I’m a little late in reading our latest issue. My favorite lines so far come from the Books, Arts & Manners section. Allan Carlson is reviewing Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History, about “how love conquered marriage.” He writes, “[T]he book is curiously Marxist in its relentless historical determinism, with ‘love’ displacing ‘class conflict’ as the driving force of history–as if Karl Marx had authored a romance novel.” Then there’s Rick Brookhiser’s piece on footwear: “High heels make the compelling, aggressive tattoo of castanets. Flip-flops sound like water belching from a fire hydrant. Following a woman in high heels up out of the subway is like discovering America. Following a woman in flip-flops up out of the subway is like riding the subway.”