Is Deborah Solomon going soft? The Times Q&A queen's weekly interviews usually involve verbal water-boarding and creatively bitchy editing, but in her column today, she practically asks ex-Daily Show producer Ben Karlin if she can give him a big fat fucking hug. "Do you have any dating advice for your children?" Solomon asks him. What? What happened to "How do you sleep at night?" which she asked an opposition research guy last month, or "I found it a little basic," her response to money guru Suze Orman's new book? Two weeks ago, she asked Sheryl Crow if she "felt valued enough!" Next week, a heart-to-heart with Karl Rove, in which Solomon tells him she's always available to talk to him about his pointy-headed inner child.