Good news for white folks who want to watch The Wire but are afraid that they might not be able to follow the complex argot of the show's duskier characters: Noted ethnographer Jake Weisberg is here to help.

We can understand how, when one finally attains the top position at a publication one has spent some time working for, the temptation to use your newly-acquired powers to solve the mysteries you were previously unable to answer might prove too strong to resist. When Bill Clinton became president, he famously asked…