David Brooks is fascinated by everything. This fascination is the source of his enormous intellect. He is never not fascinated. The power of his fascination allows him to connect seemingly disparate ideas, concepts, cultural artifacts, and “memes” into a superthesis of amazingly fantastic (root word: fascinating) power. “Memes” is a word that David Brooks created. It means “mental things.” His book The Social Animal was originally inspired by a truckload of pea gravel and an ESPN commercial. He saw the connection and went from there. It featured an entire chapter on underground southern hip-hop with a focus on Atlanta. There was a corollary chapter on the comparative merits of box and bubble rides. He took it for granted that donks make the best hi-risers. I think he is right but wish he had explained why. It is a good book; everyone should probably read it sometime.