Strewth, you go away for a couple of days (the Derbs went to DC to view cherry blossom) and people take all sorts of liberties. In haste (due

today: column, book review, Radio Derb)—

—How do I feel about being praised by Andrew Sullivan? Same way Dr.

Johnson felt when his play failed: Like the Monument.”

—What do I think about the talking points remarks? I have never in my life been handed a sheet of talking points–I doubt I’m alone here. We say what we think, that’s all.

—Have I really “split with the other NRO-niks on nation-building in Iraq, on intelligent design, on Terri Schiavo and now the Pope.” Well, I am very skeptical about nation-building; but that skepticism is a strong vein within conservatism, which even George W. Bush once subscribed to. Iraq is a huge pot of oil, and anyone who seizes power there — even comparatively nicely (Mubarak style, I mean) will be fabulously wealthy. That is not a recipe for democracy in a place that has never had democracy. Intelligent design? I have never had a single conversation with any NRO writer about it, either on or off line. If feelings on it run strong here, the fact has entirely escaped my attention. Perhaps people are just being polite. Terri Schiavo? Yes, I favor euthanasia in some cases, including hers. This is not an extraordinary position, even among conservatives, and rational people can disagree about it without losing their tempers. (Though irrational people, of course, can’t.) The Pope? One of the great men of our time, a giant…

but popular Catholicism has cratered since 1978, as anyone can see.

—Is Anglican sensibility a la Matthew Parris a force in American life?

Yes, I think so. I associate it with the old WASP elite (about whom Rick has written a very fine book), and whose Philadelphia variety can also be inspected in John Lukacs’s more curious book A THREAD OF YEARS). Did you ever see anything less convincing than Poppy Bush in the 1988 campaign declaring himself a born-again Christian? Religious enthusiasm is a great energizing force in American life, almost entirely on the political Right, and I personally look on it warmly and am grateful for it, though I shall never be an enthusiast myself. A ship needs ballast as well as boilers, though; and I think the cool Anglo-Saxon (and, yes, Protestant) skepticism that Parris describes — the deep visceral distrust of grand systems and ideologies, the dislike of logic-chopping intellectuals (including — perhaps ESPECIALLY including — atheist ones), the preference for leaving certain stones unturned, the distaste for displays of spiritual enthusiasm — is useful ballast for a society to have. I find it widespread among older American WASPS, with whom I generally get on well at once on common instinctive grounds. To the degree that WASPery is still a force in our life, so is that cool, happily muddled and inconsistent, Anglican sensibility. I’d like to see more of it, though not too much more — too much ballast leaves you dead in the water. Or sunk.

—Camilla. A honey. I go nuts for the tweedy style, have a dogged ongoing (though so far unsuccessful) campaign to get Mrs. D into tweeds, headscarfs, and sensible shoes. Charles is a prime twerp, though. Camilla is marrying down, could do much better. It would have served Charles right to be stuck for life with Diana.

—Pronunciation of “Sylow” and “Lie.” The Norwegian “y” seems to be the French “lune” vowel (German “glueck,” Chinese “qu,” etc.–pretty much every language except ours seems to have it–no, wait a minute, Russian & Spanish don’t–though Hungarian has it in TWO varieties, long & short). The “o” is short, not “oo” as I said. “Lie” is either “Lee” or “Lee-eh,” depending on which Norwegian you ask. Nobody seems to know whether he really did go hiking in the nude. A couple of readers want to go hiking in the nude with Scandinavian girls.