Bits and Bobs


>Having had to suffer through Andrew Gilligan's insufferable reporting for BBC Radio 4's Today program (like Morning Edition but much more unbearable; yet I listened to it every morning), it's nice to see Andrew "Americans Claim to Be at Airport but I can't seem them from the Al-Rashid Hotel" Gilligan getting shafted but good. Hah! No sympathy from me, mate.

>Burstein's book is unbearable with its pretentiousness; I persist in thinking his Jefferson book to be far superior. Yet I cannot warm to the General. I was too much affected by Paul Johnson's portrayal of him in The Birth of the Modern to ever like him. The Doc has helped me to appreciate Jacksonians; but I still think Jackson was kind of nuts.

> Interesting review by Preston Jones in Books and Culture of Still Fighting the Civil War, a book that doesn't sound as good as its review. In fact, the book sounds like it's kind of annoying.