A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

BETTER THAN MAUREEN DOWD: As usual, the Sunday Times arts section is fascinating. A couple of articles are very much worth your time. First is this piece, making the argument that ABC's hit Grey's Anatomy is one of the first "post-racial" shows on television, with a diverse cast, yet no mention of race during the average episode. Less thought provoking, but more amusing is this lengthy piece about "The Supersizing of the School Play," profiling a $20,000 high school production of "Into The Woods" at New Albany High School in Indiana. Frighteningly, this is the high school's "small" show--the fall show (a production of "Beauty and the Beast") had a budget of $165,000. Bizarrely, "Into The Woods," a Sondheim musical with a difficult score and a second act that consists of, as the Times puts it, "an existential journey toward death and disappointment," has become the fourth most-popular show for high schoolers.