During a “conversation” with David Brooks on nytimes.com, Times columnist Gail Collins kicked things off by describing Brooks as “the go-to guy on how America lives.” Noooooooo!

Michael Bérubé, who flagged this gem, offers the only appropriate response:

This just makes me want to lie down on top of the Applebee’s salad bar and never get up again.

OK, I admit it, I did indeed finish that conversation.  But only because I was fortified by this old chestnut first.  Once I regained the will to live…