Our Ms. Brooks

I'd hoped that my switch to early hours (not my idea!) would enable me to get more done in the the afternoons and evenings. No such luck. I have been reading, but not writing. (On the other hand, I'm told that Blogger had a li'l' crisis yesterday, so even if I'd posted something it might have disappeared for a while. But I haven't posted anything since Tuesday anyway.)There was a really

Our Ms. Brooks

I'd hoped that my switch to early hours (not my idea!) would enable me to get more done in the the afternoons and evenings. No such luck. I have been reading, but not writing. (On the other hand, I'm told that Blogger had a li'l' crisis yesterday, so even if I'd posted something it might have disappeared for a while. But I haven't posted anything since Tuesday anyway.)There was a really

History's A Punk

Something else I wanted to say about the Times article on Susan Jacoby. She told the reporter that she first decided to write The Age of American Unreason on September 11, 2001, in a New York City bar:As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in

History's A Punk

Something else I wanted to say about the Times article on Susan Jacoby. She told the reporter that she first decided to write The Age of American Unreason on September 11, 2001, in a New York City bar:As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in

A Mad As Hell Tea Party

What, another book on the dumbing down of America? Why does no editor ever seem to dismiss a hopeful author of one of these with “It’s been done”? Because, you know, it has been done, and done, and done to death, in an endless session of “Ain’t It Awful?”Even more symptomatic, the author of this admits that it’s been done, but that didn’t stop her from doing it again, because things are like

A Mad As Hell Tea Party

What, another book on the dumbing down of America? Why does no editor ever seem to dismiss a hopeful author of one of these with “It’s been done”? Because, you know, it has been done, and done, and done to death, in an endless session of “Ain’t It Awful?”Even more symptomatic, the author of this admits that it’s been done, but that didn’t stop her from doing it again, because things are like