Provoking the Hosts
            

            ELLEN:

            I'll be brief on this first one, as I've got a doctor's appt. at 7 a.m., but
I promise two more dispatches today, you lucky old dog.

            So, you're just assuming a recession is around the corner. So do I, but I've
been saying that for several years. In fact, if the U.S. economy was in the
turlet, as Archie Bunker would say, two years ago, Clinton never
would've made it through his Lewinsky (and I use her name as just a catchall
for all his scandals, which are too numerous to repeat) travails. The
public, which by and large cares more about its pocket than politics, would've
said send the skunk to the showers. And, as a result, Gore would be the
front-runner in the 2000 elections.

            Explain to me, re: your second post yesterday, how techno is "interesting in
a larger political sense." I fell off the pop music train in the early '90s; my
nephew, who's 11, knows all the new stuff, just like I did when I was his age.
I gave him a copy of the Pogues' Rum, Sodomy & the Lash when I was
in Bermuda, as an artifact of the '80s, and one of my top five from that era,
and he thanked me, but I bet he hasn't played it yet. Let's be provocative.
What do you think of 
                  Slate
               ? There have been rumors that
Microsoft is going to close it down, just as their Sidewalk is crumbling. I
don't mean to be a drunk at the host's cocktail party, but I have mixed
feelings. I think Michael Kinsley is an incredibly overrated editor and really
belongs at the New York Times , where his mediocre talents would fit
right in. But as a Web site, 
                  Slate
                has its moments,
even though on a crummy computer, like my year-old laptop (which means it's
already obsolete) it's very slow. The links are valuable, especially the
transcripts of TV shows; the Diary can be interesting; and Jacob Weisberg, who
writes like he's 60, is fun to make fun of. But 
                  Slate
                is far
better than the amateurish Salon , which I hear (doesn't everybody?) is
in trouble. 
                  Slate
                is professional, and is more like a print
magazine, obviously like the New Republic . I was one of the few paid
subscribers and would subscribe again, just for the services.

            One of my sons just woke up, so I've got to run. I haven't shaved in a week,
so now I have the growth that Nixon did by 11 a.m. each day. My boys want me to
grow a beard; I tell them it's not possible, but I'll give it a try. More
later.

            Best,
RUSS