We may not need Vice's Gavin McInnes to join the hunt for Osama after all. Famed restaurant critic and author Mimi Sheraton wrote Fishbowl with her suspicions that the one to discover his hiding place will come from the ranks of Frank Bruni, Adam Platt and herself:

"Forget China. Anyone up on the current restaurant frenzy in New York knows that Bin Laden is more likely to be found in the vicinity of Rivington and Ludlow streets on the Lower East Side, preparing to open a restaurant. Hiding in plain sight, he will call it Osama's Cave (I mean, who would think...?) and will feature an Iranian and Syrian-informed menu. Food will be served in the traditional manner with guests seated on dirt floors around tables, dipping into communal mezes to indicate that no one fears being poisoned. There will be no liquor and, to deflect whatever suspicion there might be, the place will be glatt kosher. There will be no sign outside the restaurant. You'll have to find Osama's Cave the hard way."

And Bruni will give it the obligatory one star.

For those of you who aren't aware - and, really, why would you be, based on the dearth of coverage here - there is an election going on in Canada today. Looking like regime change. PM Paul Martin out, Conservative leader Stephen Harper in (though who knows if it will be a majority or minority government). Though the two - count 'em, two - articles (not including wire coverage) the NYT has run today and over the past week (last one was on Jan. 16th) make that sound optimistic (one being an op-ed written by big Canadian neo-con writer Andrew Coyne), but it does represent a significant move to the right.

Quoting John Ibbitson in Canada's The Globe & Mail (our NYT, I'd say): "It is probably fair to say that Stephen Harper is winning this election because he is less distrusted than Paul Martin." This election is significant because it really does bust up an entrenched dynasty, the Liberal party, which has been the only alternative in Canada for years and years since the old Progressive Conservatives imploded in the mid-90's and reformed as the right-wing populist Reform Party whose latest leader was - guess who? - Harper. His slide to the center and re-positioning himself as a moderate is what has won him support in recent weeks; that and stepping back and letting Liberal ineptitude and scandal do its own work.

In any case, not that exit polls are to be believed these days but it's pretty much a done deal. But more than that, it's actually interesting, exciting, and is happening pretty close to home. A few readers have asked me why the NYT didn't have more coverage of the subject; I wondered the same thing, too.

Conservative Win in Canada Could Help Repair Ties to U.S. [NYT]
In From the Cold [NYT]
Bios of Top Four Canadian Candidates [AP]

Earlier:
A Conservative Evolves, And Leads a Canadian Race[NYT]*

*Canada is a very big country, which is why we think it's hilarious that Clifford Krauss datelined this article from Huntsville, Ontario, the town nearest where this photo was taken, as well as the frequently-dropped NYC media northern hotbed of Camp Winnebagoe.

From today's E&P:

A top Sunni politician appealed Friday for the release of an American female journalist and urged U.S. and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to elapse. The kidnappers had threatened to kill 28-year-old Jill Carroll unless all female detainees are freed by Friday. No hour was specified, and there was no indication Friday that any prisoners had been released.

That was from this morning - no news yet. What else is there to do but hope that she is released and okay.

On Deadline Day: No Progress in Contacting Carroll Captors [E&P]
Fear and Loathing in Baghdad [Salon]
A Tribute to Jill Carroll [E&P]

On Saturday, Jan. 7th, Christian Science Monitor writer Jill Carroll was abducted in Baghdad and her translator Allan Enwiyah was killed. The CSM requested a news blackout "pending further notice." News had gone out already over the wire, but even so, the blackout was generally honored until the CSM lifted it Monday. Almost a week later Jack Shafer wonders about the ethics of a news blackout, especially when a journalist is involved:

Were journalists guilty of treating a fellow reporter differently than they would a kidnapped nonreporter? Were there precedents for such an indefinite blackout?... Should the blackout have been observed even though CNN had covered the killing and the foreign press had already published news about it?

