Merlin, I won’t ask you for a transcript but I want to quote you for the piece I am writing called “Against Multitasking.” The thrust of it: Like you, I am convinced multitasking is a myth. Not just a myth but the most pernicious, unachievable, anti-woman idea to come down the pike since panty girdles. What is this? Not only can you have it all, you can have it all at once? They have got to be kidding. The (mostly women’s) magazines that promote it are playing a cruel trick on their already overstressed and for-the-most-part guilt-ridden readers. I have to confess I’m a Zen-influenced extremist who’s found some peace and sanity by trying to give each thing I do my complete attention, one thing at a time. This way of living can be beautiful, say, when you’re nursing a baby and for once choose not to watch TV. It lets you notice things that will echo in your memory forever. When I see someone reading on a treadmill or something I want to scream “Don’t do that to yourself!”