Lileks on the State of the Union (or SOTU, as the hip bloggers say; or State of the Onion, as the policy wonks like to say):

I thought the Social Security section was strong, but whether it built up a head of steam to blast through the headwinds to come I can’t say. If the AARP puts out ads showing the spats-clad Monopoly man yanking checks from the hands of seniors and lighting rotund cheroots, what was said last night will make little difference. The challenge to Syria was nice, a public echo of what I suspect has been said in private. And hello, Egypt! Welcome to the Axis of Damn Well Better Get Your Act Together!

Go read it. Love it. Treasure it. And while you're at It [Ed.--Heavy use of the indefinite article there, eh, Mr. Ombudsman? Back off!], go down and check out Lileks' latest in his chronicle of the Adventures of Joe Ohio, Matchbook Salesman. I really am loving this little series, all inspired by a pile of matchbooks that Lileks acquired in his feverish pursuit of mid-century printed ephemera; it's a novel, it's a social history, it's both. It strikes me as a very creative way of doing social history, much the same as David Gelernter employed in his 1939: The Lost World of the the Fair.

Naturally, us'n historians would prefer to sneer rather than imitate; sneering so long and so hard, we have to use a fish-hook to keep our upper lip in the appropriate position.

Dang, but does that smart.

Oh, and yes, Style Editor, there is a Maustown, OH.