Greenspan's photo

I bought the new book -- part memoir, part tract -- by former fed chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday.

I'll discuss its contents here some other time. What I want to talk about just now is the photo on the dust jacket. It's quite intentionally low key, and hardly registers at first glance. But if you come back to it, you may find it disturbingly asymmetrical.

A line drawn down the center of the photo will almost miss his head completely -- just about slicing off his ear.

Nothing odd about that in itself, but I suppose I'd expect asymmetry in placement to be balanced by the direction of his gaze. In other words, a head on the left side of the photo should be tilted somewhat to the right and vice versa. Greenspan's head is on the left side, and he's looking further left, off the margin. Why? Is the photographer hiding something from us?

You can see the photo yourself on the amazon page. Tell me it isn't just a bit creepy.

There's also that slight smile, as if to say, "This is what Mona Lisa looked like after rigor mortis kicked in."