third World countries? Apparently so, since handling all of those problems would require paying more taxes, which is precisely the opposite of what most Americans want.

S: There is only one reason why teaching is a wonderful profession: students. True there are obnoxious students, ill-tempered students, and arrogant students who consider disruption their right as Americans. But other students take learning seriously, and consider teachers their mentors and role models. Those are the students who make up for all the other ills of the profession.

V: My new Jeep Compass came with a year of Sirius Radio pre-paid, so I have been listening to better music in the car than I have heard since the heyday of WNEW-FM in the 1970s. My favorite station is Sirius 16, the Vault, which plays classic rock but not vastly-overplayed hits, dipping into album tracks instead. In a single day I heard The Kinks’ “Celluloid Heroes,” the Moody Blues’ “The Actor,” and Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick.” I realize Sirius is vastly overpriced, but an entire year of music like this might convince me to change my mind about that.

Y: I am not a country-western fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I really like the music of Dwight Yoakim, who is as much rockabilly and rock and roll as he is country. Unfortunately, straddling genres that way is usually career suicide.

Z: I am a huge fan of progressive rock, where the vast majority of artists are non-American, mostly British (Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, King Crimson) or European (The Flower Kings whom I discovered through Frank Denton). Frank Zappa is probably the outstanding American artist, although the new Decemberists are certainly a very promising band.