ever so slightly funnier than usual

The Jan 15 issue.

Paul Rudnick's "Shouts and Murmers, First Love" on the literal mindedness of the Bush girls was a little funnier than usual. And, in the dialog, The President and Mrs. Bush really did sound like the clueless parents of two trashy and privileged darlings.

Strangely enough, my thoughts on Sarah's perfect cashew brittle - "Light and crisp and full of tiny bubbles but so rich it tastes like bacon, if you know what I mean." - at Food and Paper inspired her to, quite literally, make Peanut Bacon Brittle! With bacon in it, if you know what I mean. Sarah, however is nothing like the Bush girls; she is, rather, wickedly elegant and thoughtful.

I also read Katherine Boo on Manual High School, who, I thought, managed to be quite critical by showing not telling (or rather, by dropping hints now and then and letting the reader put it all together) - a very light touch, but meticulous. The New Yorker is following Denver's Hickenlooper administration rather closely?

Shalom Auslander had lovely comic timing in "Playoffs."

Rebecca Mead, with the help of Ronald Lauder, managed to construct a latter day overpriced Viennese-Freudian Disneyland. Now that I think of it, is there any other kind? This too was a kind of follow-up . . . I think, even earlier, Dana Goodyear covered the paintings travels from Austria to LA.

Oh, and "The Starting Game" on the Democratic Party front-runners was tidy.