Today tsuwm sent me the word "nullifidian" our of a quotation from George Eliot. That sent me into the Internet to refresh my scanty recollections of that gifted lady. In browsing, I ran across a statement that Cardinal Newman had thought cheap books undesirable, which much surprised me.

To us who live in an age in which educators and pundits continually elevate reading books as an educational ideal and continually attack television as a medium that victimizes a passive audience, it comes as a shock to encounter Newman claiming that cheap, easily available reading materials similarly victimized the public

It occurred to me that perhaps the Board members might have some interesting ideas on the overall merits of television.