Paul Krugman
January 12, 2003 9:01 PM   Subscribe

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!
posted by tboz (17 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
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.
posted by troutfishing at 9:17 PM on January 12, 2003


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?
posted by matteo at 10:03 PM on January 12, 2003


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?
posted by PrinceValium at 10:08 PM on January 12, 2003


PrinceValium: He was sent the link and responded on his site.
posted by delmoi at 10:19 PM on January 12, 2003


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.
posted by josh at 10:23 PM on January 12, 2003


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
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 10:30 PM on January 12, 2003


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. :(
posted by acornface at 11:26 PM on January 12, 2003


Things like this are why I love the internet.
posted by rudyfink at 11:44 PM on January 12, 2003


We also have two cats; I withhold their names to protect their privacy.

I second rudyfink's sentiment.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:15 AM on January 13, 2003


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.
posted by pjgulliver at 7:34 AM on January 13, 2003


Vote Krugman for anything he might run for in 2004...

(McCain/Krugman would be quite the ticket in a game of rotisserie government)
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:35 AM on January 13, 2003


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.
posted by stuart_s at 10:11 AM on January 13, 2003


Thanks for the true def Stuart. Was I completely wrong in that it implies a rural/agricultural existence? I'm curious....
posted by pjgulliver at 10:40 AM on January 13, 2003


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.)
posted by languagehat at 11:36 AM on January 13, 2003


Cue "Fiddler on the Roof" theme...
posted by Pollomacho at 12:11 PM on January 13, 2003


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.
posted by jonson at 2:51 PM on January 13, 2003


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).
posted by billsaysthis at 6:43 PM on January 13, 2003


« Older Lounge Against the Machine, folks   |   Weblogs & the Disruptive Web Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments