I recently read Adam Haslett’s Imagine Me Gone—harrowing but also funny and deeply compassionate. A great book and an amazing writer.

I’ve been writing lots of emails lately to my representative in the U.S. Congress. My sister has also been writing to her congressional representative. When sending an email, there’s a drop-down box above one’s name where the writer must choose “Mr.” or “Ms.” or “Mrs.” or “Dr.,” etc. Apparently, the drop-down boxes don’t always work correctly. My sister is a retired pre-school teacher. The other day she received (in response to one of her emails) a letter from her representative that began “Dear General Harris . . .”