Daniel D'Addario will be investigating the intersection of aesthetics and thought in his column The Unbearable LOLness of Being—aesthetics both high and low, and thought both conscious and subconscious. Perhaps only an American studies major would be interested in what Jon & Kate Plus Eight says about contemporary discourse, but all of us can look at individual artworks for a reflection of the national mood, or at least look at the sheer fact that such an analysis is possible as revelatory of some deeper dumbing-down of the American mind. D'Addario, the managing editor of the Columbia Political Review, is excited to look at art-house film releases and tabloid covers both—perhaps simultaneously—in the process of figuring out who we are and what our fixations signify.