Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Timothy Noah and Marjorie Williams

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970717273747576
from: Timothy Noah

An American Museum of Torts?

Posted Thursday, July 9, 1998, at 11:26 AM ET

Up before dawn today. I couldn't sleep, so why not get up and read the papers? That way I can spend the morning with you and the kids at the Actual Breakfast Table, having discharged my duties at the Virtual one.

The papers don't have much to add today to the story of Tina Brown's departure from the New Yorker. It seems to have caught everyone by surprise. Two possible successors mentioned in the papers who went unmentioned by me yesterday: Kurt Anderson, a New Yorker writer who previously edited New York magazine (and, before that, co-edited Spy magazine); and Art Cooper, editor of GQ.

Riots in Nigeria, with 19 people dead. Two American military doctors will participate in the autopsy of Moshood K.O. Abiola, the Nigerian opposition leader who keeled over in the presence of two U.S. diplomats. We were right: This story has legs.

Chainsaw Al Dunlap, the ousted, layoff-happy CEO of Sunbeam Corp., got weepy in an interview with Martha Brannigan and Ellen Joan Pollock of the Wall Street Journal. "There's a real person there," he said of himself. "A person people respect. A person people love and care about." Please read this story and tell me what to think about it. (For background check out Slate articles by David Plotz and James Surowiecki on Dunlap.)

Oh, also, Ralph Nader, one of the great positive forces in American life in this century, has completely lost his mind. The Washington Post business section has a piece about how he wants to start an American Museum of Tort Law in his hometown of Winsted, Connecticut. One room would have a Corvair, maybe a Pinto; another would be dedicated to medical devices like the Dalkon Shield and the silicone breast implant; another would house a courtroom where visitors can pretend to sue each other. The Post story is really terrible. The reporter apparently couldn't find a soul to quote making the obvious point that this is a perfectly asinine idea. In fact, the story is written so humorlessly and uncritically that I had to read it twice to satisfy myself that it wasn't a parody. It does contain one intriguing fact, though: Nader, who hopes to raise $5 million for the museum's first phase-from the trial lawyers, naturally- is also contributing $50,000 of his own funds to the museum. Exactly where did Ralph Nader get his mitts on $50,000?


the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970717273747576
from: Timothy Noah

An American Museum of Torts?

Posted Thursday, July 9, 1998, at 11:26 AM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Timothy Noah writes Slate's "Chatterbox" column. Marjorie Williams is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post