"At home, the weight and rage of father took the air out of the rooms." Where did your father's rage come from?

Well, when I track back through his life and his childhood, my paternal line, if you wanna call it that, goes Baltic back to Lithuania, and the country itself is one that has suffered fracture and trauma and different oppressions and invasions and transgressions and conflicts.

So there's this sort of Lithuanian trauma, Baltic trauma that's very old.

Then there-- his parents were not happy people.

His father was stern and mean and abusive, and his mother was...

She had a good sense of humor, but she was stern and mean.

You know, they were cold weather Lithuanian folk, [laughs] so they were tough but kinda mean.

My last request is, uh, wondering if we can close out the show today with your sharing an excerpt from The Big M about your mermaid tattoo.