In 2007, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker was asked, on
The Colbert Report, to explain how the brain works in five
words. He answered: “Brain cells fire in patterns.” That’s perfect
Pinker—clever, concise, and correct. His most famous book, The
Language Instinct, is about apes, anatomy, semantics, anthropology,
and why deaf babies babble with their hands the same way hearing
children do with their voices. His new book, The Stuff of
Thought, concerns cognitive evolution and cussing. Whatever
he talks about, it’s going to be fascinating. (Town Hall, 1119
Eighth Ave, 652-4255. 7:30 pm, $5.)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....