John Brownlee here. Before I started guest-blogging here, Joel asked me, as temporary co-chair of his consumerist Algonquin Round Table, if I had any swell ideas. Chomping on a cigar, he stretched the fat man suspenders with the dollar symbols he likes to wear just for such dramatic gestures as far from his nipples as they would go, then let them go with a snap that made me wince.Then he looked at me with an expression half composed of expectation, the other half contempt. But I wasn’t cowed – I did have a swell idea.
