Congratulations to David Brooks on his first day as a columnist for the New York Times.
This occasion deserves a toast. So I'm heading out to meet someone at Brooks' beloved Starbucks for a few minutes (really) while mulling over these words a wise author wrote some time ago:

If our intellectual is successful, she will be offered a column. This seems like the pinnacle, but while a dozen people get riches and fame from column writing, thousands do it in wretched slavery - compelled like circus animals to be entertaining once or twice a week. The ones who succeed in that line of work have a superb knowledge of one thing: their own minds. They know what they think and they have immense confidence in their own judgments. This is not as simple as it sounds, for most people don't become aware of their own opinions until someone else has put them into words. But a columnist can read an article on brain surgery for 20 minutes and then go off and give a lecture to a conference of brain surgeons on what is wrong with their profession.

Let's wish Brooks all the self-confidence he needs. (And can you imagine a group therapy session with all the NYT columnists complaining about their "wretched slavery?" I'd love to hear Paul Krugman's complaints; imagine what he'd be like when he really gets upset...)