In today's NYTimes (and Friday's)

[rhu]

Is Frank Rich insinuating what I think he's insinuating? Scary.

In the Arts section, a cappella gets some respect.

In Friday's paper, Ben Brantley wrote the kind of rave review theatre producers would kill for.

If anyone out there signed up for TimesPeople and wants to become TimesPeopleFriends, I'm signed up under my real name and hometown.

Comments

[fauxklore]

Your link for the a capella article was wrong and took me to the Palin article instead. I found the article anyway. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't mention some of the more successful (and unusual) a capella groups out there - The Bobs and Sweet Honey in the Rock have both had significant major label sales, for example.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Link fixed. Sorry.

And I would add the Nylons to that list.

[ertchin.livejournal.com]

Re: Frank Rich: He takes a while to build up to it, and then sort of leaves it behind again, but yes, I see what you think he's insinuating, and agree that he is insinuating it.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. Frank Rich, in that piece, is both stating and insinuating a lot, and I got lost in it all. What do you think he's insinuating?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I think he's insinuating that McCain has Alzheimer's.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. I didn't get that insinuation at all. I took the paragraph--and it's only the one paragraph, I think--to suggest nothing more than mental exhaustion, not actual mental disorder.

Mind, it's been explicitly suggested, though I find that article to border on the slanderous. The misspeakings that piece refers to in no way resemble the word-based aphasia described as a symptom; the "poor judgment" evidence is purely partisan; misplacing a personal item is not the same as putting an iron in the freezer as if it belongs there.

Rich's evidence doesn't seem any more solid: I don't think repeating a canned joke is evidence of a mental disorder, nor is a hostile countenance during a debate; and the "confusing proper nouns that begin with S" is a cheap shot.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I think it was subtle, and I agree with you that the available evidence wouldn't support such a claim if made overtly, but I think that's the idea he was trying to get us to think about without our being aware of it. (That's why I said "insinuate" and not "imply".)

The point at which my "skeptical reader alarm bells" went off was when he cited Palin's admiration for Bush pere, since we all know what was afflicting Ronald Regan, wink wink.

[ertchin.livejournal.com]

Huh. I guess I didn't see what you were insinuating. I read it as a more-generic-yet-more-specific "McCain has a major medical problem looming (or already occurring) which is beginning to affect his public persona, and much of his campaign staff (with or without his knowledge) is thus already taking actions as though Palin is the presidential candidate".

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it as implying Alzheimer's specifically, but he certainly suggests that McCain mental health is deteriorating.