Virginia Postrel

Charles Murray knows that people who read fat books of social criticism aren’t normal. They weren’t normal when the books had titles like “The Affluent Society,” “The Hidden Persuaders” and “The Organization Man,” and they aren’t normal today.

“The Iron Lady,” the new biopic starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, was controversial before audiences even saw it, largely because of its portrayal of the aging former prime minister’s dementia.

There’s nothing like a bunch of unemployed recent college graduates to bring out the central planner in parent-aged pundits.

The public is in a foul mood over increasing college costs and student debt burdens. Talk of a “higher education bubble” is common on the contrarian right, while the Occupy Wall Street crowd is calling for a strike in which in which ex-students refuse to pay off their loans.

Amazon.com Inc. is at it again. To the consternation of much of the book industry, the online giant is again offering digital titles for less than major publishers think books are worth. And this time, the price is zero.

When Amit Gupta told his friends a few weeks ago that he had acute leukemia and needed a bone- marrow transplant, the word spread quickly.

The newest banner in the window of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh features a strikingly realistic portrait of Superman. Unfazed as bullets bounce from his chest, neck and forehead, the Man of Steel wears a calm, resolute expression, made all the more convincing by the creases and fine lines of early middle age.

When the members of the class of 2015 arrived at Harvard College this fall, they encountered a novel bit of moral education. Their dorm proctors -- the grad students who live with freshmen to provide guidance and enforce discipline -- invited each student to sign a pledge developed by the Freshman Dean’s Office. It reads, in full:

To understand the cultural significance of Steve Jobs, you have to go back in time: to before the iPad or iPhone or iTunes, before Apple Inc.’s comeback products made candy-colored plastics and iAnything cool, before Jobs got kicked out of Apple, even before the Macintosh hurled a sledgehammer at Big Brother.

Everybody, it seems, wants to be like Apple Inc. Google Inc. is buying Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., many observers say, so it can integrate hardware and software to be like Apple (and to enlarge its patent pool).