We can see the salt of the earth from our front porch in Chelsea-by-the-Sea.
Here we thought it was a brilliant, pithy (140-or-fewer characters) philosophical insight into the way of the world, but intellectual icon Virginia Postrel was not amused with our twitter response to her intriguing demise-of-The-New-Republic question:
Now that articles float free of their publications, can magazines still play the role in catalyzing sensibilities that @CoreyRobin suggests?
— Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) December 8, 2014
Our first response was harmless, bloodless:
@vpostrel @CoreyRobin Online it’s individual great minds, rather than publications as a whole, that develop followings, I think.
— Sissy Willis (@SissyWillis) December 8, 2014
Then we stepped in it:
@LeroyWhitby @vpostrel @CoreyRobin Increasingly dishonorable means used to justify increasingly discredited ends #leftproject
— Sissy Willis (@SissyWillis) December 8, 2014
"Increasingly dishonorabble means used to justify increasingy discredited ends." That little tweet expresses the world view of a lifetime of observation and analysis in 140 or fewer, but Postrel was not amused:
@sissywillis @leroywhitby @coreyrobin Please spare me these general rants about politics in a discussion about what magazines do.
— Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) December 8, 2014
A touch of elitism there? Our reply:
@vpostrel @leroywhitby @coreyrobin Consider yourself spared from here on in ~ General Rant pic.twitter.com/s5sRdJvz29
— Sissy Willis (@SissyWillis) December 8, 2014
Update: Our sincere apologies to the divine Miss Postrel, who clarifies:
@sissywillis You & your pal still hijacked the thread. That someone would was entirely predictable. Sorry it was you.
— Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) December 9, 2014
That's an apology from Postrel? Right up there with "Sorry you feel that way." hope you had a great day, Birthday Girl!!!
Posted by: Mary beth | December 15, 2014 at 11:42 PM