two things

First: Step Rideau! I was listening to Texas Fred yesterday and I just enjoy so much some of the music he plays. Specifically, the up-beat, party, can't-not-move zydeco. The slower, more ballad-y stuff I don't like at all. But the fun stuff rocks. So after a little research I finally went and got myself a starter album: Don't Ask Why, by Step Rideau and the Zydeco Outlaws. It's an A.

Second: Steven Pinker's review of Gladwell's new book is just spot-on. A particular gem: "In the spirit of Gladwell, who likes to give portentous names to his apercus, I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer's education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong." Money. Bad typo in there, though, a parenthetical remark has no close parenthesis. OOPS.