A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

AND THEN GOLDILOCKS SAID, "THIS ARTICLE IS TOO MEAN!" Okay, fine, Liz, so you didn't like last week's NYT article trashing the new album. Most creative folks would've tried not to read the article in the first place, or, if they did stumble across it, make sure not to react publicly to it.

But Liz? In today's NYT, she responds with an arch, lengthy missive back at Meghan O'Rourke:

Once upon a time there was a writer named Chicken Little. Chicken Little worked very hard and took her job very seriously. Often, she even wrote. One day, just as Chicken Little was about to have an idea, she heard something falling on her roof. "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" she shrieked, spilling green tea and vodka all over her work station. This commotion awoke her three readers, who lived with her in her hut, and all three rushed outside to see what had happened to the sky. After enduring several anxious minutes alone, Chicken Little was relieved to see her readers return. "Oh, Chicken Little, it was just the trees dropping their buds on a beautiful spring day," they said. Chicken Little tried not to show her disappointment. . . .

Gee, did you think the letter had anything to do with Jon Pareles' decision to land one more arrow in Phair's back ("The album isn't only an artifact of one songwriter's spectacularly bad judgment and surrender to clichés"), or do you figure he just wanted to make sure not to miss his chance at piling on?