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Updated Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007, at 3:29 PM ET

May 2, 2008

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In Fighting Words, Christopher Hitchens wonders whether presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's infamous temper is worth worrying about in the presidential election. " 'Anger,' make no mistake about it, is the innuendo for instability or inadequacy," Hitchens argues. The many stories from the Arizona senator's career, Hitchens says, are "both reassuring and distressing, and the best and the worst both come from Arizona." Because plenty of admirable or accomplished figures from history have sported famous tempers, Hitchens argues that we cannot easily "tell the hysterical tantrum from the decent man's wrath"—a strong argument for limiting the president's power in the first place.

In Culturebox, Jim Lewis recalls an ex-girlfriend who wore a perfume "so gorgeous—rich, worldly, slightly concupiscent—that I can still call it clearly to mind." The trouble with writing about perfume, Lewis laments, is that the topic lacks the rich canon of reference material available to, say, wine enthusiasts. For that reason, Lewis welcomes the publication of Perfumes: The Guide, a book that he describes as "brilliant, often very funny, and occasionally profound."

In Sports Nut, Ted McClelland notes that, while the Kentucky Derby is one of the best-attended sporting events in America, attendance at less-famous races year-round is dismally low. The problem, he says, is not that people are no longer interested in following and gambling on the horses; it's that "the track is a terrible place to bet on a horse." It comes down to economics, McClelland contends. "The highest-rolling players—who have the clout to negotiate rates—are refunded 10 percent of their wagers by the phone hubs," he writes. Phoning it in is, simply put, a much better financial decision. Also in Sports Nut, Dan Schar details Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's attempts to field a winning horse in the Kentucky Derby by sheer force of wallet. So far, he has been unsuccessful. And Magnum Photos presents "A Day at the Races," an international photo retrospective on the sport of kings.

In Politics, Jeff Greenfield finds a lot of familiar parallels between the current Democratic presidential race, with its focus on elitism, and the English socialist movement in the 1930s. "For Democrats at the moment, it is no doubt exasperating to watch working-class voters choose candidates whose economic tastes run to comforting the comfortable," Greenfield writes. But drawing on a 1937 book by George Orwell, Greenfield suggests this isn't a new conundrum. "Orwell also rails against the condescension many on the left display toward those they profess to care most about." He quotes Orwell on the subject: "If a real working man, a miner dirty from the pit, for instance, had suddenly walked into their midst, they would have been embarrassed, angry, and disgusted; some, I should think, would have fled holding their noses."

Also in Slate: In Explainer, Juliet Lapidos describes why living in a dungeon isn't as bad for your health as it seems. In Foreigners, Shmuel Rosner notes that promising to meet with unfriendly foreign leaders sounds like good policy but may not be. In Press Box, Jack Shafer cataloged the New York Times' efforts to conceal genitals in photographs of a nudist resort. And in The Green Lantern, Brendan I. Koerner engaged the myth that recycling paper actually wastes energy.

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