the kicker

MoDo on Flies, Fries, and Ladies’ Sighs

June 22, 2009

For those keeping track, here are the subjects of the latest three New York Times columns penned by Maureen Dowd. Without further comment, because, just…

June 21: the president’s swatting of a fly
(Money quote: “There are some Americans who think the president got an excess of attention from an excitable news media for expeditiously executing a fly that was buzzing around his face during an interview with CNBC and the Times’s John Harwood. And there are others who see a mystical, metaphorical dimension to the way the president nonchalantly lasered in on the meddlesome insect after it ignored his admonition, ‘Hey, get outta here.’ Without even uncrossing his legs or lunging about, the Chill One caught it, crushed it and kicked it aside and then said to Harwood, ‘Now, where were we?’ before returning to his point about regulatory reform.”)

June 17: the president’s diet
(Money quote: “Even as he grows arugula in the White House vegetable garden, Barack Obama never again wants to be seen as the hoity-toity guy fretting over the price of arugula at Whole Foods. That is why the president ends up sending mixed signals on food.”)

June 14: high-definition television
(Money quote: “As an explosion of pixels hits our TV screens this weekend, with the digital and high-def revolution, my unscientific survey shows women are less excited about high-def than men.”)

Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.