Brooks and Dumb

Don’t worry about National Socialist Security It’s getting more difficult to sort out the NY Times’ David Brooks’ columns when you try to rank them in order of how much they are beginning to remind me of the old Nazi adage “Just repeat the lie; it will become the truth.” Yesterday’s column, in which he … Read more

Making Noise And Treading Water

The Twins are 9-3 in their last twelve games, and have gained exactly nothing on the White Sox. I can’t quite decide whether that should be encouraging or discouraging news for either Minnesota or Chicago. Flip a coin, I guess. I suppose, really, it all depends on whether or not you believe the Sox are … Read more

A Consultation

You were talking about disinclination. Let’s explore that idea further, if we may. No, sorry, I thought I made it plenty fucking clear that I’m feeling disinclined. Well, perhaps then you might tell me a bit more about your travels in Saudi Arabia. I’m afraid you’ve once again mistaken me for another patient. I’ve never … Read more

The Art Of Indexing (Continued)

I’ve written previously about my love of indexes (or indices, if you’re so inclined), and my huge admiration for the people who make a living compiling these things. Many of these folks clearly have a perverse sense of humor and the souls of poets. Some of them are perhaps batshit crazy. Check out the decidedly … Read more

Can We All Just Agree…

That if Dougie Baseball was still flashing the leather over at first and saving more runs than most first basemen produce with the bat we’d already be looking at the White Sox in our rearview mirror? Oh, and by the way, Justin Morneau’s slugging percentage (.780) is higher at the moment than Mientkiewicz’s on base-plus-slugging … Read more

Uncle Jumbo's Playground

–Illustration by James Dankert Last week was a mess all around, and Friday night was the capper. I guess I drank too much of something bad, and things got away from me. I swear, though, that I was determined to get something to Zellar, but my mother called me in the middle of the game … Read more

Crit Fight!

The last great spat among high-profile media folks was between James Woolcott and Kurt Andersen. Today, the sparks are flying between Jack Shafer and Michael Wolff. We don’t have strong preferences for a winner, although we have a couple of peanut-gallery-type observations to make. Shafer is by far the more thorough and accountable reporter, Wolff … Read more

Monkeys in suits

In God We Trust If you haven’t read the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas” by Thomas Frank yet, you can get a preview in today’s NY Times story on the Kansas Board of Education’s impending mandate that evolution be taught side by side with “intelligent design” in Kansas science classes. The irony hasn’t been … Read more

What A Day For A Day Game

Turn that frown upside down Twins fans. I could, and should, just leave it that, because I really didn’t get much of a chance to pay attention to today’s game. I needed to roll a rock up a hill, so I had to take a pass on sneaking away to the Dome. I also felt … Read more