Trying

The Essay: Decline and Fall and Fall and Fall by Paul Collins

Paul Collins, who you'll all remember from reviews of his books, Not Even Wrong and Sixpence House, writes a humorous piece here explaining why the NEA's "the sky is falling" report on reading in America isn't very meaningful. I'd summarize it, but it's worth reading in full.

So is this essay by Paul Graham, sent to me yesterday by Brandon. Graham explains why high school writing and literary education should not be the same thing, and why the fact that they are distorts the future interests of students. He also explains how a real essay should work, and in so doing describes some of the most interesting writing available for consumption, the kind that makes both the writer and the reader think in new ways about something rather than driving toward a foregone conclusion. I'd recommend taking the time to stroll through more of Graham's work; he's an interesting thinker.

Much else is going on today, of course. It's the day after the 1000th American death in Iraq, and the deficit is going to be huge again this year and continue to grow in years to come if we continue to follow Bush's lead. Kerry has a new ad that targets Bush on the cost of going to Iraq, explaining how that $200 billion could have been better spent. Tonight on CBS the old "Bush didn't complete his National Guard duty story" will return with a bang as his old commander admits he pulled strings to get Bush in. Meanwhile, analysis of new information from the Pentagon shows that Bush failed to complete his duty. That would make him--wait for it--a liar. Correct me if I'm wrong: Isn't that worse than flip-flopper? I'm sure Karl Rove will find a way to weasel around this, though.

Oh, and Serena Williams really got screwed last night. In 15 years of watching tennis, I've never seen a more blatantly wrong call, and certainly never seen a flurry of subsequent bad calls that compound the issue. Thank goodness the umpire has been removed from the remainder of the tournament. Watching her sit in her perch and not care that she was singlehandedly tainting one of the best tennis matches of the U.S. Open was so infuriating that I hope she never works in the sport again.