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Illegal lace and a pretty face…

Kazakh panty wars

Opposition

I've decided both terms of The Alphabet vs. the Goddess are wrong. It's not "the alphabet" because language includes numerals as well as letters, and invidious distinctions either way are mistaken. Calling nature a goddess genders things excessively, leaves out the "masculine" element of red-in-tooth-and-claw competition, and leads to the ugly pattern of worshiping Woman but not particularly liking women, which might be called the Dick Syndrome (after Philip K., of course). So, language vs. nature, and I worship language because it is the only thing that can protect us from nature.

Rank

I am old enough to remember when US News & World Report was a newsweekly that aspired to become Time or Newsweek. Having failed at that overly modest goal, it has successfully reinvented itself as the metagrader whose college and university rankings are feared by those it judges. Now it is flushing its past (including the changes to its Eternal Immutable values) down the memory hole. James Fallows reports.