Nutcracker.com Summary and Analysis

Lou Sedaris, an engineer for IBM, dreams aloud of a future where computers will be a tool no consumer can live without. In his imaginary computer utopia, each computer will be networked so they can all talk to each other. Despite his father's passion, Sedaris has no warm and fuzzy place in his heart for computers, nor does he ever imagine that his father's lunatic ideas will ever come true, until they do.

In this essay, Sedaris waxes nostalgic about the days when computers did not exist, when college students counted on fingers, when graphic designers used tools like Spray Mount and poster board to display their ideas. Like many writers, Sedaris is not attached to the computer, but a typewriter. With a typewriter, he can see the ideas he has laid to waste, physically represented by the amount...