OH BRO-O-THER!!!

Peggy Noonan tells a nice little story about Ethel Merman attending a Broadway musical featuring someone trying to fill ol' Ethel's shoes, and hit the high notes- which this wannabe manifestly could not do. At some point in the program, after one particularly lousy rendition of a Merman standard, the orchestra audience- and probably most of the balconies- was treated to a unmistakeable voice saying, "Oh, bro-o-ther!" Ethel, it would seem, was not amused.

Today's "Oh, Bro-o-ther" Moment is brought to you by The New York Times, who pays R.W. Apple to write mush-mouthed equivocations like the following: "The war in Iraq was neither as painful as its opponents predicted nor as painless as its proponents suggested."

Oh, Bro-o-ther!