Pun Salad

David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."

Secondary reaction: the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie? The Catcher in the Rye? Stranger in a Strange Land? One Hundred Years of Solitude? (OK, I'd only really want to see Stranger in a Strange Land. But still.)

As someone who has any number of times had his memory corrected by consulting old records or old letters, I don't think a man's life should be ruined for that, when there was no crime to investigate in the first place.

Michael Barone is brief, but also pretty convincing on the issue:

A Libby pardon will of course be assailed by many in the press, just as many in the press treated the Plame disclosure as the most serious breach of intelligence in years. But these are the same people who gleefully hailed the New York Times's disclosure of NSA surveillance of suspected terrorists outside the United States and of the Swift bank system--two breaches of intelligence that, unlike the Plame disclosure, materially damaged the government's efforts to prevent terrorist attacks. It will be interesting to see if the press chooses to willfully damage U.S. intelligence operations in the Obama administration. In the meantime, please, Mr. President, pardon Scooter Libby.

When it aired on CBS, I was 17, in Omaha, an about-to-be high school senior. I watched the final episode with my dad. When it was over, we just looked at each other. "That was weird." Multiple re-viewings over the years have not shaken this judgment.

A remake of the series will be airing on AMC this year sometime. Hope it doesn't overlap with Battlestar Galactica or I may collapse from geek overload.

What is your mother's maiden name?

What is your older sister's favorite Monopoly game piece?

Who did your paternal grandfather vote for in the 1956 presidential election?

Why did you choose a liberal-arts degree when your entire family urged you to go into finance?

The Patriots' Page Six QB went metrosexual/international after his Super Bowl wins. Tom Brady was featured at the State of the Union address. He dated starlets and supermodels. He did ads for ridiculously expensive watches and private jets. He had a papal audience.

"I don't need that," said Pedroia. "I'm all right with the pope."