It usually begins with Mark Twain

The actor Hal Holbrook originally became famous impersonating Mark Twain in “Mark Twain Tonight.” Meeting up with Andrew Ferguson in Minneapolis this summer to attend his reading from Land of Lincoln, I thought that Ferguson easily could make a living as a successor to Hal Holbrook. Although he has not chosen to do so, he is following in Twain’s footsteps making a living as a journalist and humorist. Both the journalist and the humorist are brilliantly on display in “Alan Shrugged,” his Weekly Standard feature on Alan Greenspan’s memoir. (Apologies to Jerome Tucille.)