Today's lesson: if you're going to write a letter to Slate, you'd best bring your "A" game. Last week, Slate write Timothy Noah dropped the hammer on Aigner-Clark and her (Sarcas-O-Meters: on!) heroic contribution to Western Civilization, the Baby Einstein Empire. Well! Aigner-Clark was not about to have her good name slandered, so she sent a surprisingly weak response back to Noah, who was only too happy to post the letter in his column. To use a baseball metaphor, Aigner-Clark's letter was a hanging curveball, and Noah went all Barry Bonds on it.
Noah counters Aigner-Clark's claims on several fronts. First, she denies that her husband donated a chunk of change to Bush and the RNC. (Strike one.) He does acknowledge her contributions to charity, but as she's a multi-millionaire, questions Bush's characterization of her as a hero. (Ball.) Finally, he brings up the numerous charges against Baby Einstein that consumer protection and the American Academy of Pediatrics have brought against the product line; namely, that it's a scam. (CRACK! And it's outta here!)
It's a pretty scathing response. I'll cop to using Baby Einstein DVD's on occasion, for the same reason that many parents do: to keep the kid occupied for a few minutes while my wife and I were trying to get ourselves to work and the kid to daycare. Educational? Please. (However, if you pop in the Baby Neptune disc, turn down the sound, and play Queensryche's "Operation: Mindcrime" CD, it synches up, like "Dark Side" and "The Wizard of Oz".)
