These are essays, indeed, but generally not the sort taught in schools – or that I taught for forty years: not in the elegant Intro/Thesis/Proof/Conclusion tradition but more in the older tradition of Michel de Montaigne and les essais, and of satire. That is, they are «attempts,» explorations, and, well, also traps, where I wander around a bit in apparent innocence and then spring on readers a possibly outrageous idea, one they wouldn’t have considered for a moment if I hadn’t lulled them (you)...