In FOREIGN AFFAIRS this month Niall Ferguson is trying to link Spengler, Toynbee, and Paul Kennedy to paintings by Thomas Cole. Will it go?

Right wing columnist Tony Blankley keeps writing about the idea of mandatory national service for all Americans. Would it ever, ever fly?

"What's your favorite book?"

If I say THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis do I get to have a diabetic cookie?

What's your position on Creech Air Force Base?

On the blues - Francis Davis or Robert Palmer?

Listen to me - what do you know about J.D. Salinger and Peter Burling's toy bus stop? Never saw that coming huh?

I'd really like to meet somebody who owns one of Piero Manzoni's cans of shit. Wouldn't you?