Friday, September 21, 2007

Why Are We Here? Or, Can One Still Get an Education at a University?

Anthony Kronman's essay in the Boston Globe, "Why Are We Here?" (subtitled: "Colleges ignore life's biggest questions, and we all pay the price") is generating quite a bit of attention. See my contribution to the discussion in a symposium pulled together by the good folks at Comment magazine.

Update [01/10/2007]: Gideon Strauss, the indefatigable editor of Comment, has solicited a response from Kronman.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Harlequin NASCAR: I'M. NOT. KIDDING.

In the early 20th-century, Edmund Wilson Jr. thought he could glimpse the emergence of a genuinely American literary form.

This has got to be it: Harlequin NASCAR.

[HT: my old friend Jeff Dudiak]