But I want the brain!

Can we share, Ginger?

It's kind of...gooey, and I *don't* think that's spinal fluid.

The way I feel right now, a third of a brain would be better than none.

I hear ya, sister. I'm in the same boat.

Well, *I* don't want it, now that you've tossed it back and forth and it's leaked...goo...all over everything.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Help! Nested parenthetical statements: okay if someone writes in a very ... mannered, filled with asides style? Or should they be avoided at all costs?

(I'm thinking of turning one paragraph, that already has some parenthetical statements, into one large aside. I suspect my brain has started to shrink and rattle around my skull.)

Well, I favour them, but I suspect they appeal to only a limited audience. For maximum clarity and accessibility, I'd probably recommend varying it with dashes, or apostrophes, or SOMETHING else (even though I quite understand the temptation [irresistible at times] to use at least two [if not three {or even four, were it but viable}] different kinds of parentheses).

Jilli, it's hard to tell without reading it, but if by "nesting" you mean parens within parens, I think I would avoid them when I could, although regular use of parens for asides would be fine.

You could always begin the particular paragraph you mention above with: "On a side note" or "As an aside" or even "Aside:" and then parenthesize (is too a word) the bits you would have otherwise nested.

Even I, a parentheses addict in casual typing, try to stay away from the nested parentheses. They're very testy when they're nesting.

(When I said it was hard to tell, I meant hard to say where your particular paragraph [which might be one big aside] was concerned.)