It's been two years since midnight revelers celebrated the release of the final Harry Potter book, but Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's sustained domination of box-office charts shows that Pottermania is far from finished.

The New York Times called it nostalgia, and they might be right. David Browne

Last Monday, officials began drilling on Wilshire Boulevard to examine the possibility of constructing the long-anticipated Subway to the Sea. Such a subway could not only cleanse Los Angeles' polluted air and clear its congested roads, but could also radically change the way Angelinos relate to one another.

On Monday, when Columbia University granted tenure to Joseph Massad -- the professor of Modern Arab politics whose alleged intimidation of pro-Israeli students likely doomed his first tenure bid in 2005 -- the University jeopordized its long-standing commitment to cultivating and supporting its Jewish student population.

The University...