Writing a column for a newspaper four times a month is a thankless job, and almost always makes the writer appear vapid. Because they are writing for the calend

Writing a column for a newspaper four times a month is a thankless job, and almost always makes the writer appear vapid. Because they are writing for the calendar, instead of for the news. When you look at the NYT's other columnists: Friedman, Brooks, Douthat, etc., they have all flirted with banality and sometimes devoted themselves to it for decades.