Adam Gopnik on the Internet: It's Better than Alcohol, Adultery!

Writing is the process of finding something to distract you from writing, and of all the helpful distractions — adultery, alcohol and acedia, all of which aided our writing fathers — none can equal the Internet. Like everyone else, my life now is simply a string of e-mails fueled by caffeine, and when not e-mailing I am hopping from political blog to political Web site to ice-hockey fan “boards,” on one of which I live a second, secret life as an unduly opinionated commentator called “SherbrookeW.”