Hurrah for Entropy!

When the Hutton story broke and word was that it vindicated Blair and damned the BBC without bothering with the faint praise routine, I immediately thought of an English acquaintance of mine who was surely chewing the carpet with rage or doing his best Redcrosse in the Cave of Despair imitation as he heard the outcome. Not one to intrude on the secret sorrows of another, I turned to The Spectator to read the carpet chewing reaction to the Hutton report, and I must say this is floor covering mastication of the very highest order. (See also the nice Persian in the parlor.)

Fun though these were, and even though this issue has the ever amusing Mark Steyn being, yes, amusing about New Hampshire, entertaining travel articles, and a "Stupid Americans, Tony Blair is not your friend!" riff (a refrain also favoured by the aforementioned acquaintance), the finest article in this issue is, bar none, this one. Yes, New Urbanist proponents, it really is the best article in the issue. (Although as someone who is slogging through How the Dead Live for a book club, I cheered when I read the piece on Will Self.)