Take Julia! Take Julia!
Take Anybody!
Just Turn Off the Oscars!

Reading the news gets me down. It's depressing and distressing. I think a large part of that is because we read about horror, about injustice, about stupidity and cupidity, and we are powerless to do anything about it.

Then we get a strange interlude. We have this hateful thing I'll call the Oscars extravaganza. This is the side of the Times that tries to be all things to all people. To me, the Oscars phenomenon is best left to the bars, and wine-and-cheese-parties, to television and fan magazines (online or off), to Twitter, to Facebook.

Because it's in the Times, does it make the Hollywood hype intelligent? Perhaps the Times thinks you will applaud the message because you are faithful to the messenger.

Furthermore, do you need the Times to supply the fun break you crave from the terrible knowledge of the world outside?

I see in the Times the kind of thing we all admire right below the Oscars headline: A thorough look at hydrofracking, which is a controversial way for energy companies to get more natural gas out of the ground but perhaps only at a dangerous environmental cost. The Times shines when it uses its resources to obtain and digest volumes of federal reports and make sense out of them. But when the Times plays it second to the Oscars -- on the digital version -- it's telling you, "don't worry; be happy."