Which female journalist wore this 50 Shades of Grey-style choker to Atlantic Publisher David Bradley‘s “Downton Bradley” shindig last night?

We’ll tell you soon. Send your best guesses to fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com. 

Supreme Court Justices are apparently people too.

Case in point: As it turns out, Justice Antonin Scalia is a big fan of WMAL’s morning drive radio show. Host Brian Wilson attended a Ricky Skaggs concert this weekend. He ran into Scalia, who wore a Stetson and attended with his “lovely” and “absolutely charming” wife Maureen.

Most importantly… Read more

Our own Peter Ogburn. Embarrassing as it is, we have to h/t Politico‘s Mike Allen for informing us that it is his birthday today. Much to his own extreme annoyance joy, Ogburn wound up in the famed Playbook birthday section Wednesday. He wants to kill whoever did that to him.

We’ve decided to give Ogburn our own special birthday wishes with a couple of pictures he will appreciate for years to come. Here’s “Ooh La La Peter” and “Wild Peter.” Take your pick. Both are unstoppable.

Most importantly, Happy Birthday Peter!

A special thank you to Sherri Prather for her expert photoshop skills.

There’s few things we enjoy more than opening a box full of sleek silver boxes amidst a bed of pretty silver tinsel. This is the latest box of goodies we received this week from BrandLinkDC. And this one, with upscale facial products may be by far (no offense, C-SPAN) my favorite so far.

Neiman Marcus carries the products. For TV reporters these are real gems. They are Natura Bissé’ Diamond Mist, a pink-hued energy infusion lotion that instantly hydrates your skin makes it look and feel all dewy, and Diamond White, an SPF 50 brightening shield treatment cream. We’re not entirely sure what the second product does, but the result appears to be a more even skin tone. The pink-hued Mist seems to be the real jewel here (pun intended). Ladies, you need to get your hands on this stuff.

Have a Journo Perk you’d like to share with us? Send us a picture and description to fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com. Your anonymity will be protected if you wish.

In Washington, influence is everything. Then again, in some circles so is being retweeted, so maybe “everything” is a tad overrated. But today GQ takes some allegedly important people to task with a year-end list sure to make some want to hide under the covers. The magazine writers applaud themselves in the process, which is simultaneously nauseating and disappointing as it extracts any brownie points acquired for creating the list in the first place.

Their introduction: “Any magazine can do a year-end list of influential people who have accomplished far more than most of us ever will. But only GQ possesses the iron testicles to count down the twenty-five least significant men and women of 2012—a collection of people so uninspiring that we should round them all up and stick them on an iceberg. Please note that these folks are ranked in no particular order, because all zeros are created equal.” Yes, and that includes the zeros surrounding GQ at the moment and the “L” sign attached to its forehead.

(The above photograph is of bull testicles, but you get the idea.)

But let’s get on with the list… Read more

On Saturday MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton apparently really wanted people to know what he was up to here in the nation’s capitol. Repeatedly. We’re glad to hear he had friends to chill with in D.C. before his NBC “MTP” appearance, but is there something wrong with his Twitter? More details and namedropping next time though, okay Rev.?

At 3:09 p.m.: “Just landed in DC after a good rally in Harlem this am. I am going to hook up w/ friends and do Meet the Press in the morning.”

Then three minutes later at 3:12 p.m.: “Just landed in DC, after a good rally at NAN in Harlem this AM. I am live on Meet the Press in the morning. Chillin w/ friends tonight.”

Much to our delight, yesterday we received a package from BrandLinkDC filled with a ton of bright, long, curly red filler confetti (for lack of a better name) covering a beautiful red stripped glass, a juice box size container of organic milk, chocolate chip cookies and a Tysons Corner specialty cookie all courtesy of Tysons Corner Mall.

The holiday cheer was sent with an invitation to a children’s party featuring Santa on Dec. 1 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. There will be music, face painting, balloon animals, caricatures and complimentary photos with Santa. Invite only!

No crashers. Santa will toss you out.

Politico got all truthy this morning as they sent out their breaking news alert on Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) finally getting a grip on the fact that he lost his congressional race.

At 5:48 a.m. they wrote:

“GOP Rep. Allen West has conceded the election in Florida’s 18^th District to Democrat Patrick Murphy, he said in a statement to POLITICO. The Republican had been challenging the vote-counting process in St. Lucie County.”

Really. TO Politico? Sure, the campaign might have technically sent the statement to Politico, but they also sent the exact same statement to WPTV in Palm Beach, HuffPost, the Miami Herald and to many other media outlets in the country that wanted it. Sorry, Politico, looks like you posted the statement about 40 minutes ahead of HuffPost, but you hardly get to claim an exclusive statement on this one.

See the statement that was officially released at 6:15 a.m. … Read more

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, conservative columnist John Podhoretz  offered a postmortem on the election and the state of the GOP that really offered nothing new on the matter. It was his virgin experience on the show, and while Podhoretz is a goof by some standards, it came as a surprise to learn that he has spent more time in the Saturday Night Live offices than on the Morning Joe set of 30 Rock.

“First off, you gave us a bit of fascinating information,” said co-host Joe Scarborough. “Your wife worked here for a very long time.”

Podhoretz confirmed that his wife, Ayala Cohen, had worked at Saturday Night Live “for almost 20 years.” A June story in The Wire says Cohen ran the talent department.

“Wow, fantastic. So she’s moved on to greener pastures?” Scarborough said… Read more

This morning we placed ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper in the Department of Bragiculture for tweeting about troops and families that were so moved by his book, The Outpost, that they posed for pictures with it, which, in turn, moved him.

But after we ran the item, we received this note from ABC News’ digital communications and publicity department…

Read more