Paul Krugman's Nobel Prize is wonderful news. It appropriately honors his work as an economist -- and it will have the salutory effect of enhancing his impact as a public intellectual at a key juncture in US and world history. When it was not at all fashionable, we all need to remember, Krugman consistently spoke against the mendacity of the Bush administration. He correctly predicted the disasters in foreign and economic policy to which that administration's horrendous and corrupt decisions would lead. Bravo to him -- and thanks to the Nobel committee.

Avoiding the spewing bile of McCain's dying campaign, I took a few days off to drive the backroads of New England looking for antiques. Yesterday, in the early morning light, I drove from Bethel, Maine down to Cornish on Route 5, reveling in one of the most beautiful Columbus Day weekends in many years. With lakes and the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the far vista, brilliant sunlight dappled through the fire red, orange, and yellow trees set off against the blue sky and omnipresent evergreens. Dappled light hit the white houses and churches and occasional small graveyards omnipresently nestled along Maine backroads, where life and death easily coexist.

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