We were gliding along Interstate 5 last week, heading down to San Diego for a short vacation. My wife was beside me in the passenger seat, eagerly criticizing my driving while staring at the barren scenery.“Only 320 miles to go,” I chirped. “At 75 miles per hour, how long do you think it will take to get to San Diego?”By the silence that ensued, it was clear that either (1) she didn’t know, or, more likely, (2) she didn’t want to think about it.

Bob Odenkirk (center, background) brings a sharply focused newshound sensibility to his performance as Ben Bagdikian in “The Post.” Other cast members are Tom Hanks (foregound) and (from left) David Cross, ... more Bob Odenkirk (center, background) brings a sharply focused newshound sensibility to his performance as Ben Bagdikian in “The Post.” Other cast members are Tom Hanks (foregound) and (from left) David Cross, John Rue, Jessie Mueller and Philip Casnoff.

It was 11:55 p.m. when DJ Adrian A stood amid the massive crowd at Bootie SF’s New Year’s Eve party at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge. The plan had been for Adrian A and Trixxie Carr, two of the vocalists for the club night’s mashup band Smash Up Derby, to tackle the countdown together, then launch into a live rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” mixed with “Blitzkrieg Bop” as the first song of the new year.

“A cottage-dwelling spinster; an impassioned roamer of the moors; a fallen woman, shunned; a melancholic genius” — these perceptions of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf, respectively, are beguilingly questioned in “A Secret Sisterhood.” The closest the four came to knowing each other was, apparently, when Eliot’s friend Harriet Beecher Stowe contacted Brontë through a spirit medium.

Even as far back as when I was pregnant with Gege and Didi, people warned that I’d have to choose. If my twin sons ended up going to different colleges, and if their graduation ceremonies fell upon the same day, I was told, I’d have to decide which one to go to — and that which one I chose would amount to declaring which one I loved the most.As if I didn’t have enough on my mind at the time! Sibling rivalries run deep and archetypal.

Dear Abby: I have been married for 18 years and have two wonderful kids, ages 14 and 12. Ten months ago, my husband said to me, “I told you I would divorce you if you ever got fat.” I was shocked! Yes, I have gained some weight over the years, but at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 150 pounds, I was not exactly obese. I was frightened by what he said, so I took off 25 pounds.

For Oaklanders, a sure sign that Christmas is fast upon us is sighting the 19th century balloon taxi that whisks heroine Marie to the Land of the Sweets. That glorious contraption was spied at the Paramount Theatre Saturday, Dec. 23, when the Oakland Ballet Company opened its all-too brief annual run of “Nutcracker.”Now in its eighth year of performance here, Artistic Director Graham Lustig’s production will disarm the most jaded soul and fascinate the youngest viewers.

At first, we disagreed. Although my husband wanted to instill the tradition of Santa Claus, I hesitated.“It’s fun!” he said. “And I don’t want them to feel left out, when other kids are talking about it at school.”“I don’t like lying to them,” I said. Years ago, I had interviewed a father whose family celebrated Kwanzaa, in commemoration of African American community and heritage.

Christopher Plummer is sitting in the Four Seasons, Beverly Hills, talking about his performance as John Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World,” a performance that, two months ago, did not exist, and that he won’t see until the movie’s premiere. “I haven’t a clue what I’ve done,” he says, with a laugh. “That’s the weird part. It’s all weird and dreamlike.

Russell Peters stars in the series “The Indian Detective,” available on Netflix today. Peters plays a detective investigating a murder while visiting his father in India. Also on Netflix, the standup special, “Russell Howard: Recalibrate.”HBO launches a fascinating four-part project today called “15: A Quinceañera Story,” whose first part airs at 7 p.m.