Who needs the fire and brimstone of a Sunday sermon when readers of the Sunday New York Times are blessed with the increasingly shrill homilies of Frank Rich?

Whether condemning the foibles of the rich or lambasting media coverage of the Michael Jackson scandal, Rich has assumed a tone better suited to Puritanical madman than Arts & Leisure guru.

As Mr. Alex Witchel warily illuminates the money shot (�the porn industry's term for the moment of ejaculation'), as #1 Eminem Fan detects pederasty in every pop-culture icon, at least Rich is always generous enough to use the collective sigh of �We.' After all, the real sinner here is not Jaime Gleicher (Ally Hilfiger's �less attractive sidekick') or �the red meat of Kobe' (he really wrote that), but all of us with our perverted little minds. Thanks for the heads-up there, Mr. Rich.

So has Howell Raines' pet finally lost the plot? Let's hope so - at least it would make for something good to read in the Sunday Times.