The Invisible Counterpoint

According to a new report, the roundly chilly response to James Franco’s Oscar hosting gig has hardly lessened his profile at Yale. In fact, the post-grad polymath — who is in the early stages of obtaining a Ph.D. in English from the Ivy League institution — was back on the East Coast mere hours after the Oscarcast ended, journalists in tow and mythology expanding by the hour. “At 9 the next morning,” notes today’s NYT , “[Franco] was in a Starbucks in New Haven, hunched over a book and barely recognizable in a gray sweatshirt, but still wearing his tuxedo pants.” I mean, of course he was still in tuxedo pants. Just add it to the legend promulgated by Franco’s peers and faculty alike: (S.T. Vanairsdale, “ Report From Yale: James Franco Still Likes Doing Things,” Movieline, 4 March 2011) "journalists in tow and mythology expanding by the hour" is really good. He, like Portman, speaks to our love of frenzied activity, of not sitting still, and routine daily acclaim;...

As the editor who published this piece, I never saw it as a technical analysis of the economy. It is political analysis, a learned observer's sense of where power resides, how those with power must be appeased even when they may not have earned it, and, yes, where to lay some blame. Rather than shallow, I find Michael's take to be unencumbered by a bunch of economic and academic gobbledygook. He calls it as he sees it -- and he sees it as a noted professor of US history. (David Beers, "Tbarnston, another view," _The Tyee_. March 12, 2009) Folks, don't dare object to the piece, for it's written from a "learned observer," " a "noted professor" -- that is, from someone from within an establishment David Beers evidently has great respect for. Considering that this journal (i.e., The Tyee) evidences some signs of being a guerrilla, alternative, "mouthpiece," some of us might now be confused as to when we're supposed to ...