Robert Frost, Breindel Award, etc.

We're Frosted

THE SCRAPBOOK notes with dismay some innovative justice meted out in Vermont.

Readers will recall the incident last January when dozens of young nighttime revelers broke into the onetime home of Robert Frost in Ripton, Vermont, drinking, smoking pot, and generally having a grand old time. They broke up wicker furniture and dressers and burned them in the fireplace, emptied two fire extinguishers, destroyed dishes and pictures and light fixtures and chairs, tossed empty beer cans and plastic cups on the floor, even vomited in the living room.

As part of their punishment, prosecutor John Quinn has thrown the book at them--literally. Some two-dozen merrymakers will be required to study Robert Frost's writing under the tutelage of poet/critic Jay Parini, who teaches at nearby Middlebury College, which owns the Frost house.

As Prosecutor Quinn told the Associated Press: "I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was .  .  . they would be more respectful of other peoples' property in the future and would also learn something from the experience."

They would learn something, all right. Needless to say, THE SCRAPBOOK's reaction to this is not favorable. To begin with, where would it end? If juvenile delinquents ransack the childhood home of, say, Allen Ginsberg, will they be "dragged .  .  .  through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix"? What if a group of literary vandals deliberately destroy some Sylvia Plath manuscripts? We wouldn't necessarily require them to stick their heads in the oven.

No, you don't have to be a partisan of T. S. Eliot to believe that studying the poetry of Robert Frost should not be part of any criminal's penalty. Reading poetry should be pleasure, not punishment. Talk about sending the wrong signal! Any young Vermonter who thinks it's a hoot to break into a private residence--of the famous or obscure--and ransack the place for laughs is not likely to benefit from a textual analysis of "The Death of the Hired Man." In the spirit of Frost himself, THE SCRAPBOOK would recommend a night or two in one of those quaint Vermont hoosegows, or maybe some particularly onerous chores on the old homestead, such as "bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top in each hand" for two or three days, and walking "out in rain--or back in rain" for a couple of hours.

No Republicans Need Apply

On his website, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Dick Polman modestly reprints a quotation from someone or another lauding him as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation." Polman, like the Inquirer itself, is part of the media throng working furiously to elect Barack Obama president. Which is fine. We would expect no less from the newspaper that ran 21 consecutive days of editorials endorsing John Kerry over George W. Bush in the three weeks leading up to the 2004 election.

But in his gushing over Obama's clinching the nomination on June 3, Polman wrote, "let us pause instead and simply acknowledge this historic American moment before it inevitably becomes subsumed by the day's political minutiae: An African-American has been chosen to lead a major party in a presidential election. In the space of four decades, the unimaginable has become reality."

Unimaginable? Did Polman miss the 1996 election, when a number of Republicans were desperate for Colin Powell to accept their nomination? Maybe that just slipped Polman's mind. Or maybe not. Polman then mentions the paucity of black politicians holding statewide office, saying: "Obama, joined in 2007 by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, are the only black Democrats currently holding statewide elective office (Harold Ford came close to winning the Tennessee Senate race in 2006)." Why not mention a black Republican like Michael Steele, who was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland before running a serious campaign for the Senate in 2006? Readers can draw their own conclusions.

Not a Joke An actual correction from the June 5 Washington Post: "A May 31 Metro article about the Scripps National Spelling Bee misspelled last year's winning word. The correct spelling is serrefine."

Not a Parody

The headline above, from the May 30, 2008, Daily Variety refers to a Pew Research Center poll conducted between January and March indicating that "the dominant personal narratives in the media about Obama and Clinton were almost identical in tone, and were both twice as positive as negative," 69 percent and 67 percent of the time, respectively. The percentage of stories about John McCain that were positive? forty-three percent. Sentences We Didn't Finish

"I tell this tale, of course, not merely to remind us that the better world of which Robert Kennedy so movingly spoke died aborning 40 years ago in Los Angeles. I also tell it because I see a dynamic similar to that between the Kennedy and McCarthy campaigns in the relationship between Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's equally historic campaigns, and because today's Democrats have .  .  ." --Harold Meyerson, Washington Post , June 4, 2008

Congratulations

The tenth annual Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Journalism has been awarded to Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens. The judges singled out for particular praise his February 13, 2007, column, "Russian for Chutzpah," which began: "The nearest equivalent the Russian language has for the word chutzpah is naglost. In you, Vladimir Putin, the Russian nation has found the embodiment of naglost."

Sponsored by the Eric Breindel Memorial Foundation, and generously supported by News Corporation, Breindel's longtime employer and this magazine's corporate parent, the award carries a prize of $20,000 and is presented each year to the columnist or editorialist whose work best reflects the spirit that animated Breindel's own writing: love of country, commitment to democratic institutions, and determination to bear witness to the evils of totalitarianism.

The Profound Humility of St. Barack

"The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge--I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations .  .  .

"I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless. .  .  . This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." --Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

Help Wanted Contributing editor Charles Krauthammer seeks a research assistant for a one- or two-year term. Send résumé to job@charleskrauthammer.com.

