The wonders of Blogs

After finishing both Freakonomics and the Tipping Point earlier this year, I was fascinated about how the authors of both books might respond to their obviously contradictory arguments. What was even more perplexing to me was Malcolm Gladwell gave the book a glowing review when Levitt and Dubner argued against one of Gladwell's key arguments, specifically the broken window theory. Was Gladwell given a different book to read and review, did they edit his real comment and just print the flattering section, like sometimes occurs in movie reviews? Five, ten years ago, I am sure I would not so easily have the answers to these questions. I would have had to wait for Gladwell to publish his next book or happen to catch his response in the New Yorker, but today if I have questions about something I go to Google. And that is just what I did. Actually, I was simply curious about Gladwell and googled his name, found his blog and the current posting was "Thoughts on Freakonomics." From there I was directed to their response and voila...dialog. Now I am obsessed with both blogs, especially the Freakonmomics blog because they update it more often. So, these blogs are opening up a dynamic dialog that makes writers more accessible to readers and vice versa. But it is getting late and I am blabbering.