You've got to love an essay that has the following paraphrase of Plato's Meno dialog:
Socrates: Here is a square with sides of length 2 and area equal to 4. If we double the area, to 8 units, what will the length of a side be?
"Are you lonesome tonight,
Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
. . .
Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?"
In an enterprising attempt to serve music lovers via the Internet, Universal Classics has launched Decca Concerts. An unprecedented partnership between the label and some of the world's better-known symphony orchestras, the website gives classical music lovers the ability to download very recent live orchestral performances "from the world's most important musical cities." The performances are generally no more than 10 days old, depending on how much postproduction editing is needed.
I'd been looking forward to reading Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination. Well, that was before I read his essay "Walt Disney: Man or Mouse" in the LA Times. It was, shall we say, curiously flat for such a meaty subject.