If you liked our brief look at Emily Dickinson's poetry this past Saturday, you're sure to like the story of Rathergate retold at EtherHouse in anagrams of Power Line. Think here of Boswell's anecdote regarding Dr. Johnson in the Life of Johnson:

I told him I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I had heard a woman preach. Johnson: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Also apropos of Boswell's anecdote, see the excellent column by Amity Shlaes on the latest Larry Summers controversy: "Stop apologizing: The women flap at Harvard."

Among the theme songs we might adopt for the Maoist ceremony President Summers is observing, is there any better than Billy Eckstine's "I Apologize"? Eckstine sings:

If I caused you pain, I know I'm to blame,
Must have been insane, believe me
From the bottom of my heart, dear,
I apologize.

Or Stevie Wonder's "Sorry," in which the repetition might afford President Summers proof of the intensity of his regret for violating the reigning taboos:

I'm sorry, sorry that I made you cry
Sorry, sorry that I told you lies
I'm sorry, I'm sorry the way we fuss and fight
I'm sorry, sorry cause now you're
saying goodbye to me, me baby, me baby, me baby

I'm sorry baby, that I ever did it to you
I'm sorry baby, that I ever told you lies
I'm sorry baby, that I ever did it to you
I'm sorry baby, that I ever made you cry
I'm sorry baby, that I ever did it to you
I'm sorry baby, sorry the way we fuss and fight
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry,
sorry, sorry

Or, to end on a high note, with slight modification President Summers might avail himself of Brenda Lee's great country weeper, "I'm sorry":

I'm sorry, so sorry
That I was such a fool
I didn't know
Love could be so cruel
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh-oh
Oh, yes

You tell me mistakes
Are part of being young
But that don't right
The wrong that's been done.

[Spoken:]
(I'm sorry) I'm sorry
(So sorry) So sorry
Please accept my apology
But love is blind
And I was too blind to see
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh-oh
Oh, yes.