We continue to be amazed by what lurks within the brain of Matt Haber, aka "The Media Encyclopedia," whose impressive (nay, savant-ish) powers of recall dredge up long-forgotten or otherwise overlooked items in order to effortlessly make a connection with something current. Did you ever see "Rain Man?" Seriously, it's something like that.

Case in point: his recent entry from the New York Observer's Media Mob, wherein he somehow manages to find a new angle in the whole looky-here-Maureen-Dowd-wrote-a-book! story, noticing the unmistakable similarities between the lovingly rendered buttocks on MoDo's redheaded cover doppelganger and the fetching, curvacious young thing straphanging on the cover of the 1995 New Yorker Fiction Issue. Haber recognized the cover art as the work of the New Yorker illustrator from a decade before, Owen Smith. Pretty good.

p.s. His recent treatise on Oreos in the media was borderline OCD yet deliciously evocative. Mmmm, cookies.

p.p.s. Regarding the above question: we're talking about the man who spawned an entire Hall and Oates love-in on Fishbowl a few weeks back. For the love of God, yes!!!

p.p.p.s. Seriously. A lot of male Fishbowl readers secretly love Hall and Oates.

The Mirror Has Two Faces [Media Mob]
The Secret Life of Matt Haber [FishbowlNY]
Matt Haber: God is in the Details [FishbowlNY]