As I did a sort of pregnant-woman waddle into the elevator at the university library yesterday, carrying an 11-inch-tall stack of books in front of my belly, I kept hoping someone would comment on them. Something like, “Wow, that’s a lot of books you’ve got there.”

“Yes,” I would have replied. “I’m writing a 1,000-word children’s story.”

But nobody asked. Sheesh — it was like they were used to seeing someone carry a stack of books through the library.