Maureen Dowd, "Cowboys and Colleens": Compare With Collins

Don't get me wrong: I'm still furious with Maureen Dowd for claiming that the US Supreme Court "is run by hacks dressed up in black robes," and then running off to Ireland without an apology after the Court affirmed the constitutionality of Obamacare (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2012/06/maureen-dowd-wearing-of-green-why-isnt.html). And then there was also the issue of how she "borrowed" language from another writer for one of her essays.

But libel and plagiarism aside, Dowd is also capable of writing important firsthand accounts that put Thomas Friedman's flatulent policy pronouncements and Gail Collins's obsessive demonization of Republicans to shame. Such was Dowd's coverage of the Sandusky trial, and this is also true of her latest New York Times op-ed, "Cowboys and Colleens" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/cowboys-and-colleens.html), in which Dowd, visiting Ireland, describes the making of John Ford's "The Quiet Man" and his ties to Eire:

"The director, the son of parents who fled Spiddal in County Galway, was born John Martin Feeney near Portland, Me. His father was a bootlegger. He adopted the name Ford, but later liked to imply he was from Galway, his name was Sean and he spoke Irish, getting O’Hara to speak gibber-Irish with him to impress the crew."

Getting on in years and occasionally taking a day off to appear in television commercials, thoughts cross my mind about going back to school to learn to make movies. I doubt that I'll find the courage to do it, but I'll never forget Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," which shaped my universe.

Nice op-ed, Maureen.