The Times is behind the…

New York Times is still covering the Writers' Strike on the front page

Spotted today at newyorktimes.com: prominent coverage of the Hollywood Writers’ Strike… over five months after it finished.  I’m glad that the NYT can tell me how the strike will affect my favourite shows!

Eating on the Hill

Senate Votes to Privatize its Failing Restaurants.  Apparently the Senate Restaurants have only turned a profit in seven of of their 44 years in business.  “In the past 10 years, only 20 new items have been added to the Senate menus.”  They only just got sushi!

I swear, the Longworth Cafeteria was one of the highlights of my time working on Capitol Hill (on the House side) earlier in the year.  The choices!  The International Food counter!  The cheap cheap prices!  And all the containers were biodegradable.  I got a packed lunch once on the Senate side, at a briefing, and it was terrible.  A packed lunch at a briefing on the House side was something to celebrate – a huge roll, little container of pasta salad (with fetta and pesto!), cookie (the oatmeal and raisin ones were incredible), an apple, packet of chips… so good.

Abandoned embassies

Once Grand, Now Bedraggled.  Story on countries who have abandoned their embassies in Washington D.C., for a variety of bizarre reasons.  One building used to be the embassy for Yugoslavia; when the country was dissolved in 1991 it was supposed to be turned over to Bosnia.  But the deeds were never transferred, and now no-one can find the key.

‘Controlled’ explosion

Unexploded WWII bomb is detonated. Workers clearing land for the 2012 London Olympics found a 1000 kilogram WWII bomb – it took days to make the site safe, a job that was made particularly difficult when the thing started ticking. To make things worse, it was next to a gasworks. The team of experts from the Royal Engineers were eventually able to ’safely’ detonate the thing, although this doesn’t look like a particularly controlled or safe explosion to me…

Physically assaulted by the Internet

Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer.  Under ‘dickheads’ in the dictionary, you’ll find this lot:

Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.

Traumatic workplace experiences

Fox News worker sues over bedbugs.  Apparently getting bitten three times over a 6 month period by bedbugs is enough to cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  I am intrigued by her lawyer, Alan Schnurman (“the Larry King of Law“), “who said he has brought numerous bedbug cases.”

Questions raised: (1) Is bedbug infestation a major problem in American workplaces?, and (2) do people really sue over this crap?

Real-life Charlie Youngs

On the Court and on the Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama. Story about Reggie Love (greatest name ever), who is basically Obama’s Charlie Young. I found this article strangely compelling, and not just because you discover Barack Obama likes organic fruit tea and chews nicorette. The NYT published a similar piece on John Kerry’s aide, Marvin Nicholson Jr., back in 2004, in which we learn “one of Mr. Gore’s aides is engaged to [Gore's] daughter.” At least the Charlie/Zoe thing worked out in real-life.

It would seem, however, that Hilary Clinton’s ‘body woman, “the efficient and glamorous Huma Abedin” has attracted a lot more attention than either Reggie or Marvin. She was in Vogue magazine last August, and there was a long profile piece in the New York Observer. A lot of the coverage seems to focus on either (1) her dress sense, or (2) her love life. She’s currently dating Congressman Anthony Weiner from New York… but if you believed everything you read on the internet, you’d also think she was Hilary’s secret lesbian lover.

Emo kids get depressed. World is shocked.

Emo band fans rally over suicide link claim

Around 100 teenagers have marched on the offices of a widely read British tabloid to protest at its suggestion that their favourite emo band, My Chemical Romance, encouraged suicide.