DUMB AND DUMBER

The New York Times Uncovers Oddities Of Competing Obsessions

EVEN THE COLLECTIVE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE MIGHTY NEW YORK TIMES is sometimes questionable, two recent examples being that it withheld news that one of its reporters had been kidnapped, and the publishing of an op-ed June 16th that Iran's"uprising is little more than a symbolic protest."

But we can forgive the Gray Lady for her occasional dottiness when so much of what she does is so good. Case in point: Today's feature on two Cincinnati museums that are the result of separate but equally compelling obsessions.

First is the Vent Haven Museum, a dummy museum whose "unsettling amazement is unremitting," according to reporter Edward Rothstein.

Also, just a few miles away, is the American Sign Museum, where "about 200 are displayed, lighted and unlighted, each a compressed call for attention,'' Rothstein writes.

Together, the story and photos are sublime and evoke twinges for a "road trip."

It reminds me to be tolerant of the idiosyncrasies of our occasionally daffy elders. After all, we never really know how much longer they'll be around.