  We give a detailed account of the free field spectrum and the Newtonian limit
of the linearized "massive" (Pauli-Fierz), "topologically massive"
(Einstein-Hilbert-Chern-Simons) gravity in 2+1 dimensions about a Minkowski
spacetime. For a certain ratio of the parameters, the linearized free theory is
Jordan-diagonalizable and reduces to a degenerate "Pais-Uhlenbeck" oscillator
which, despite being a higher derivative theory, is ghost-free.
