Long Sunday before the Pats game tonight.

I'm Belle de Jour: "Finally the anonymous sex blogger from Diary of a London Call Girl comes clean to The (London) Sunday Times: She's Dr Brooke Magnanti." Just another London student paying the rent while she finished her PhD in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science.

Funniest line:

There's no chance of finding Dr Magnanti on duty in hospital or as a GP: this is medical science, not clinical practice. "I decided against being a medic years ago because, ironically enough, my bedside manner is terrible."

Paul Carr ('Tis Pity She's A Success ? Belle de Jour and the Impossibility of Anonymous Blogging) dug up the photo from the print edition, part of a photo shoot mentioned in the London Times story.

Tony Lioce, legendary former Journal reporter, rock writer and entertainment editor, did stints around California MSM before settingling into his current gig: 6 a.m. bartender at the Vesuvio in San Francisco.

The Examiner has the story: Vesuvio mixes history with the drinks and coffee:

So how are you liking the career switch?

I'm loving it! The biggest difference between working at a place like this and working at a place like the Mercury News is that in a place like this, if anybody gives you a hard time you can throw them out. At the Mercury News you say, "Yes, sir."

If you think about it, it's kind of like being a reporter, you just don't have to write about it ... though you could. It's all those interrogation skills, getting people to talk, because that's the job. Anybody can make a drink. The good bartenders are the guys who make people feel welcome, they bring him in, you get them to talk, "How you doin', where you from?" And it's the same thing that an interviewer has to use to penetrate that sometimes frosty exterior that people will put up to protect themselves.

Astrotufing the Congressional Record:: In House, Many Spoke With One Voice - Lobbyists'. NYT.
It's called "astroturfing" when form letters are sent as Letters to the Editor -- early on, we advised our own editorial division to put a sentence or two of letters about national politics and issues into a search engine before publishing them.

Members of Congress submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record all the time, often with a decorous request to "revise and extend my remarks." It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists.

Is this good news? Scientists Develop Rot-Proof Apple that Stays Fresh for 4 Months

Free mp3s: NIRVANA - DEL MAR 1991. 7 tracks.