There’s been lots of talk on the internet about the cost-cutting decision of Slate to pull the plug on peerless press critic Jack Shafer, who’s going to work for Reuters. I particularly admired Jack’s work in policing the NYTimes’ endless capacity for detecting non-existent trends, not only those involving the latest in “killer drugs” and teens gone wild sexual antics—the Times apparently feeling the responsibility to take up the slack from the once thriving, now sadly shriveled National Enquirer—but also those involving—Christ save us all—terrariums.*
While Jack is gone, Slate soldiers on, remaining the go-to place for, among other things, guys in search of endless blather about the NFL, which is otherwise just about impossible find anywhere in the media—print, talk radio, TV, the internet, you name it—when it comes to the NFL it’s fucking radio silence, except for Slate. Where else are you going to learn, for example, that the Arizona secondary blows (did you know that? I didn’t know that) or that the Chiefs are dog shit. I’m sorry, Jack. You were cute. But this is news I can use.
*Or is it terraria? I don’t know about the Big Apple, but down here in DC we’re blissfully terrarium-free.
