Age has made me practical and protective of my time, which is why I’ve discovered that the best way to travel from Northern Virginia to New York City isn’t plane or train. It’s a first-class bus where I can recline, write, and arrive four hours later with the scent of marijuana clinging to my skin while chowing on a racist cookie.

I brought one book with me this time by

Besides thinking, “I wish I wrote this!” (the ultimate compliment from one author to another), It led my exhausted brain down some strange paths.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this: what if we didn’t descend from chimpanzees, those puffed-up little warlords of the primate world? What if our evolutionary lineage veered slightly left and landed us in the family tree of the bonobo? The hugging, kissing, groin-greeting, orgy-hosting bonobo. It changes everything.