He asks Washington Post Managing Editor Philip Bennett, Los Angeles Times Managing Editor Doug Frantz and the NYT's Bill Keller, who obviously had some experience directing coverage of close-to-home stories in recent months. The NYT has also lost two associated journalists - New Yorker Steven Vincent and Iraqi stringer Fakher Haider, both in Basra -- and Keller makes the point that attaching the name of the New York Times to an abductee increases the danger they are in. Meanwhile, Times Baghdad reporter Dexter Filkins isn't even sure the blackout was a good idea after the first day; Shafer wonders why, if silence is so important, that wasn't made clearer in news stories.

It's a good piece and a sad one, because even as these questions are being asked and reflectively answered, Carroll still has not been found. In the meantime, journalists in Baghdad are mobilizing to try to find her.

How to cover a kidnapping: It isn't that easy [Slate]
Abduction of American Reporter in Iraq Blacked Out By U.S. News Outlets [E&P]
"Reporters In Baghdad Mobilized" To Find Kidnapped Freelancer [TVNewser]

Another sad angle - a story on slain aid worker Marla Ruzicka, by Jill Carroll:
An American activist who dared to help Iraqi victims [CSM]

I know, that's kind of a mouthful of a headline, mais there has suddenly been all sorts of interesting dust-settling France coverage, and considering that a chunk of it ended up in my inbox with nary a mouseclick required from me I figured I should pass it along. Then I saw two more stories and, well, three's a trend.

J'aime bien le pamplemousse. Oui, c'est vrai.

First, a shout-out to New Republic editor Marty Peretz, whose personalized email made me feel very special (how did you know that "Reader" was my special nickname?). Peretz drew my attention to TNR's France-o-centric issue (see sad little Napoleon up above.Oh, buck up, little emperor. Elba's not that bad), which features articles on why the French have failed to assimilate their minorities, and, confusingly, why the riots are uniquely French but also why all of this is also a European problem. Yowsers.

Next the New York Times Magazine published an architectural take on the riots, turning blame away from the French toward the Swiss, specifically the architect Le Corbusier, whose version of "upwardly mobile" is actually oxymoronic when taken literally in his high-rises on the outskirts of Paris. I think that sentence made sense but I'm not entirely sure.

And finally, in one of the more unique commentaries on the events overseas, over at Collision Detection FishFriend Clive Thompson writes of a unique project dramatizing the experiences of various French characters via machinimia (basically making art/video from video game characters and interfaces - more here). The TNR articles provide an interesting backdrop; the video-game-cum-movies highlight the assimilation/identity problems behind the more general marginalization of disaffected youth.

In any case, trois est un trènde, et aussi, je ne pas parler le Français vraiment bon. Zut alors! But that doesn't change how I feel about grapefruit. Tasty, that.

Update: Allez allez allez! Fishbowl has been informed of more relevant links in this matter, specifically TNR cover-story-writer Paul Berman's book Power and the Idealists, as reviewed in yesterday's NYBTR; it's actually a super-favorable review and sounds like a really interesting book about the rise of post-1968 fascism in Europe, framed against, inter alia, the 1972 Olympics (a hot topic in the coming month when Munich is released). Wow, from France to Germany all in one post about unrest and racial violence in Europe. Nothing unsettling about that.

Revolting High Rises [NYT Mag]
A Machinima commentary on the riots in France [Collision Detection]

Our erstwhile correspondent from Sacramento, cleverly nicknamed "SAC" for your convenience, ruminates on the California election and claims to be aroused by a trio of fetching media lasses while making a point of including two gratuitous shirtless pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger. We report, you decide. We also have it on the highest authority that he can rewire a garage with the best of 'em. Yes, in Sacramento they have garages. Consider how that compares to your windowless studio apartment while enjoying a little SAC-on-Sac action below. Vamanos!

It's true what they say about the liberal media. It's, uh, totally liberal, and its effect is finally being felt over here in California. In yesterday's pretend election, 98% of registered Republican voters forgot to show up to vote, allowing all four (4) of the propositions favored by former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be shot down by the hippies who accidentally stumbled into voting booths on their way to the drum circle. This represents the Republican body-builder's biggest defeat since Linda Hamilton kicked his ass in that one movie where he played a robot (big stretch), and it was entirely orchestrated by the New York (fucking) Times. How are California Republicans expected to get into their Hummers and drive two blocks to the nearest polling stations, let alone their shiftless, Prius-driving Democratic counterparts, when the imbroglio between Judith Miller and Maureen Dowd is going on? Throw Arianna Huffington into the mix and you have a writhing mass of media elites that is impossible to look away from. I am, in a word, aroused.

