Strewth, you never know what’ll catch readers’ fancy. I come in from a happy afternoon doing yard work (yes, in 90 degree heat — where’d be the fun otherwise?), take shower, lie down & read magazine I get scolded for reading (anagram of ERE KEY THROWN), return to desk, inbox full: 56 e-mails via the NRO web server and about the same from people who’ve figured out my e-address (hint). I’m always flattered to get e-mail, and everything nonabusive is read and pondered (after all these years, abuse bounces off — but if you have the time to waste, hey), but giving considered answers to 100-odd e-mails is a stretch, though I’ll do my best.

This rise of the cognitive elite, this meritocracy, this draining of smart people from the working classes, is really a new thing in history, and the great social phenomenon of our time. I’m not old — young enough to take a strenuous afternoon of yard work in my stride — yet my mother, an intelligent and energetic lady, had to leave school at 14 and go into domestic service. That’s how it was, pre-meritocracy, and not so long ago. No more. This is a tremendous social transformation, and we don’t talk enough about it.