LATEST ADDITIONS

Cartoonist Doug Marlette has made me laugh until milk shot out my nose. He has also made me squirm when he has pilloried <I>my</I> hobbyhorses. I've always figured that political humor was at its best when it made you laugh at stuff you believed in&mdash;anybody can raise a chuckle over something you're already contemptuous of.

"Last fall, <I>Cond&#233; Nast Traveler</I> aviation correspondent Barbara S. Peterson applied to work as a Transportation Security Administration screener. Her mission: to investigate reports that despite a five-year, $20 billion overhaul of the passenger screening system, checkpoint personnel are failing at the job. Being hired was only her first surprise. Peterson's two months at the airport revealed how this overtaxed but dedicated workforce copes with equipment shortages, budget cuts, and record numbers of (not very pleasant) passengers. Here is an unprecedented look at the reality of America's last line of defense."

I've linked to <I>Locust Street</I> before, but this is one of its best posts ever: a moving account of Buddy Holly's last days, with MP3s of some unreleased home recordings.

Though I was doing my best to give passengers room to exit the train, I was hopelessly in the way. On some mornings, it's impossible to stand on the train and <i>not</i> be in the way. Everyone scrambles toward the open doors, as if departing this train, right now &#151; right now! &#151; means the world. The world. I think it's because I hate this, that I try to do the opposite. When it's my turn to depart, I move carefully and slowly, perhaps in some futile attempt to show others how gracefully done it can be. Fellow passengers, there is another way. Watch as I move through these doors with such ease and finesse.

Pascal Wyse sure loves musical innuendo.

There's a nice interview with <I>New Yorker</I> editor Remnick in <I>The Independent</I>. As a writer, I suppose I should mention how much I identify with all kinds of questions of craft revealed here, but, really, what I most identified with was his anecdote about listening to Bob Dylan records and discovering T. S. Eliot and Rimbaud.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet hits one out of the park in this 1966 performance. The fabulous Eugene Wright looks completely out of place as the only band member without eye-wear.