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A Gramsci is Better than a Damn

Nordlinger Watch! The A2-born conservative commentator has this to say about the Coke boycott:

Needless to say, the University of Michigan isn’t a serious place. I feel I can speak with some authority, having grown up in Ann Arbor and attended the university. The place is like lefty kindergarten. It’s far more Michael Moore than, say, Antonio Gramsci. You can count on the kids, and much of the faculty, to be stupid — but why does the university administration have to bow to them?

Antonio Gramsci? Now he’s just making up names. (Okay, maybe not.)

Also, it’s early in the year, but “Man steals fruit pie armed with air gun” is going to be hard to beat for best News headline of 2006.

16 Responses to “A Gramsci is Better than a Damn”


  1. Ann Arbor was probably the first stop on the Long March.

    posted by Dave on January 3rd, 2006 at 11:57 pm

  2. Those who saw the documentary “Detroit: Ruins of a City” last winter might recall Gramsci was the scholar — cited ad nauseum by the narrator — who developed the idea of cultural hegemony.

    posted by Dale on January 4th, 2006 at 1:15 am

  3. What constitutes Nordlinger’s Ann Arbor street cred really? Has anyone ever checked out his story? Where did he attend, e.g., junior high? Did he really grow up here or did he just show up for the college years? Enquiring minds want to know.

    posted by Daniel on January 4th, 2006 at 3:00 pm

  4. I know his mom, she’s a local artist and a very nice person. And a lefty person as well. What happened to Jay, we’ll never know.

    posted by RPC on January 4th, 2006 at 3:30 pm

  5. That Nordlinger… Quite the savage…

    Do you have a subscription or something, AAiO? I’d love to read the rest of this obviously well-written article, but can’t find it.

    posted by FAA on January 4th, 2006 at 3:50 pm

  6. I forgot the link.

    posted by ann arbor is overrated on January 4th, 2006 at 3:57 pm

  7. Much obliged. I love inane rant reading.

    posted by FAA on January 4th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

  8. More importantly, who is arming fruit pies with air guns??!!??

    posted by bennyprofane on January 4th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

  9. That headline about the armed fruit pie is written so poorly. Shame on the editor who let that one through!

    posted by Young OWSider on January 4th, 2006 at 5:59 pm

  10. I think one of my students last term took writing lessons from Nordlinger. He couldn’t remember to include a clear subject to each of his sentences, either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such stream-of-consciousness babble published …. anywhere. He closes by calling his readers “dear hearts”. I’m speechless.

    posted by Heidi on January 4th, 2006 at 6:39 pm

  11. …wow, I just read that article and am still laughing at a couple of lines. FYI, in the U.P.,”Shop-n-Swap” is called “Trade-io”, and it airs (for hours) between updated editions of the Farm Report to fill airspace that would otherwise require advertising dollars. I never found anything particularly fascinating about listening to people trying to get rid of old bathtubs and hubcaps or trying to acquire replacement parts for a milking machine. Nordlinger and Pat Robertson seem to share some of the same political viewpoints, I wonder if he is in favor of assassinating Hugo Chavez too?

    posted by Sketchy on January 4th, 2006 at 9:41 pm

  12. I used to live down the street from a Jay Nordlinger out in Pittsfield township. He was a gym teacher at Huron. Does anyone know if this is the same guy? He always seemed OK, I can’t imagine what happened to him. But, you know, there might have been something in the athletic dept. water fountains. Does anyone remember Moe Abrhams (driver ed, football coach, gym teacher at Huron) who went nuts and killed his wife?

    posted by a2saint on January 5th, 2006 at 9:17 am

  13. John was the gym teacher, now retired. He’s Jay’s dad and a standup guy.

    I remember Mo Abrahams but I don’t like thinking about it.

    posted by RPC on January 5th, 2006 at 10:27 am

  14. Having a different political viewpoint is not quite the same as murdering your wife. Nordlinger seems like one of the less maniacal National Review types to me. Of course, I quit reading that awful web site years ago…

    posted by Dave on January 5th, 2006 at 10:31 am

  15. Less maniacal? You didn’t read the one where he describes W as a Mt. Rushmore-level president. I’d insert the link were I more smarter with computers. But what has that to do with Tree Town anyway?

    posted by RPC on January 5th, 2006 at 6:30 pm

  16. RPC, just so. Alas, there’s stuff in NRO even *more* maniacal than that.

    posted by Dave on January 5th, 2006 at 11:04 pm

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