We're Frosted

THE SCRAPBOOK notes with dismay some innovative justice meted out in Vermont.

Readers will recall the incident last January when dozens of young nighttime revelers broke into the onetime home of Robert Frost in Ripton, Vermont, drinking, smoking pot, and generally having a grand old time. They broke up wicker furniture and dressers and burned them in the fireplace, emptied two fire extinguishers, destroyed dishes and pictures and light fixtures and chairs, tossed empty beer cans and plastic cups on the floor, even vomited in the living room.

As part of their punishment, prosecutor John Quinn has thrown the book at them--literally. Some two-dozen merrymakers will be required to study Robert Frost's writing under the tutelage of poet/critic Jay Parini, who teaches at nearby Middlebury College, which owns the Frost house.

As Prosecutor Quinn told the Associated Press: "I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was .  .  . they would be more respectful of other peoples' property in the future and would also learn something from the experience."

They would learn something, all right. Needless to say, THE SCRAPBOOK's reaction to this is not favorable. To begin with, where would it end? If juvenile delinquents ransack the childhood home of, say, Allen Ginsberg, will they be "dragged .  .  .  through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix"? What if a group of literary vandals deliberately destroy some Sylvia Plath manuscripts? We wouldn't necessarily require them to stick their heads in the oven.

No, you don't have to be a partisan of T. S. Eliot to believe that studying the poetry of Robert Frost should not be part of any criminal's penalty. Reading poetry should be pleasure, not punishment. Talk about sending the wrong signal! Any young Vermonter who thinks it's a hoot to break into a private residence--of the famous or obscure--and ransack the place for laughs is not likely to benefit from a textual analysis of "The Death of the Hired Man." In the spirit of Frost himself, THE SCRAPBOOK would recommend a night or two in one of those quaint Vermont hoosegows, or maybe some particularly onerous chores on the old homestead, such as "bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top in each hand" for two or three days, and walking "out in rain--or back in rain" for a couple of hours.

No Republicans Need Apply

On his website, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Dick Polman modestly reprints a quotation from someone or another lauding him as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation." Polman, like the Inquirer itself, is part of the media throng working furiously to elect Barack Obama president. Which is fine. We would expect no less from the newspaper that ran 21 consecutive days of editorials endorsing John Kerry over George W. Bush in the three weeks leading up to the 2004 election.

But in his gushing over Obama's clinching the nomination on June 3, Polman wrote, "let us pause instead and simply acknowledge this historic American moment before it inevitably becomes subsumed by the day's political minutiae: An African-American has been chosen to lead a major party in a presidential election. In the space of four decades, the unimaginable has become reality."

Unimaginable? Did Polman miss the 1996 election, when a number of Republicans were desperate for Colin Powell to accept their nomination? Maybe that just slipped Polman's mind. Or maybe not. Polman then mentions the paucity of black politicians holding statewide office, saying: "Obama, joined in 2007 by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, are the only black Democrats currently holding statewide elective office (Harold Ford came close to winning the Tennessee Senate race in 2006)." Why not mention a black Republican like Michael Steele, who was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland before running a serious campaign for the Senate in 2006? Readers can draw their own conclusions.

Not a Joke An actual correction from the June 5 Washington Post: "A May 31 Metro article about the Scripps National Spelling Bee misspelled last year's winning word. The correct spelling is serrefine."

Not a Parody

The headline above, from the May 30, 2008, Daily Variety refers to a Pew Research Center poll conducted between January and March indicating that "the dominant personal narratives in the media about Obama and Clinton were almost identical in tone, and were both twice as positive as negative," 69 percent and 67 percent of the time, respectively. The percentage of stories about John McCain that were positive? forty-three percent. Sentences We Didn't Finish

"I tell this tale, of course, not merely to remind us that the better world of which Robert Kennedy so movingly spoke died aborning 40 years ago in Los Angeles. I also tell it because I see a dynamic similar to that between the Kennedy and McCarthy campaigns in the relationship between Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's equally historic campaigns, and because today's Democrats have .  .  ." --Harold Meyerson, Washington Post , June 4, 2008

Congratulations

The tenth annual Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Journalism has been awarded to Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens. The judges singled out for particular praise his February 13, 2007, column, "Russian for Chutzpah," which began: "The nearest equivalent the Russian language has for the word chutzpah is naglost. In you, Vladimir Putin, the Russian nation has found the embodiment of naglost."

Sponsored by the Eric Breindel Memorial Foundation, and generously supported by News Corporation, Breindel's longtime employer and this magazine's corporate parent, the award carries a prize of $20,000 and is presented each year to the columnist or editorialist whose work best reflects the spirit that animated Breindel's own writing: love of country, commitment to democratic institutions, and determination to bear witness to the evils of totalitarianism.

The Profound Humility of St. Barack

"The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge--I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations .  .  .

"I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless. .  .  . This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." --Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

Help Wanted Contributing editor Charles Krauthammer seeks a research assistant for a one- or two-year term. Send résumé to job@charleskrauthammer.com.