A Kinder, Gentler Dowd

The always unintenionally hilarious Maureen Dowd is taking her demotion (Sundays to Tuesdays) in stride. She has inaugurated her new slot with a little puff piece on baby-boomer aging and her mother's incapacitation. Russel Baker she ain't. Even her little Schiavo allusion ("noisy debate over assisted suicide" - assisted suicide!? Paging Dr. Freud...) is pathetically tame. It's amazing what a two-day schedule shift can do for one's sense of humility.