The Peculiar Genius of Thomas Friedman

Is, as someone suggested recently, to be either a dumb person’s idea of a clever person or a clever person’s idea of a dumb person. Or both. Perhaps the worst paragraph written this year comes, not surprisingly, from America’s chief metaphor-mangler Thomas Friedman:

More than ever, America today reminds me of a working couple where the husband has just lost his job, they have two kids in junior high school, a mortgage and they’re maxed out on their credit cards. On top of it all, they recently agreed to take in their troubled cousin, Kabul, who just can’t get his act together and keeps bouncing from relative to relative. Meanwhile, their Indian nanny, who traded room and board for baby-sitting, just got accepted to M.I.T. on a full scholarship and will be leaving them in a few months. What to do?