If you want to read truly one of a kind original opinions, not the standard left and right and standardized journalistic views about just about everything on the planet then One Man's Chorus by Anthony Burgess will be satisfying. The author of A Clockwork Orange which we deplored was a civilized Lancashireman with all the truculence and individualism we experienced first hand there. In 1983 he noted that the conformity of culture was "rendering travel to foreign parts a waste of time". Alors! No wonder we have to go to Mars!

Why is it so satisfying that Martha Stewart was found guilty? What really strikes Symposia is how socially marginal she is. Her friends are au pairs (ex of course), "walkers" (ahem), disgraced academics (Waksal) and other fringe people. With her national status you think she could have found more appropriate people to fraternize with; these are obviously those whom the Nutley girl feels comfortable with. My dear!