THE AMAZING ALBINO BLACK MAN

New York Times' star columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, whose sojourns to impoverished nations in Africa have broadened the base of editorial activism, announced in a recent column that genetic researchers in Oxford, England, have examined his DNA and found him to be black. Really. Granted, you have to go back 70,000 years to trace Kristof's lineage to Africa, which would make him approximately 1/128 gazillionth African, by this blog's reckoning, but that is not the point.

The point is that we humans are all mongrels, and race has become simply a cosmetic distinction with little genetic differences separating blacks and whites. Next week we'll be reading that Kristof has been elected president of both the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund. Well, after the Jayson Blair scandal, at least its comforting to see a prominent black man in the Times newsroom.