Hoist by his own petard

A petard, literally, is an explosive device, in 16th-century lingo. People, especially us little people, have always enjoyed seeing their betters being hoisted, i.e., blown up, by bombs of their own making. Nixon and his tapes, Bill and his intern, Spitzer and his prostitute. I, for one, took more pleasure in the tapes than in either of the latter. But there was hubris in them all, a sense of being above it all, untouchable. Notice, too, it is the ones who challenge others the most who are brought down hardest.

If Jimmy Carter had not been such a holy man, his lusting heart would not have made the news. Now, our governor wishes he had taken Jimmy’s cue and kept his lust where it belongs—in his own private fantasies. Settling with God is so much quieter.

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It might be catching

Must be one of those bugs going around… I’ve spent the last few days laid up with some kind of sinus/respiratory infection. Not pretty, let me tell you—and my sympathies go out to anyone else in a similar situation. (Hopefully, I’ll be all better by the time you read this.) But you know how it is—in the right conditions, a virus (which is, after all, nothing more than a little packet of information) can spread at a truly astonishing rate.

Fortunately, this doesn’t just apply to microbes. Ideas too can be contagious, and some produce wonderful symptoms when they infect the right hosts. Take a look at the results of an outbreak that happened last week at the Wallenpaupack Area School District in Pennsylvania, where my wife is the librarian at the North Primary School.

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