Given the intermittent interest in Chomsky hereabouts. I thought people would find the following anecdotal fact interesting. I was talking to a friend of mind who is very liberal, reasonably politically informed and interested, extremely intelligent, and highly educated (Ph.D in marketing from Northwestern, co-author of a standard marketing text). She's a Clinton fan, thinks I'm an "idealist," reads the NYT. She was contemplating why the media were so craven and manipulable (over Iraq and the Bushies generally), so I mentioned Chomsky and Herman's Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky? she said. Doesn't he do semiotics or something like that? Well, something like, I said, generative grammar, but he also does political criticism and commentary. Oh, she said. She had never heard of that body of work. We live in a small world. Most politically aware and intelligent people in this country have no idea that Chomsky is even a political analyst. From a marketing standpoint, she says, btw, that its absolutely insane for the Dems to dilute their core message and alienate their base by trying to be GOP Lite; successful marketing calls for building a smaller but very loyal base. I asked her how that comported with her admiration for the Clintons . . . . .  But there you are. jks<hr SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!? Free <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/tag/*http://calendar.yahoo.com">online calendar</a> with sync to Outlook(TM).