The title phrase comes from one of Pynchon’s letters to Kirkpatrick Sale in the Harry Ransom Center. I won’t tell you the lead-up, but rest assured that it is every word the groaner you think it might be. (A letter from Phillip Roth to DeLillo in the same archive advises him against using Pynchon’s blurb [...]

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I don’t know if the fatuous documentary on the final disc, starring Joe Klein and Jacob Weisberg, left an unduly bad impression; but the institutional portrait of the media in the final season was disappointing. Simon, of course, knows this estate better than the show’s other broad subjects, but the Sun as shown lacked any [...]

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An article in the Post today mentions at least twice that Bruce Ivins was a grass recycler. A neighbor even is quoted in support. Now, I don’t know if I’m just peculiar, but who in the hell isn’t? Unless I’m missing something, “grass recycling” is simply mowing the lawn and not capturing the leavings in [...]

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