Might Read

I'm catching up on New Yorkers. Three brief reviews in the 3/25 issue caught my eye: The Book of Dahlia (Albert), The Soul Thief (Baxter), and The Age of American Unreason (Jacoby). The last work (in which the author "laments the decline of middlebrow American culture and presents a cogent defense of intellectualism") is summed up:

"The Internet, for all its promise, is too often 'a highway to the far-flung regions of junk thought.' Meanwhile, twenty-five percent of of high-school biology teachers believe that human beings and dinosaurs shared the earth, and more than a third of Americans can't name a single First Amendment right. In such an environment, Jacoby argues, the secular left and the religious right can have no fruitful dialog on issues like the separation of church and state."

Wow: decline of the middle brow? Junk thought? That sounds good.

On the Muzak at VCUkrop's: Raspberry Beret. A 30ish man in frozen foods (in a uniform at which I didn't stare at long enough to identify -- campus security, perhaps) sang along.

Watching: the Best of Jack Benny DVD set that Phusband picked up somewhere. Last night, I think I dreamed in black and white, and I know there were men in suits and women in great dresses.