It is rare to read in PAW an article that combines a breathtaking sense of entitlement coupled with awkward syntax and a tone-deaf attitude toward life, but “High heels beat flats: Why I left academia” by Hilary Levey Friedman delivers just that.

An author who claims to want to study “everyday lives” while at the same time making her Kate Spade shoes her talisman for success; a woman who throws over years of study that many Americans would kill for because she would rather troll popular culture; a woman whose friends mostly became investment bankers, attorneys, and management consultants (surely she knows a receptionist or two) — Ms. Friedman doesn’t strike me as someone who intuitively grasps how to connect with the masses.

I hope, however, she enjoys pursuing “the real me,” not always an option for everyday folks. Unless she cleans up her act and starts to realize how different she is from her purported audience — and develops an actual sense of humor and some humility — she may have only her fabulous shoes to console her.

Laura Knickerbocker Lloyd ’78