Mismatched furniture, vampiric media mavens and men in tights after the jump. You are, in a word, aroused.

continued...

Crazy stuff going on in Paris, as you are all no doubt aware. Ominous too. So, taking a page from our eagle-eyed brethren at FishbowlDC, we'll just note the unfortunate timing of this T&L cover. Hindsight, 20-20.

Ah, well. Our favorite part of the corresponding article is the suddenly-relevant disclaimer:

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published in November 2005 but we suggest you confirm all details and prices directly with any establishments mentioned. The quality of offerings and services tends to change over time.

No kidding.

Best of Paris [Travel & Leisure]
Paris is Burning [Google]

In all the distracting-from-PlameGate debate over Justice Alito ("of course he's against abortion!" says his mother), I have been surprised that there's been so little attention paid to what's going on in California: Schwarzenegger's special election next Tuesday, November 8th.

The election is the Governator's $50 million bid to pass a number of propositions. Specifically, those numbers are Propositions 73 - 80, and could conceivably have been put on the table during his bid for reëlection* in 2006, except that they weren't, because they are much more useful to him if they pass now. Why? Because they include curtailing the political activism of unionized employees, Tom DeLay-style redistricting, and granting the Governator the ability to slash funding willy-nilly, which is unacceptable no matter how funny that phrase would sound in his goofy Austrian accent.

And then there is Prop 73: which would require doctors to notify parents or guardians before girls 17 and younger could get abortions. Which definitely sounds like a good idea in a perfect world, except that's one world we're in no danger of inhabiting. This prop, which is currently trailing but nonetheless polling pretty closely in CA thus far, has a whole host of imperfect world problems. Supporters say it's "about parents' rights" but it is more about the witholding of same from minors(parental consent withheld for a whole host of disquieting reasons; desperate girls seeking more dangerous alternatives). Never mind that it's a backdoor limitation on abortion in general, as Salon "Broadsheet" contributor Lynn Harris points out: "Teens are a particularly tempting target: Laws that purport to look out for them are an easy sell. Also, teens don't vote."

So. I say this not to jump on a soapbox, though of course my views on this are easily divined. My point is that no one has been talking about this! My God! Huge abortion restrictions -- never mind the rollback of other rights -- on deck in a major state like California and no one's talking about it? I've been watching this issue, tipped off to it by a Californian activist friend, and have been shocked not to see it get any play, especially on HuffPo, where so many contributors are LA based (first post I saw on it was yesterday's by Paul Krassner).

But then again, what has HuffPo been distracted by? What have all of us been distracted by? Libby, Cheney, Miller, Keller, PlameGate, Fitzgerald, and Bush -- and of course Alito, and what he might mean for Roe v. Wade. Just think of the raging debate that this country would be having on a slow news day. For God's sake, California Dem. Senator Barbara Boxer was on Jon Stewart a few days ago, and what do you think came up? The Senate closed-door dust-up, and Libby (and her book). Not a whisper about a huge election pending in her own state. Now that's a news blackout.

Everyone knew that Bush was going to try to push Libby off the front pages with a SCOTUS nom -- and he did -- and it still worked. It's just interesting to take a step back and see what's not being talked about. Also, I'll take any excuse to use that Schwarzenegger graphic. As trawlers of the internet may know, it's cropped for a reason.

Calif. Prop. 73 could 86 teen girls' health and safety [Broadsheet]
Abortion Opponents Hope to Limit Access [WaPo]
Reproductive Rights Under Assault [HuffPo]

*We're so New Yorker.

Reuters ended up with a spot o' egg on its face yesterday after falsely reporting that Brit children's author Graham Taylor, author of the wildly popular Shadowmancer series (the other big children's series in the UK), had stood up in front of a class of 12-year olds and said Harry Potter was gay.

