Delectable bits from around the web:

-- The Grim Reaper, editor of Magazinedeathpool, emails FishbowlNY on the nomination of Maer Roshan's Radar for a National Magazine Award: ''Here's what the New York Times wrote in October 2001. 'Lingua Franca won a National Magazine Award for general excellence for magazines with low circulations in 1993. It was nominated again in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 1999.' It closed in mid-October 2001.'' *FishbowlNY shudders*

-- All indications are that the FCC is finally moving forward on the XM-Sirius merger. From The Wall Street Journal: ''Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin asked his staff to draft documents on the planned merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., signaling the agency is nearing its decision on whether to approve the deal.

''At a news conference Thursday, Mr. Martin said he had asked his staff to draft a document incorporating a variety of possible outcomes for the merger proposal. He didn't go into specifics about what he asked his staff to draft, and said he hadn't made a decision on the outcome.''

-- Earlier this week, United States Senator Arlen Specter came in to The Howard Stern Show on Sirius for an interview. Stern, politically radioactive, rarely gets office holders of Specter's caliber in the studio (and in an election year, no less). They spoke about Specter's new book, his surviving cancer, Iraq and, of course, the FCC's progress on the XM-Sirius merger. From Marksfriggin: ''Howard asked Arlen about the XM/SIRIUS merger and said that he has lost faith in the government over this. Arlen told him he probably never had any faith in the government. Howard said that he thinks that some of the people in government care and he thought that people really cared about this kind of stuff. He said that it's not a tough thing to rule on and he believes that people are being paid off left and right by lobbyists. He said that the two companies are bleeding financially and the government doesn't seem to care.

''... Arlen said that the core problem is that there is no feeling of urgency with that decision. He said that he doesn't believe that anyone is being paid off though. He said that there is a complex question there about the merger being anticompetitive. He said that there are similar quality entertainment products out there but they really don't need to spend months on this. He said that it has taken a long time but they are going to have a decision by the end of the month from what he knows. Howard said that they didn't spend this much time on oil company mergers.'' More here.

(image via clipart)