It's About That Time

I think it is time for Randy Cohen, better known to us as The Ethicist, to publish a collection of his column "The Ethicist." If you are a weekly reader of Mr. Cohen's work, think about it for a second. How much do you remember of each piece? If you are like me - not enough to preclude a second or third reading. And another little reason: When did you start reading "The Ethicist" and when did Mr. Cohen commence the writing of his column? I do not know the answer but I imagine, at least for me, there are many reader's questions and just as many of Mr. Cohen's answers in past editions of the Sunday New York Times that arrived too early for me to read. Even if I am wrong on this last part, I know that my first argument holds up and a compilation is in order.
Doing some reasearch on Mr. Cohen, I discovered he used to write for both the Late Show with David Letterman, Michael Moore's TV Nation and The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Mr. Cohen also appears on NPR to answer listener's question regarding - you guessed it - ethical questions. Additionally he had published a book entitled "The Good, the Bad, & the Difference: How to Tell Right From Wrong in Everyday Situations" which answers the letters of 200 of his readers. This book contains Mr. Cohen's favorite columns, a quiz, and answers from guest ethicists. I should buy this book as it perhaps features what I am asking for, but I could also do without the quiz and the guests. Call me selfish but I want more of "The Ethicist" columns because two situations a week, maybe three if were really lucky just isnt satisfying the craving, and in truth my bathroom could really use such a book or at least my nightable stacked with baseball statistics, New Yorker movie reviews, a collection of short fiction, and Mojos. Now doesn't that just look pretentious?
I guess the reason this is something worth posting about is ethics are an important part of our lives whether we recognize it or not which is cool because one could live a whole life without ever thinking about the concept of ethics yet it really will matter to them anyway. In college I always wanted to take one of the many ethics classes offered whether it was medical, business or straight up ethics. In my first year of law school I took legal ethics which is codified law and not so much theory that a person like Randy Cohen could answer based on his opinion and the opinion of others. But legal ethics (which you may consider to be fiction, but a course nonetheless) has lots of wiggle room which is the reason the course is followed by an exam, but even with that kind of pressure the course was quite interesting, though nowhere near as entertaining as an "Ethicist" column. So coming full circle I beleive it is time for a collection, or a new collection, of the column to inform us of the encounters, experiences, and ordeals that are sometimes trivial, sometimes largely challenging but most importantly that our fellow men and women deal with or make up, that we may one day be faced with although perhaps it is not too likely and that would be a good thing. Because who likes an ethical dilemma?

Here is an interesting interview w/ Randy Cohen from Gothathamist.com