TDBP: Letters To The Editor

In the spirit of Mission Control's countdown, the following is reader feedback. It has been edited for length, and was received from a source who asked to be identified only as a senior administration official.

I think, though, that you need to take the travelogue's pretentiousness to the next level. Step it up a notch, so to speak. You could be interspersing quotes from other famous travel journalists (Chaucer, de Tocqueville, Paris Hilton) with meditations on the larger questions of life. I mean, that's just Travelogging 101, right?

The other way to achieve this end is to interact with lots of ordinary citizens and get their thoughts on the issues of the day, like American Idol, day laborers stealing jobs from real Americans, and effective weight loss strategies. Perhaps take advantage of the ongoing presidential campaign to really get to the nub of what this country is all about. Perhaps stake out Peoria, Illinois.

You can then head off obvious critiques of said pretentiousness by including myriad anecdotes of personal haplessness.

If all else fails, I think massaging in some (or more, as the case may be) fake blog entries is definitely called for.