Wow, I struck a chord with “Who is Joe Wilson?” Masses of readers care even

less than I do.

“Dear Mr. Derb—’Who is Joe Wilson?’ perfectly describes my reaction, too.

I love reading NRO every day, but my eyes glaze over whenever the topic of

that windbag comes up. My dad is the deputy editorial director of a major

newspaper, so I asked him yesterday in an effort to remain informed, ‘What’s

the deal with this Wilson guy? What did he do? Can you bring me up to

speed? Why should I give a flying c**p?’ Turns out Dad hasn’t been

following it either, and he gets paid to do such things. We’re both pretty

obsessed with politics, so I figure if we don’t care about Joe Wilson,

there’s no way most voters do, either. I don’t know whether that’s good or

bad. Anyway, I thought it was funny that you had the same reaction.”

So come on, colleagues, let’s drop the Joe Wilson chatter and get some more

stimulating threads going. Heck, there is so much to talk about: zeta

functions, Anna Faris, lucite,

pumpkins, presidential birth order, dead poets slumbering in their glory,

the heat death of the universe…