No pattern has emerged

I don't ordinarily watch the evening news. ('There's no news on the news,' a friend pointed out at the Athens Olympia restaurant long ago.) But last night we were channel hopping in hopes of catching a mention of Beverly Sills, who died yesterday. We did catch a few film clips of the darling diva, but not before surfing across Katie Couric, who famously mumbles on CBS for $12 million a year. For that kind of money, CBS must have expected some dazzling insights, and Katie certainly delivered last night in her commentary on the Alleged Suspects now being held in Britain.

'No pattern has emerged,' Katie assured us, having just noted that 1) all seven are men aged 25-28, 2) all seven are actual or would-be physicians, and 3) all seven are Muslims . . . well, to be sure, Katie didn't go into the forbidden topic of religion, but we're entitled to draw conclusions, aren't we? They hail, after all, from Iraq, Jordan, India, and 'the Middle East', and they have names like Muhammed and Khalid.

Apart from that, however, no pattern has emerged.