"It’s lonely to be reminded a thousand times every winter that the dominant American cultural event occurs without me."

Lonely!

That's Julia Ioffe, providing seasonal fodder for The Washington Post, in "Please don’t wish me ‘Merry Christmas’/It’s impolite and alienating to assume I follow your religion."

My initial reaction was oh, jeez, must we do this every year?, but it meets my standard of bloggable because of the word "lonely" and because I wanted to let you know that the WaPo commenters are heavily against her. Here's the highest rated comment:

Oh, for heaven's sake! I can understand a Jewish person being sensitive in the current climate, but this sort of "everyone stop what they're doing because it's all about me" wears people out. This is why people hate the left, and I'm a leftie! As an atheist, Ms Ioffe, I typically wish people Happy Holidays, but if they wish me a Merry Christmas, I respond with the same with a warm heart. Not for the holiday, which I dislike more for its retail nature than its religious nature, but for the warm wishes they are extending me. Did your parents never teach you "When in Rome..."? If I were in Israel, I'd do my best to revel in the holidays celebrated there, or at least to tolerate them with a smile. Same thing if I were in Pakistan (and don't get me started on my views of Islam - I'm a feminist for crying out loud and no fan of any religion). I want to sympathize, I really do, but you are not winning friends or influencing people here. Would you have all the world be drab, with no one celebrating anything because, well, someone somewhere won't be into that? Focus on taking tax breaks away from churches to make the separation of church and State more meaningful. But being wished a Merry Christmas? (and really, you had to bring this up just as the right was starting to realize their war on Christmas stuff was nonsense?) Being wished a Merry Christmas is a mind over matter problem - if you don't mind, it don't matter. Get over yourself!

As for "lonely" — how can you ask other people not to do the things that make you feel lonely? No one would ever hold hands or kiss on the street. We'd all need to shut up about it if our adult children ever visited us or called us on the telephone. There could be no mention of parties and dates.

Out of empathy for the lonely, if anyone loves you, you'd better keep it to yourself.

"[T]he pantheon of hungry young men who have moved to Washington and shape-shifted, whether consciously or not..."

"... into something that’s more palatable to the city’s establishment. The blogger who, in 2008, tweeted, 'fuck tim russert. fuck him with a spiky acid-tipped dick,' now styles himself as the evenhanded, empirically driven adult in a room of squabbling, stubborn children. Even his critique of Washington, grounded in data and charts and graphs, is establishment to the core: This place, he says, is not like it used to be."

From "Ezra Klein: The Wise Boy/A tale of striving and success in modern-day Washington," by Julia Ioffe (in the redesigned New Republic). I'm not sure what to make of this long, long piece about Klein, but this is a funny picture to publish:



That's just a photoshoot misfire that ought to have been deleted instantly. To select it to illustrate the article is practically to announce: This is a hit piece.

I pointed out that, in spite of his loathing of being subjected to the journalistic gaze, he had agreed to be profiled not only by me, but also by New York magazine—simultaneously. The “people above me” he said, “seem to think it’s a good idea.” It would bring in readership, and Klein felt it would be “hypocritical” not to cooperate with the press when he, the press, was constantly asking people to cooperate with him. It was almost too meta to bear. “You’re sitting there taking notes and recording while I’m sitting here taking notes and recording,” he said. “It’s a peculiar situation!”...

Klein later told me that he found our exchange “slightly threatening.”

“Don’t take it personally,” one of Klein’s friends explained. “He didn’t get this far being casual about his image management.”

Oh, good lord, this thing has me sympathizing with Ezra Klein! Ridiculous.

By the way, a pantheon is "a temple dedicated to all the gods." (OED.) The figurative meaning is: "The group of people or things most revered by an individual, nation, profession, etc.; a group of people particularly respected, famous, or otherwise significant in some capacity; a set of things having acknowledged value or importance." It doesn't make sense to talk about "the pantheon of hungry young men." Either they hungry or they are in the pantheon. The ambitious young strivers are not the gods.

(Are there hungry gods?)