The Ezra Stiles dean gets a free apartment in the tower, makes weird pronouncements while eating brunch, and mostly exists, as do other Yale residential college deans, to provide Dean's excuses—a get-out-of-jail-free card for a missed assignment deadline each semester. The Dean during my time in Stiles, Herbert…

If not my kids, then my cars. Oh for a Toyota Tercel!

I was quoting Roger Allam (to Sloane Ranger Olivia Poulet, in 'The Thick of It') when I chose this login; the kids are a cliche' in Britain. I lived across Regent(!) St. from Jessica in 1990's Oakland, she was a small, sweary, boozy (I saw the Truehaft's to-be-recycled bottles in their curbside collection crate on my…

This work is not without precedent, see

Stanley Tucci has an uncanny resemblance to a 'burn in effigy at G8 meeting protests' economist Kenneth Rogoff, so much so that I could imagine Stanley learned a Rochester accent for 'NewsHour' imposture.

The Thick of It free on Hulu, from the BBC. Watch the writers weaponize the English language (see any Malcolm Tucker highlight reel on YouTube) for inspiration if you need to say more than 'Bah fucking humbug.' Tucker is played by Peter Capaldi, who was just on the second season of BBC's 'The Hour,' he's equally…