I'm Just Saying...

I'd like to see Joan Didion take a hard look at the coverage of the Diane Wilkerson scandal, and the Ted Stevens scandal, and then present her findings, much in the way she reported, famously, on the 'wilding' episode in NYC back in the 1980s. The results would be fascinating. Both Mass. state senator Wilkerson and Alaskan senator Stevens have been caught red-handed on the take, although the media is reporting that Stevens will not serve any jail time. Will wilkerson receive a similar public verdict?

What are the respective narratives going to be?

As the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit always said, "It will be interesting to see what happens."

Opinions I'd Love to Hear

Who is this man?

And what would he think of this person; or this person; or even this person? Of course, this person would possibly bring him to the brink of despair.

Times like these call for a man like I.F. Stone.

Open Your Pie-hole! A Review

ABC's "Pushing Daisys" is one sufficiently twisted show.

It's All on Beckett

if...If...IF...If the Red Sox lose this series (and I'm thinking that won't happen), but if they do, then this one, sadly, is on Josh Beckett. Last night, Beckett was a shell of his 2007 Playoff self, slogging through five innings and 106 pitches. After going up 3-1 in the bottom of the second, thanks to a jaw-dropping gaff by Hunter and Kendricks that allowed three Sox runs from an Ellsbury bloop SINGLE that shut off TVs all over southern California, Beckett gave up a two-run bomb to Angels catcher Mike Napoli in the top of third. Had Beckett shut the Angels down, we would have been looking at an entirely different game; the Angels will would have been broken.

That game should never have gone 12 innings; it should never have been 3-3, 4-3, or 4-4; the Sox had little offense last night, while the Angles stranded sixteen runners. At the beginning of the playoffs I said it was the Angels World Series to lose. In the meantime, they have shown themselves to be quite soft.

High Art...for the People!

Harvard polymath, Marjorie Garber, has an interesting article in the Ideas section of today's Boston Globe. In it, Garber made a considered and persuasive argument for universities to step up and become patrons of the arts. In this visual age, the visual arts need more representation in our colleges through the development of academic programs, artists in residence, and the general display of visual arts across our campuses. In other words, Garber calls for our univeristies to court artists much in the same way that they currently court physicists, biologists, political scientists and mathematicians.

She may very well be right on this point, and I'm in general agreement with her. I was particularly keen on her statement of current partnerships with other colleges. As Garber states, "Increasingly, universities and colleges have developed partnerships with conservatory programs, as both Tufts and Harvard have done with the New England Conservatory of Music, offering programs that combine dedicated training in the arts with some elements of a broad general education. While terrific for those students who choose them, in effect these programs still outsource advanced work in the arts, rather than integrating it into the central life of the university." Partnerships, however, can go further than this. If universities like Harvard and Tufts move forward and become full-fledged patrons of the arts, why couldn't they then turn arouond and establish partnerships with the state's community colleges?

Harvard would be well served by granting community college students access to their patronage by providing these students with an opportunity to view the sculpture displays, or attend a lecture given by Pedro Almodovar. Many community colleges have art programs. Partnering with institutions like Harvard with give our students to expand their base of knowledge, and let a little more light into their lives.

Drewnesia

I can't be sure, but wasn't there something about J.D. Drew that pissed everyone off this summer? I have this vague feeling of hostility coming from my car radio, above-average hysteria bleeting from the mouths of sports radio hosts, but I can't quite place the exact reason for the anger. Hmm...let me see...nope: I got nothing. I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to remember anything about Drew's 2008 regular season performance. In fact, all I can remember about him is the two-run homer he hit in the top of the ninth early this morning.

Which is funny because I can only remember Drew's grand slam in game 6 of the ALCS LAST October. The rest is trivia.

Odd what we remember; or how quickly we forget.

A Wink's not as Good as a Nod

Of course Sarah Palin exceeded expectations in last night's debate. She was too crammed full of over-rehearsed talking points not to. No surprises there. The surprises came after the debate, from the throngs of pundits who were generally nonplussed by her performance. Most responsible conservative talking heads had trouble generating any enthusiam over her upbeat and folksy nonanswers.

That's all well and good, but it was her winking to the camera that bugged me. Who in God's name wants a Vice President that looks less like a stateswoman and more like the local Amway rep?