I've struggled to figure out exactly what it is, but I'm feeling an acute information withdrawl. Perhaps it's the lack of the newstand qualities of the bookstore's periodicals section. You can get a lot just from browsing, and it was quite a luxury to read whatever magazine or paper I wanted on my lunchbreak.
Perhaps it's the dearth of interesting stories in the Times and ALDaily. Other than hurricanes in Florida and the school bombing by Chechen terrorists, we've had some slow news cycles in the past few weeks.
Perhaps that's worth an aside. I don't wish to appear to dismiss hundreds of deaths and the hardship of thousands so lightly, but I have no real insight to offer. David Brooks wrote Tuesday criticizing a certain avoidance of "the cult of death" by the media and Western intellectuals.
I have no desire to defend the monsters who slaughtered a school full of innocents. The past century, however, should remind us of the dangers of viewing the Russian government as either an unambiguous ally or enemy.
The evil of our enemy does not make us righteous. Neither do our own flaws require that we submit. This is, however, why it is important to choose one's battles, and dangerous to attempt to use one's own moral standing as a tool of persuasion.
But back to more trvial matters! I finally received The New Yorker's Food Issue, about which Short Schrift has been raving on about for the past week. To add insult to injury, the issue following was already available on the newsstand.
Perhaps it's simply the malaise of the unemployed.
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