The admissions scam in novella form

Caitlin Flanagan of The Atlantic penned a splendid recounting of the college-admissions bribery scam — you know, the one that ensnared Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, among others — entitled, "They Had It Coming".

Flanagan informs the piece with her own experience as a teacher and guidance counselor at a tony Los Angeles prep school thirty years ago. She could see the Huffman/Loughlin scandal coming, not because she knew either of them but because she knew the type of parent they represent. That kind of parent existed back then, too.

We may yet find that the allegations are overblown or even unsupported. I doubt that, but anything's possible, especially when a case involves celebrities: both sides have a lot of incentive to distort reality.

Even so, the truths Flanagan finds resonate in these times. She tells an old-fashioned type of tale, the morality play, stylishly and well.