Maureen Dowd, "She’s Fit to Be Tied": Spicing Up a Moribund Gray Lady

Columnist Maureen Dowd brings to the op-ed page of New York Times a potpourri of topics revolving around the Washington scene, where she is most knowledgeable; the Middle East, where she is out of her depth; and the risqué, which is surely intended to boost the dwindling circulation of her troubled newspaper.

On the heels (stilettos, of course) of such classic opinion pieces as "Corsets, Cleavage and Fishnets" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15dowd.html) and "Manlashes, Manscara and Mantyhose" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/dowd-manlashes-manscara-and-mantyhose.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), now comes "She’s Fit to Be Tied" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/dowd-shes-fit-to-be-tied.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), in which Dowd describes a set of bondage-themed books for women:

"Now comes the story of E, a London writer named Erika whose pseudonym is E L James. The plump, happily married 40-something mother and former television producer seems like 'a normal lady,' as one shocked Hollywood agent put it.

Yet she has written the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy, bondage-themed romanticas that have evoked hysteria, whipping up a frenzy with the housewives of Long Island and rippling out from there."

Ah yes, a frenzy in Oyster Bay, Manhasset and Glen Cove. As my Long Island railroad train crawls into Penn Station twenty minutes late, my entire car is astir with talk of handcuffs and whips . . . not.

Sorry, Maureen, but there is no saving the Gray Lady. Sales could spike for one day, as might the pulse of a moribund patient on life support, but even bedecked in clingy black leather, she's soon to be six feet under.

However, it was still a grand effort at binding with, whoops, I meant bonding with, whoops, I actually meant finding areas of novel interest to share with your readership.

[See also my critique of Thomas Friedman's "companion" op-ed in today's New York Times: (http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2012/03/thomas-friedman-why-nations-fail-toms.html).]