There are people who ask strangers and bare acquaintances impertinent questions as if they were entitled to an answer. Sometimes they turn professional, and become journalists.
Jan 302020
Working
Business is more agreeable than pleasure; it interests the whole mind more continuously, and more deeply.
—Bagehot
Jan 222020
The critic’s indispensable service is not to praise greatness, which makes its own way in the world, but to refrain from praising mediocrity, which requires his assistance.
Nov 142019
It has always conferred status to consume tax revenue, and opprobrium to produce it.
Nov 132019
Everyone is in favor of upward social mobility; the other direction is more controversial.
Oct 242019
There is in America an unbridgeable psychological divide, made manifest every April 15th, between those who receive checks from the government and those who write them.
Oct 182019
Writing and computer programming are usually done worse when they are done for money.
Sep 202019
It is the quack, needing protective coloration, who affirms most zealously the principles of his profession.
Sep 112019
Journalists used to be raffish and amusing liars, and they are no longer raffish or amusing.
Sep 062019
The best places don’t let people in, and the worst don’t let them out.
Aug 132019
It is crime, of all fields, that most attracts the woefully underqualified.