Parrots in journalists’ clothing…mindlessly report…[news stories] with the high level of critical analysis one might expect from a toddler or a spambot. – “Why I Wait”
November is the beginning of the holiday season, and that means a large number of seasonal columns: besides the obvious Thanksgiving and Yuletide kickoff columns, I also do regular ones for The Day of the Dead, Guy Fawkes Day and Armistice Day, and “Maggie’s Kitchen” shared a few recipes for the holiday season. Despite its name, “Flaky Pastries” is not a cooking column but a Q&A; the others for this month were “Suspicious Minds“, “Let Me Help” and “Three in One“. The Cliterati reprints were “Innocence Never Had” and “Shame, Shame“, the harlotography was “Hwang Jini“, the fictional interlude “The Other Side“, 
and the guest columnist Brooke Magnanti; in addition there was a special guest column, “Picture Out of the Past“, in which Aspasia answered a reader’s question about a piece of art he bought. After all that, there were only four other columns: “We’re Number One!” ridiculed the weird pissing contest between US cities and states to be the largest “sex trafficking hub”; “Traffic Circle” examined signs of the disintegration of the hysteria; “Crumbling House” looked at the collapsing reputation of Somaly Mam and “Why I Wait” explained the reasons I don’t report on some stories right away.
