The American Spectator

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Current Wisdom

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From the Archives

Timeless Tosh from Current Wisdoms Past

(June 1989)

Philadelphia Inquirer

Mr. Helmut Raether of Deutsche Presse-Agentur transforms anthropology into Art:

TOKYO—Finding somewhere to answer nature’s call can be confusing in Japan, where a public convenience isn’t always quite what it seems. The latest luxury toilets that have been replacing the humble public latrines up and down the country have names like “Marble Pocket” and “Charm Station,” and newspaper reports of their inauguration read like reviews of theater premieres.…Users spend more than $2 to enter one of the cubicles, each of which is named after a famous brand of perfume. A toilet receptionist instead of the more familiar attendant ushers the customers into one of six rooms, each of which measures 3.3 square yards and contains every comfort, including a hair dryer.

The “lingering time” tends to be longer than in conventional conveniences, and the receptionist has noticed that many visitors are lulled to sleep by the gentle strains of Baroque music that issue from loudspeakers installed in the cubicles.
(February 19, 1989)

New Republic

The horrible depths to which Messrs. Collier and Horowitz sank, as reported by Paul Berman whilst reviewing their latest monograph, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties:

Peter Collier and David Horowitz’s new book presents itself as the anti-60s memoir, especially anti-Gitlin and anti-Hayden, who are excoriated for harboring excessive loyalties to the past. Where Collier and Horowitz tread, nostalgia does not bloom. Nor did their own second conversions bring them to graduate school, feminist family life, brown rice, or basketball; or to any other green and shady place likely to seem respectable to New Leftist eyes, such as tomato farming or Hasidism. The authors became Republicans.
(April 24, 1989)