Potpourri

Here is a phrase taken from Ross Mackenzie's column. It's an example of
what many people have been saying about Roberts, just announced as Bush's nomination for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Roberts does appear to be a good choice. Mackenzie said "Judge Roberts possesses a world-class legal mind". Conservatives have used this kind of phrase a lot recently, to defend the choice.

Actually, though, that kind of phrase always gives me the heebie jeebies. For me, it conjures up a person who is exceptionally good at finding emanations in penumbras, and constructing arguments around the idea that it "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is".

I've started reading a most interesting book entitled Spice, by Jack Turner. It's about the spice trade over the centuries. There was a sentence in the introduction I really liked. Turner said: "To say a spice was special was tautological, the words have a common root."

I also finished up The Immaculate Deception, the last in Iain Pears' terrific Art History Mystery series. Alas, I admit I'm dense enough not to have figured out the identity of the artist of the mystery painting in question, or how certain works made their way into the Vatican. Argh. I wish Pears would have spelled it out in detail.