Dowd Watch: Weighing in on Gore

It’s no wonder Al Gore is a little touchy about his weight, what with everyone trying to read his fat cells like tea leaves to see if he’s going to run. (Maureen Dowd in The NYT).

Party Hardy, on the Other Side of the Wall

"Every barbarian family brews alcohol and all of them like to drink; the barbarians drink like cattle, not even stopping to breathe in the process." (A Ming-era writer, quoted in The New Yorker, in an article about the Great Wall).

Dowd Watch: Tete a Tete Aftermath

“The French are like children who love to be beaten. Sarkozy is saying, ‘Go do your homework or I’ll beat you.’ The French need to be told that.” (Maureen Dowd in The NYT quoting a French woman about the presidential election of Nicolas Sarkozy over Ségolène Royal).

And ...

Or as an elegant Parisian woman who voted for Sego warned guests at a postelection dinner party, “He’s like a little Donald Trump.”

Dowd Watch: Notes from the Ségosphere

It’s hard not to be drawn to a presidential candidate with a name like a Bond girl, a smile like an angel, a figure that looks great in a bikini at 53, a campaign style like Joan of Arc, and a buffet for the press corps brimming with crustless fromage sandwiches, icy chocolate profiteroles, raspberry parfaits, red Bordeaux, espresso and little almond gâteaux. (Maureen Dowd in The NYT about French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal).

And ...

But the infatuation dampened, like a spring romance.

And ...

On stage, she channeled a divine aura, levitating her arms like a Blessed Virgin statue, presenting herself as a glowing beacon against the forces of darkness, a k a Nicolas Sarkozy.

A Grasp Exceeds Its Reach

It is a cliché to say so, but “Saturday Night Live” is an institution, kind of like comedy’s Junior League, continually nostalgic for its former cultural significance. (Ginia Bellafante in The NYT).

A Unique Take on Turkey's Politics

“Turkey is like a transvestite. The spirit and the body are in conflict.” [Said Hakan Yavuz, an expert in Turkish religion and politics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, about the country's tension between secular and Islamic forces.] (The NYT).