Not Monk's Tallahassie Lassie

~
Umm, this would be one of the nadirs. Monk had spent the morning tweaking yesterday's entries, thinking that Meredith might actually be delighted with him posting them for friends, as she was with "Monk's Florida Girlfriend and the Argentinian Tennis Pro." Her chilly reception of "Meredith's Marriage Proposal" promptly disabused him of that fond notion. He does not bother to tell her that this is a good indicator of why he sees no point in going out if it can be avoided - he has to be a lawyer to be acceptable. He still cut his lunch down to four tacos.

She is out with John, who is putting up the electrical work for a band that is playing on this Memorial Day weekend. She is wearing a shirt that says, "Boys Lie, I Make Them Cry!" And Monk wonders if it is only a coincidence that Simple Tree was repeating a country & western lyric, "She's my Tallahassie lassie."

"Well, Meredith is determined not to be anyone's Tallahassee lassie, least of all mine. And I am where I was. Just playing Talk Net."

Not Monk's Tallahassie Lassie

~
Umm, this would be one of the nadirs. Monk had spent the morning tweaking yesterday's entries, thinking that Meredith might actually be delighted with him posting them for friends, as she was with "Monk's Florida Girlfriend and the Argentinian Tennis Pro." Her chilly reception of "Meredith's Marriage Proposal" promptly disabused him of that fond notion. He does not bother to tell her that this is a good indicator of why he sees no point in going out if it can be avoided - he has to be a lawyer to be acceptable. He still cut his lunch down to four tacos.

She is out with John, who is putting up the electrical work for a band that is playing on this Memorial Day weekend. She is wearing a shirt that says, "Boys Lie, I Make Them Cry!" And Monk wonders if it is only a coincidence that Simple Tree was repeating a country & western lyric, "She's my Tallahassie lassie."

"Well, Meredith is determined not to be anyone's Tallahassee lassie, least of all mine. And I am where I was. Just playing Talk Net."

Updating Marx for the Information Age (Brooks)

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"More than the Roman emperors, more than the industrial robber barons, the malefactors of the educated class seek not only to dominate the working class, but to decimate it. For 30 years they have presided over failing schools without fundamentally transforming them. They have imposed a public morality that affords maximum sexual opportunity for themselves and guarantees maximum domestic chaos for those lower down."

-- "Karl's New Manifesto" by David Brooks for The NY Times

One supposes that Mr. Brooks is spoofing Marx, casting the socioeconomic relations as they have evolved in a dark and sinister light, as though all were driven by criminal conspiracy, and hence mocking leftist thinkers. Yet, he seems to acknowledge that some of the attraction and power of such thought is that they house a kernel of truth. Exploitation rather than egalitarianism is a more illuminating rule when trying to understand the affairs of men. Neverthemore, if we cannot cast off our chains, egalitarianism is still a force in the world, and there is a good fight to be waged. In any case, this is a fun Brooks column.

( Brooks column )

Updating Marx for the Information Age (Brooks)

~
"More than the Roman emperors, more than the industrial robber barons, the malefactors of the educated class seek not only to dominate the working class, but to decimate it. For 30 years they have presided over failing schools without fundamentally transforming them. They have imposed a public morality that affords maximum sexual opportunity for themselves and guarantees maximum domestic chaos for those lower down."

-- "Karl's New Manifesto" by David Brooks for The NY Times

One supposes that Mr. Brooks is spoofing Marx, casting the socioeconomic relations as they have evolved in a dark and sinister light, as though all were driven by criminal conspiracy, and hence mocking leftist thinkers. Yet, he seems to acknowledge that some of the attraction and power of such thought is that they house a kernel of truth. Exploitation rather than egalitarianism is a more illuminating rule when trying to understand the affairs of men. Neverthemore, if we cannot cast off our chains, egalitarianism is still a force in the world, and there is a good fight to be waged. In any case, this is a fun Brooks column.

( Brooks column )