Go Maroons

I was confused by the lead of New York Times scribe David Brooks' Feb. 4 column: "Last fall, I taught a political theory course at Duke University, as part of my lifelong quest to teach at every college I never could have gotten into out of high school."

Now, David Brooks went to the University of Chicago. It's true, of course, that the U of C is less selective than places like Harvard, Princeton and Duke. (Some say the U of C is less selective because U of C students select themselves, which is as sexy as it sounds.)

But I think Brooks is selling his alma mater short. As a Chicago man myself, I would take umbrage if I weren't preoccupied with reciting favorite passages from the Melian Dialogue.

As for what a guy with a bachelor's degree is doing teaching political theory at Duke, that is the power of journalism, and a loophole I'd be happy to jump through myself.