Friday, February 09, 2007

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.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Primary sources

Read my Daily Page report from last night's mayoral debate.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Good word

"What's so Great about the Barrier Reef?"

-- Old 97's

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Good word

"Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor, I'll piss on 'em. That's what the Statue of Bigotry says."

-- Lou Reed
If they were the Smothers Brothers, they'd get canceled

I like the laugh track. Very Ray Stevens.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Good word

"Tom Hanks, I hope you are proud. Offend the nuns if you are brave enough, but librarians?! You are a very very brave man."

-- Bookish Barbara
Brr

It's minus 13 out there, sources say. That, my friends, is cold. As I rode the bus to work today, I overheard this conversation:

"How are you doing?"

"Cold. How are you?"

"Fine. Cold."