So one of my Panera Bread buddies (a retired Dean of Business) comes up to me with Carl Scott’s article on five forms of liberty. He has underlined more than half of it. He asked me whether Carl Scott really knows what he’s talking about, after saying he sure is easy to read. I masterfully evaded the question by saying I actually know Carl Scott, and he’s pretty impressed. Another Panera guy (whom I don’t really know) comes up. He turns out to be a retired Air Force colonel. He, having overheard a bit of the suspicious but promising conversation, asks: What do I think about the Constitution? I respond I’m for it. He then reports he takes all sorts of online Constitution courses based on primary sources from Hillsdale, and he’s designed his own weekly seminar (based on David Ramsey — don’t actually know what that means) that’s meeting at Trinity Methodist church. He gently suggested I might learn something if I attended, which I might and so I might. Some people think there’s been progress since the Founders, but the truth is they really understood human nature. I didn’t try to tell him that progressivism is dead or anything.
I did try to tell them that they could learn more about Carl Scott if they go to the blog Postmodern Conservative at NRO. Carl could teach them a lot about the Ramones. The discussion kind of broke up at that point.
Panera trends: We don’t have the kiosks in Rome yet, which means that service remains slow but friendly. But they’ve, in a very calculated way, removed the couch that was in front of the fireplace. Panera is gradually becoming less like home.