In fact, Taylor did NOT say Harry Potter was gay, which meant that Reuter's had to issue a correction with this crow-eatingly painful first line: "The story headlined 'J.K. Rowling rival labels Harry Potter "gay"' is wrong and is withdrawn."

It's true that Taylor, a renegade motorcyle-riding former Vicar, was kicked out of the school but not for daring to suggest that Ginny Weasley was a beard. Taylor used the words "crap, poo, fart and bogey" (for the uninitiated, "bogey" means "booger." Also, a "lorry" is a truck). The reference Taylor made was to some popular English TV show and the Yanks across the pond assumed incorrectly. Oops. Regret the error!

Thing is, that story was about HARRY POTTER. Which means that it was picked up pretty much everywhere (blogland too, natch)and, well, following up with a correction isn't always as exciting as writing the breathless headlines. So, it's kind of a big goof.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that Harry isn't gay (though I can't say the same for that nelly Neville). Affinity for duelling wands and broomstick-riding notwithstanding, Harry is clearly a lover of the ladies and clearly well-suited to same (see my previous musings on Harry Potter for my theory on why he'll make a great ladies' man).

In other, totally unrelated Harry Potter news, some British scientist have explored the chromosomal implications of mating wizards with Muggles in science journal Nature with "A Darwinian Explanation of Harry Potter's Inheritance of Magical Abilities." Scientists think the Harry Potter universe might help in teaching genetics to students. Sigh. Yet another subversive way to expose our children to the ultra-gay double helix.

Rowling Rival Says Harry Potter is Gay [Reuters]
Rowling Rival Does Not, In Fact, Say Harry Potter Is Gay [Reuters]

Just because the book's been out for ages doesn't mean that the stories our embeds get from the front lines are any less compelling. In today's NYT, Michiko Kakutani uses her own voice to praise that of the Chris Ayres's in "War Reporting for Cowards," his memoir of a soft, neurotic, coddled reporter suddenly roughing it in Iraq (which reminds us of the story of a similarly-unprepared reporter being up and sent to Iraq - but the Times didn't cover that one). Kakutani is clearly impressed with Ayre's self-deprecating humor but also with his rendering of the realities of service; it's pretty powerful to juxtapose the survival tip he picks up in his "Surviving Dangerous Countries" training course ("carry a Ziploc bag in our backpacks, for severed fingers or toes") with his appreciation of the simplest, simplest luxuries back home (" I sang in the shower this morning because the water was hot and because no one was trying to kill me"). Powerful stuff.

Over at WWD, Sara James reports that Vaity Fair scribe and Dever City Magazine 5280 exec editor Maximillian Potter has returned from his two-and-a-half week embed in Iraq's Al Anbar province, travelling with (and protected by) "the selfless men of the Marines' Detachment 4 of the 5th Civil Affairs Group," a unit that included his childhood friend Tim McMenamin, chief warrant officer second class.
Sounds like Potter's pieces will be gritty must-reads (and possibly controversial since he cops to a more hawk-like stance now, telling James that "I am convinced that regardless of how the U. S. got to where it is in Iraq, we absolutely must stay until we get the training wheels of civilization screwed on that place").

Whatever the conclusions, the important thing is for the stories to keep coming out - between the constitutional crisis, Saddam's upcoming trial, the continued insurgency and the reality of the U.S. presence there, there's really nothing about Iraq to be fatigued about, actually.

It's worth remembering, too, especially now that we've officially reached a milestone, of sorts: more journalists killed in two years of the Iraq war than during the entire conflict in Vietnam.

We're glad Potter and Ayres are back safely and are sharing their experiences - here's hoping for the safe return of our other colleagues over there.

UPDATE: And while we're worrying about them over there they're worrying about things over here: Newsweek just sent out a story by correspondent Michael Hastings in Baghdad who reports on a batallion of National Guardmen from Louisiana, anxiously trying to get information on their Katrina-ravaged homes and families from Iraq (not surprisingly, they're watching Fox). The men have only eight days remaining in their tour of duty - but who knows if they will even have homes to go to. It's an interesting perspective on life over there, and over here; Hastings quotes a soldier with as good a closing line as any: "It's the perfect f--ked-up ending to a perfect f--ked-up war."