Subject: Source of Balkan Trouble
Re: “Foreigners: Two Answers for Macedonia”
From: Ronald Beier, editor, Demographic, Environmental, and Security Issues Project
Date: Sun Mar 25 10:34 a.m. PT
The fundamentals of the situation [seem obvious]: economic distress and the tensions that scarcity inevitably provokes. The reason that war has broken out here and not elsewhere where similar conditions obtain is to be put down to the particular political situation, namely a power vacuum. After Tito died, and the economic situation in the area continued to slide, no force or agency stepped in to prevent the hostilities which were clearly on the horizon.
[Find this post in full here.]
Subject: Bushspeak Newspeak
Re: “Ballot Box: Dubya’s Dictionary”
From: Publius
Date: Tue Mar 20 1:54 p.m. PT
[Big Brother] would have been thrilled to see how effortlessly Weisberg employs doublethink to accuse Bush of both slovenly, unclear language (Bushisms) and cleverly artful language (Bushspeak). Big Brother and Jacob bellyfeel Bush crimethink (i.e., Big Brother and Jacob Weisberg are joined as one in their strong opposition to Bush and his reprehensible ideas, so alien to our way of life).
[Find this post here.]
Subject: The Importance of Good-Looking Groupies
Re: “Diary: Elizabeth Evitts”
From: A.G. Android
Date: Fri Mar 23 2:23 p.m. PT
The groupies I’ve seen backstage at rock shows are generally not especially attractive. By contrast, I note that the groupies who surround DJs at raves and dance clubs tend to be much more attractive. (Not that I’ve ever partaken, of course.) I don’t think it was always that way, and it bodes poorly for the future of rock music versus electronica.
[Find this post here.]
Subject: The Case for Alger Hiss
Re: “Chatterbox: Alger Hiss Innocent, Anti-Communists Declare!”
From: Jeff Kisseloff, managing editor, The Alger Hiss Story Website
Date: Tue Mar 22 9:55 p.m. PT
I’m sorry the folks at the Tamiment Institute are so hostile to Alger Hiss’s memory, but if anything Alger Hiss in deed was more hostile to communism than they were in their words. … Our job at the site is to state the case for the defense and put the affair in its context, not to promote his innocence. I don’t know what the reference is to the Hiss “defense fund” and wish there was one. As to the link to the defense files, it’s just that. We hope many scholars will peruse the files to judge the matter for themselves.
[Find this post in full here.]
Fray Notes:
Best Fray of the week was “The Breakfast Table” (yes, again), with fighting film critics and star posters, accusations of frat boy behavior—the thread starts here—and helpful comments from Neill Hamilton: “While the posts appear to be trading blows about the movie The House of Mirth, it appears that they are arguing about certain hidden issues.” It was one of the great Fray feuds.
Runner-up Fray would be “Seed” on the celebrity child of thesperm bank: Click here and scroll to the Fray Notes.
The Fray team loves grammar posts and would like to have included this claim that Apple Computer’s slogan “Think Different” is grammatical, despite Rob Walker’s criticism in this “Moneybox.” But it read too much like a rather chic advertisement.
We must revisit last week’s ” Best of the Fray,” which included the line about “excoriate the Brits.” Joseph Britt, star poster and Fray favorite, was nominally shocked. And David W. Rochlin (and after we gave him a star, too) mysteriously wants this column renamed “Worst of Fray.” Zeitguy (who reads us so closely he can name a post after a passing reference) wants a link. Is there no end to Fray posters’ complaints and demands? Wasn’t the “Breakfast Table” mutiny enough?
Exciting news here: Posting in the Fray can ward off Alzheimer’s disease. While we’re on medical matters, Fray tip of the week: Foot-and-mouth disease is in no way connected with mad-cow disease. The “Explainer” FAQ on Foot-and-Mouth turned out to be popular at NASA: For a blissful moment we hoped that those travelers who were so interested were astronauts. Probably not. Still, we’re glad to be of use.
