Obama meets the press

Last Saturday night, over dinner and drinks, the President of the United States was overheard saying:
Michael Steele is in the house tonight. Or as he would say, ‘In the heezy.’
Wazzup!
For the last time, Michael, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a ‘troubled asset.’
That’s right. At [...]

Critical Review: Peter Merholz

An Advocate of Humane Business Practices
April 07, 2009

Merholz has only been blogging on Harvard’s site since February, but in that time he’s gained a strong following for his insights on consumer experience and management philosophy. He has a poet’s sensitivity for the nuances in “interactivity,” in the largest sense of that word: technology <-> [...]

Critical Review: Roissy in DC

Between the mensch and the stench and the trench, Roissy’s the middle-
-man. Ladies, watch out. You’re not so tough. We can figure you out. That’s the message of Roissy. Since the sexual revolution of the ’60s, masculine identity has veered all over the psychological map as we’ve been constantly flummoxed by the eternal question, “What [...]

Critical Review: Frank Rich

Horatio of the Political Stage
April 07, 2009

When the history of our age is written, Frank Rich will be known as one of the early 21st-century’s best journalists — he belongs in the pantheon alongside H.L. Mencken, Edward R. Murrow, Mike Royko, and Walter Cronkite. With a background in theatre criticism, he swiftly understood the [...]

Critical Review: Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times

All Cylinders
April 07, 2009

Dude, if you can find a better automotive writer than Dan Neil, I’ll eat my newspaperman’s fedora. Any lugnut can be a motorhead. Throw that crankshaft into a college class, you might get a crackerjack stylist. But to shift into 6th gear, and drive that lean beast of a review into [...]

Critical Review: David Brooks

Temper the enthusiasm.
April 08, 2009

As I look back over some of David Brooks’s columns of the past five years, I’m forced into a posture of grudging respect. His equanimity has been politically savvy as the tables have turned: he still has a job, after all. He is indeed a moderate conservative, never striding too [...]