More and More Gandhi sounds right

Legend tells us (as I understand, the actual documentation on this is shaky) that someone asked Mahatma Gandhi, "What is your opinion of Western civilization?" Gandhi promptly replies, "I think it would be a good idea."

So do I.

La Shawn Barber writes today,

Michael Skube, a journalism professor at Elon University in Elon, NC, reports that some of his students think that Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, is a great writer. Relatively speaking, the book is a good read. Brown does all the formulaic stuff that keeps you turning the pages. But a great writer compared toÂ?William Faulkner? According to Skube, Brown "was the only writer they could think of."

Yikes.

Skube says that words like impetus, ramshackle, lucid, advocate, derelict, satire (no English lit classes in high school?), and afflict stumped his private university students, the same ones who graduated from high school with grade point averages of 3.5 and higher.

(be sure to read her whole post, and pretty much every post she makes)

Brown a "great" writer? I need a new dictionary, 'cuz mine apparently has a misprint under "great." Worse yet, Brown the only writer they could think of?

Jane! Stop this crazy thing!