A new, occasional feature.

I’m spending this snowy day catching up on old New Yorkers while my husband and children play Toontown Online. This is from the November 15 issue: Nancy Franklin’s review of Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC:

“[T]here are those whose objections have a physiological basis as well as an ideological one: the pitch and timbre of her voice, the rhythms of her speech, her syntax, and the way she coasts acid and incoherence with cheery musical inflections join together in a sickening synergy that distresses the listener, triggering a fight-or-flight reaction. When Palin talks, my whole being wails, like Nancy Kerrigan after Tonya Harding’s ex-husband kneecapped her: ‘Why? Why? Why?”

Now that’s writin’.

Which reminds me of Franklin’s conclusion: “She says that she’d ‘rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office’ and ‘a poor day of fishin’ beats even a great day of work.’ In that spirit, I wish Palin many, many days — years — of fishin’, starting now.”

Brava, Ms. Franklin. Virtuoso snark at a deservin’ target.