Comments on: Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman

tboz — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 21:01:24 -0800

Paul Krugman, Princeton prof and NYTimes columnist is the subject of a Google Question. Some one wants to know "What kind of house does he live in? What kind of car does he drive? Is anything known about his personal life (hobbies, sports, sexual orientation, etc)? ". Krugman himself answers with panache and asks for the money!

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 21:17:51 -0800

Good for Krugman. This is typical Rovian modus operandi: hunt for dirt. Exaggerate dirt in hyped smear campaign. If dirt is unnavailable, invent bald faced lies: the media will pick them up anyway and vanishingly few people will bother to investigate their veracity. Furthermore, the media won't bother to carry rebuttal stories - so the lies will mostly stick.

By: matteo

matteo — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 22:03:47 -0800

I say, until he can finally get to his well-deserved Supreme Court seat, let Judge Starr investigate the crap out of this individual. Also, a shtetl? Is Krugman some kind of foreigner, of fellow-traveler, of terrorist?

By: PrinceValium

PrinceValium — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 22:08:35 -0800

I'm not sure I get it. Is Krugman "drstrangelove", "ragingacademic", or was he sent a link to the google question and responded on his site?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 22:19:31 -0800

PrinceValium: He was sent the link and responded on his site.

By: josh

josh — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 22:23:47 -0800

I had Paul Krugman in a (very intro) economics class at Princeton, and he was great, and incredibly, incredibly funny and a great teacher too.

By: Pseudoephedrine

Pseudoephedrine — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 22:30:31 -0800

Matteo> Disparaging distant relatives of ex-government employees is a crime under the PATRIOT Act. Watch out, or I'll call TIPS on you! ;P

By: acornface

acornface — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 23:26:20 -0800

I have a hopelessly girlish intellectual crush on Paul Krugman. I read his Times columns religiously and bring them up in conversation whenever possible. You can imagine how well that goes over with a bunch of urban hipsters. :(

By: rudyfink

rudyfink — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 23:44:49 -0800

Things like this are why I love the internet.

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:15:26 -0800

We also have two cats; I withhold their names to protect their privacy. I second rudyfink's sentiment.

By: pjgulliver

pjgulliver — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:34:05 -0800

Matteo: shtetl is a yiddish word that I believe means "farm" or equivilant. It was used to describe Jewish agricultural communities in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century, early 20th. Remarking on the shtetl is the same as saying "the old country" when refering to the land of your anscestors.

By: Fupped Duck

Fupped Duck — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 08:35:47 -0800

Vote Krugman for anything he might run for in 2004... (McCain/Krugman would be quite the ticket in a game of rotisserie government)

By: stuart_s

stuart_s — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 10:11:36 -0800

Shtetl comes from the German for town or state. The "l" ending is a common Yiddish suffix used to a suggest a smaller form. Similar to how in English a kitchenette is a small kitchen.

By: pjgulliver

pjgulliver — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 10:40:21 -0800

Thanks for the true def Stuart. Was I completely wrong in that it implies a rural/agricultural existence? I'm curious....

By: languagehat

languagehat — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 11:36:36 -0800

pjgulliver: No, you weren't. Eastern European Jews lived largely in small towns and villages based on farming, and it is to these that "shtetl" refers. (The Jews who famously flooded the Lower East Side of NYC in the late 19th century offended the German Jews already here, known as "yekls," by their ignorance of urban ways.)

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:11:50 -0800

Cue "Fiddler on the Roof" theme...

By: jonson

jonson — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 14:51:53 -0800

I sincerely hope he gets the $100, he deserves it! Nice to see someone have a sense of humor about such a disturbing e-inquisition.

By: billsaysthis

billsaysthis — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 18:43:44 -0800

In general the previously given definitions of shtetl were accurate but missing one crucial qualifier. Jews were generally required by law to live in these or similar urban places (the first ghetto was the Jewish district in Venice).