Anti-snob snobs at the Times

Movie reviewer A. O. Scott practices a little reverse snobbery in his Times review of Jonathan Nossiter's lovingly contentious documentary, Mondovino: "Wine is more than a beverage. It is, proverbially, the soul of a meal and, in some accounts, the very cornerstone of civilization, which is one of the reasons I prefer beer." (Rimshot, please!) Scott neglects to mention Robert Parker's farting bulldog, one of the more ingratiating figures in the globe-girdling epic. In the same Thursday edition, Alessandra Stanley's lede to a review of the American version of The Office rips like this: There is no snobbery more insufferable than the one-upsmanship of memory.