Guess who's the hero.

There's enough self-love in Raines' autobiography to earn it a place in the autoerotica section. By the time Raines stops romancing himself in the public mirror, conjures the last mirage of the glory that could have been, and settles his final grudge, you can only conclude that Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. did readers and Times staffers a service by terminating this vain and cockeyed beast.

[Addendum, March 25: Several readers e-mailed, pointing out that the Shafer Principle merely restates the Pareto Principle, formulated by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). My apologies to Pareto!]

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