True Lives of Freelancers
Jim Lowney closes up the bar in Hoboken, runs a few blocks to take pictures of a building in flames and then sells the pictures to the NY Times.

Kate Sullivan interviews Christina Aguilera and fesses up to her own state of mind:

“I interviewed her Friday night. We were drinking red wine but I had some whiskey beforehand and 20 minutes into the interview I realize I'm wasted. Losing my train of thought so she has to back up and remind me what we were talking about. In a way it was good because I blew all appearances of superstar ass-kissing and was able to ask a couple questions that would've been awkward sober. Stuff like, why do you objectify yourself and whatnot. Actually she used the word objectify first.”

(Her permalink isn't working, so scroll down to April 8.)
- posted by Amy @ 4/19/2003 03:45:00 PM

 

Mimeograph Rolls Out
Blogger Paul Frankenstein has started a new online magazine called Mimeograph. One of the first stories is from MBA blogger Megan McArdle who explains how to stretch an $11 chicken into 10 meals. The story may be as much about cooking as it is about the economy:

If you are going to be poor, it is really best to have poor friends. ... Unlike rich friends, poor friends understand that meeting for an appetizer-and-entrée dinner at the Golden Wok is not an economy, but an extravagance. They don't mind social gatherings that revolve around bottom-shelf spirits and Top Ramen."

- posted by Amy @ 4/19/2003 03:25:00 PM

 

Manhattan State of Mind
I suppose the Valley secessionists in Los Angeles look modest compared to those floating the "notion of New York City as 'the 51st state.'"
- posted by Amy @ 4/19/2003 03:07:00 PM

 

Confidential Lies of Watergate
Leonard Garment, who served as counsel to President Nixon, has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein selling their Watergate notes to the University of Texas for $5 million. He raises an interesting point about whether a reporter can reveal a source for his story even after that source is dead. However, in Garment's own case, I sort of lose sympathy for him when he concedes he wasn't entirely honest even when he was off the record.

Then I recalled that conversation in the Chinese restaurant. At the time, those of us who had attended the recent death of the Nixon presidency were emerging, scarred and angry, from a time whose hatreds are largely unimagined today. From Mr. Woodward's notes I know I said things that night that I do not believe and did not believe even then. I am now not so sure that I want those sentiments to be a posthumous present to my family and reputation. I do know that I never gave Mr. Woodward or Mr. Bernstein a post-mortem release.

- posted by Amy @ 4/15/2003 10:38:00 AM

 

Catching Up
Spring finally arrived in New York, so you can’t hardly expect me to spend much free time inside blogging, now can you? It’s supposed to be 80 today, heavens sake.

Thanks to Matt for linking to the Dick Cheney dip on Saturday – a day I actually left the computer off all day and trekked over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with the husband. (Just in case you need to know, there is a healthy hemlock plant within picking range in their herb garden. I've been reading Patricia Highsmith again - can you tell?)

Jim Treacher e-mailed with links to some of his own Dick Cheney offerings you might want to check out here and here.

Still on the Matt topic, he linked to a Los Angeles Times story a couple days ago about another last act of the Iraqi media minders:

The government charged for these minders. In fact, the director general of the information ministry had threatened to shut down the foreign television networks Tuesday night unless they paid up so-called service fees. He collected $200,000 in cash and disappeared.

- posted by Amy @ 4/15/2003 10:12:00 AM