Good news for white folks who want to watch The Wire but are afraid that they might not be able to follow the complex argot of the show's duskier characters: Noted ethnographer Jake Weisberg is here to help.

We can understand how, when one finally attains the top position at a publication one has spent some time working for, the temptation to use your newly-acquired powers to solve the mysteries you were previously unable to answer might prove too strong to resist. When Bill Clinton became president, he famously asked Chief of Staff Mack McLarty to find out two things: Who killed J.F.K., and had aliens ever visited the planet. Still, Jake Weisberg has been the head of Slate for a couple of years now: It's a little disappointing to see that he's still using his magazine's vast resources to answer obviously personal questions.

The first media party since I arrived in New York, the Slate event at which Jacob Weisberg was unveiled as...