Opinion polling is out of hand. Ask the wrong question and you get the wrong answer. Worse, ask an irrelevant question and you draw focus from the core issue and set the wrong expectations.

Last week, MSNBC cited a negative poll about the Supreme Court—the top of a federal branch of government, firmly ensconced in the separation of powers, and appointed for life. It’s fine to take an opinion on their opinions but any desired change will require going to the source of the problem. You know, I’m starting to think we just like complaining.

I think Stephen King is right, that all writing is essentially telepathy, and I’m consistently amazed at how Jill Lepore always makes her first paragraph feel like you’re already in deep conversation—her latest in the New Yorker is no exception.

Finishing The Power Broker (1974) by Robert Caro is like concluding jury duty. After all, it’s effectively a legal case prosecuted by a journalist using a historian’s toolkit. There’s just nothing like it. If you do jump in, make sure it’s with both feet—and, remember, the only way out is through.

Oppenheimer (2023) confirmed what I felt about Hamilton (2020)—namely, that any subject, however complex, can be relayed to a mass audience, if done deliberately.