The only thing to say about this is that it’s really sad and I was a fan. Maybe tomorrow I’ll affectionately tease the memory of NBC political analyst, bureau chief and Meet the Press host Tim Russert with something about that ridiculous 8×10 white board he sported during the 2000 election. Maybe not. Now brace yourselves for the slew of speculative pieces in the coming days over which heir apparent will, ought, won’t, should, deserves, has been groomed, and so on to fill that Sunday morning chair. You know Katie Couric’s agent has already made a few calls.
In the sense of former, not, you know, old, okay Tom? Anyway, three cheers for the Village Voice’s Tom Robbins and music ed Rob Harvilla, who both took home nods from this weekend’s Annual AltWeekly Awards for, respectively, their political columns and music criticism.
Rob is hugely talented, hard-working and a great guy. But Tom Robbins will always have a special place in my heart, partly because of a yelling match we once got into about Mike Lacey; partly because he sat three feet behind me when I worked at the Voice and you’ve never eavesdropped on a conversation until you’ve heard the almost daily one wherein Robbins picks up his ringing phone and goes “Eeeyy, Jimmy, what’s the news?” and he means Breslin; but mostly because the guy could have been running the place and still had the class to take me out to lunch—or bring it to me for chrissakes. “We’re just talkin’ here, right, Mag?” he’d say. Always, Tom Robbins, always.
Jesus Christ, it sounds like I’m writing his obit, a mark of a lazy writer if I ever saw one. Sorry. Fucker’s alive, well, and if I know him at all, constantly kicking. Congrats again.
“Washington, D.C. legend Helen Thomas has been off the job for the past three weeks suffering from a gastric infection that has caused her to miss her weekly column for Hearst Newspapers, according to Hearst D.C. Bureau Chief Chuck Lewis.” [E&P]
Oooh! An octogenarian “gastric infection!” Just in time for the lunch hour! You can thank me later. (Um. Ew, gross, Helen Thomas’ rattley insides, ew, ew, retch.)
“A woman was found stabbed to death in her Chelsea apartment late Sunday, police said…Investigators are combing the area and also trying to determine how her assailant got into her building, which is staffed by a doorman.” [WCBS]
I had no idea that doormen were armed with special powers with which to ward off the crazy neighbors already inside! Not to mention those regular visitors whom they regularly motion right upstairs! Perhaps New Yorkers would be safer if all doormen were required to dress like the Harrod’s doormen in London. Even crazy stab-happyists wouldn’t go near a dude dressed like a leprechaun.
Oh, CNN, he did not. This looky-here headline implies that John Edwards gave Barack Obama the Heisman after the Democratic nominee asked him to be his running mate. What does CNN’s story actually say? Edwards is doing the de rigeur political courtship thing: “Oh no, not for me, thanks anyway, though, gee shucks,” whilst likely angling for a spot with more punch and less profile inside an Obama cabinet. Should have read “Ticker: Edwards would say no to being Obama’s VP,” but then again, I wouldn’t have clicked on something so dull, so I guess CNN wins.
“A woman was found stabbed to death in her Chelsea apartment late Sunday, police said…Investigators are combing the area and also trying to determine how her assailant got into her building, which is staffed by a doorman.” [
Oh, CNN, he did not. This looky-here headline implies that John Edwards gave Barack Obama the Heisman after the Democratic nominee asked him to be his running mate. What does CNN’s story