The Misanthrope’s Corner

TO say that someone “keeps up with current events” is inherently flattering, a compliment denoting seriousness, civic responsibility, and all the other right stuff. An honor student enclosed in a good citizen wrapped in a home owner, you might say.

I used to keep up with current events but now I “follow the news,” which, I have begun to sense, denotes qualities of a very different sort. We could play around with various descriptive adjectives— “furtive” and “hunched” come to mind—but the best way to define it is to restate what it is that I now follow: the Nooze.