Yes, Virginia, there is a $400 toilet brush

I delayed going into the office by an hour so I could watch Virginia Postrel on CNN this morning, discussing her new book, The Substance of Style (Amazon rank #199 and climbing!!). The piece included Postrel displaying myriad styles of toilet brushes. Three thoughts: 1) Her Aruba Blue nail polish matched her blouse perfectly. What ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

I delayed going into the office by an hour so I could watch Virginia Postrel on CNN this morning, discussing her new book, The Substance of Style (Amazon rank #199 and climbing!!). The piece included Postrel displaying myriad styles of toilet brushes. Three thoughts: 1) Her Aruba Blue nail polish matched her blouse perfectly. What better way to demonstrate the utility of aesthetics? 2) No mention of her blog? Too bad. 3) In the teasers for the piece, the anchor kept using the term "image" instead of "style", which carried a more negative connotation. It always annoys me when network producers tease with a slant that contradicts the substance of the piece. In other words, unlike Postrel, CNN's style fails to match its substance. Anyways, congratulations to Virginia!! UPDATE: For more on the search for cutting-edge aesthetics, go check out Virginia's home page for The Substance of Style, as well as this Time cover story. ANOTHER UPDATE: CNN now has a transcript of the piece on its web site -- and here's Virginia's own take on the experience.

I delayed going into the office by an hour so I could watch Virginia Postrel on CNN this morning, discussing her new book, The Substance of Style (Amazon rank #199 and climbing!!). The piece included Postrel displaying myriad styles of toilet brushes. Three thoughts: 1) Her Aruba Blue nail polish matched her blouse perfectly. What better way to demonstrate the utility of aesthetics? 2) No mention of her blog? Too bad. 3) In the teasers for the piece, the anchor kept using the term “image” instead of “style”, which carried a more negative connotation. It always annoys me when network producers tease with a slant that contradicts the substance of the piece. In other words, unlike Postrel, CNN’s style fails to match its substance. Anyways, congratulations to Virginia!! UPDATE: For more on the search for cutting-edge aesthetics, go check out Virginia’s home page for The Substance of Style, as well as this Time cover story. ANOTHER UPDATE: CNN now has a transcript of the piece on its web site — and here’s Virginia’s own take on the experience.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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