This is exactly the point that I was making to glee,** flowbark**, with the words “unless they have some specific purpose in mind for doing so.” If I had the time after the two “What’s News” columns, the middle column–the one you call “humorous”–was my next choice for reading. For example, from this week’s WSJ:
5 Apr: “Eureka, Nev., Loses Dr. Kumar, and He Is a Hard Act to Follow * * * Threat of Terror Ends a Program Bringing Foreign Physicians to Rural Towns Across U.S.” --Humorous? It’s not even “light-reading.”
4 Apr: “For Latino Immigrants in L.A., Mr. Rosases is All Things to All People * * * He Performs Marriages, Does Taxes, Helps with the INS; The Pharmacist’s New Hats.” –Maybe you could call it light-reading–until you got into the article.
3 Apr: “For U.S. Jews, a Trip To Israel is Suddenly a Wrenching Choice” --Humorous? Not even vaguely close.
2 Apr: “In Ponds of France, Poachers Get a Leg Up On the Frog Police * * * Warden Cuminge Sees Crooks Slip Through a Crackdown; Oozing Mass of Procreation” --Aha! At last! Grade “A” humor. Doubtful? Try the first paragraph:
Now that, surely, is the kind or humor you must have been talking about, eh, flowbark? At least so it seems until you read on, with a pleasant smile still on your face, and discover that the reporter has very cleverly introduced you to at least three of the most important ecological/social problems of this century. Whew! And without his clever artifice, few of us would have paused to read such a column.
A applaud the Journal, just as I applauded the FT, for their high degree of journalistic ethics, being willing to address some of the most unpleasant problems in a way that makes us willing to spend the time needed to read them.
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But enough of this hijack. May I ask,** checkmate**, if you’re still around, what do you mean by “Christianity”? Do you mean the teachings of Jesus. Or do you mean certain sects that base their fundational tenets on Jesus’ life. Or do you mean the aspect of Jesus that says that he was the Jewish “Christ”? Or do you mean something altogether different?
Sorry to be so nit-picky. 