Daily Office: Friday
¶ Matins: Once you have clicked through and read today’s link, Harvard Magazine article, entitled “Nonstop,” about pathological overachievers among Crimson undergrads, we strongly urge you to re-read last Friday’s Matins. Together, these pieces convey a sense of the disservice being done to our default elite by the nation’s top schools. As “Nonstop” makes clear, however, the universities are merely responding to a problem that originates with seriously bad parenting — worse, again, among the elite.
¶ Lauds: Simon Russell Beale — a brilliant man who just happens to be a brilliant actor. (Guardian; via Arts Journal)
¶ Prime: Sad to say, this is truly a Must Read: Just when you thought that it couldn’t be done, the Epicurian Dealmaker defends investment bankers as purveyors of financial advice! And they said it couldn’t be done.
(Now that we read the fine print, maybe it’s that the EP forgives investment bankers for giving lousy advice.)
¶ Tierce: As a rule, we steer clear of touting pie-in-the-sky announcements at The Daily Office. We know that our faithful readers want results, not hot air! But we were so busy burping today that the charm of a healthy baby on our knee encouraged us to hope that he will grow up in a world with a herpes vaccine. Even though the New Scientist piece is startlingly self-deflating.
¶ Sext: We’re still burping. Joe Jervis breaks the news about Betty White, and we just click right through.
¶ Nones: Karl Rove continues to be an Ugly American. (BBC News)
¶ Vespers: The Second Pass celebrates its first anniversary with an omnibus of contributors’ paeans to out-of-print books. Here’s Sarah Douglas about her choice, Inside the Art World: Conversations with Barbaralee Diamonstein.
¶ Compline: Tony Judt’s sketches in The New York Review have been must-reads, but we’ve resisted linking to them for want of a decent introduction to the man (and to his dread affliction!), which everyone who knows something about him is far too conceited to admit to needing. New York to the rescue.