Category: Seemingly Innocuous Information

This sprang instantly to mind when we read this yesterday:

"Personally, I'm all for a robust interaction with the reading public. My address is David Carr, New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10036. And don't forget that the price of stamps just went up."

We can't take credit for the inspiration, it comes from the far funnier versions penned by HuffPo's Chelsea Peretti (here, here and here - run, don't walk)(link via The Gawk). For newcomers to Fishbowl, Anderson Cooper was last month's Bouillabaise, his thoughtful image surrounding us every day, providing endless inspiration plus an easy punchline for this.

Fishbowl is in no way affiliated with the advertisers who grace our pages each month, except for the ads for courses, jobs and seminars on the far-right from Mediabistro. Them we're affiliated with. Nevertheless, it cracked us up one day to realize that there is a unique form of blog synchronicity happening every day on this site, and every time a customer cracks open the menu at Brooklyn seafood restaurant Bouillabaisse, currently inviting Fishbowl readers to come visit. For the French-challenged amongst you, "bouillabaisse" is a delicious form of fish soup. Which comes in a bowl. Or, you know, "fish bowl." Which is pretty funny, no? Well, I'm laughing as I write this. Fish-Bowl! FISHBOWL! Oy, I kill me.

Disclaimer: Not only have I never eaten at Bouillabaisse, I have never eaten bouillabaisse. Even so, Fishbowl is grateful for their love and support.

Update: And now, a further inadvertent subliminal message from your blogger - a helpful reader just wrote in to let me know that I'd misspelled "Bouillabaisse" incorrectly with one "s" - my bad, especially given that "baiser" is French for, er, making the sweet love, except in four letters. Though Fishbowl encourages experimentation we wouldn't recommend doing any of that in boiling water, as "bouillabaise" might suggest. Fishbowl regrets the error, and the imagery.

I love how earnest the news stories are on CNN - not even a whisper of a smirk decetable in this article about President Bush and Harriet Miers trading birthday cards back in the day. In 1997 she gave him one with a big ol' sad-faced puppy, writing "Dear Governor GWB, You are the best Governor ever -- deserving of great respect!" She also assured him that he was "cool" -- which she hoped his daughters appreciated. He wrote her back a card (30 days later -- damn, she was older than him again!!) warmly thanking her for her friendship and imploring her to "never hold back your sage advice," following up with the ever-classy: "No more public scatology." (No doubt with the unspoken parenthetical: "And stop bringing your RealDoll to White House events!")

In any case, yes, the correspondence does "suggest" a "warm relationship" - thanks CNN. It also "suggests" the tone used on the hilarious faux-Harriet Miers blog, which turned out to be kind of prescient/able to see back to 1997 birthday cards.

The above pic is from this past weekend's SNL, courtesy of "Reliable Sources" -- Howie Kurtz, demonstrating that he really isn't all that up on pop culture, asking Frank Rich "What does it mean when "Saturday Night Live" comes out against you, Frank Rich?" (uh, that they're finally catching up?) Rich said that it contributes to Miers' "brand name recognition," and also that "it makes you long for Dana Carvey, who would have just been fantastic in the part." Which just goes to show how out of it he's gotten -- Rachel Dratch was a PERFECT Harriet Miers (with there-first props to Wonkette); Dana Carvey was an excellent Church Lady but that acerbic, uptight, twangy quality would be all wrong here. That's Fishbowl's story and we're sticking to it. We love Rachel Dratch!

Oops, we just noticed that it's actually an AP article. Ah, well, original analysis still stands.

Records suggest warm relationship between Bush, Miers [CNN]

We could be wrong, but we seem to remember SPY publishing the masthead of the New Yorker. But hey, the joke never gets old.

(Or did we just imagine that? Which issue was it? Note to selves: have to remember to put the intern back on manually entering every word of every back issue into our top secret LexSPYs-NeSPYs database so we can just search whenever we need to and cross-reference with anything in Vanity Fair that seems suspiciously humorous and therefore incongruous with the rest of the magazine. The come-hither photos of Ellen Barkin pages away from Revlon ads are funny, but in a different way.)

What we really want to see is the masthead of the Economist.

A friend writes: who is running the New Yorker? [Observer]

It happens about as often as as peep-show patron has a sudden change of heart during the good parts, but Fishbowl was here to see it earlier today: Drudge started his day with a splash across the page quoting Pope John Paul II as asking, in apparent alarm, "WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO ME?" after his tracheotomy. Moments later, the screed was rectified to read only "POPE JOKES: WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO ME?" - which was always the point of the linked story. Perhaps Drudge, whose human sensitivity meter usually seems lower than the water table in Lake Powell in August, got a bell from his red-state buds whose PR gauges are just a tad more alert. To quote Fishbowl's old editor: Well done, m'boy. Well done.

Rest easy, Mike B. For trusty AP today can report that the International Olympic Committee, which was coddled in NYC this week, will leave town with "a very, very good feeling about this bid," according to IOC boss Peter Ueberroth.

Certainly sounds like a lock to us. The AP even mentions that the IOC lads, who have already gotten the same treatment in London and Madrid, will next go to Moscow and Paris where, surely, no bid will taste as sweet.

Fishbowl suggests the AP try challenging a puff quote and the guy who gave it. Because the IOC bid for New York is hanging in the balance now that the West Side stadium bid has been thrown into turmoil. Paris has better facilities. The Russkies will make their subway run on time. The IOC has been investigated for corruption. And everyone but your reporter knows it.

See? No sooner does Congress and the Ghost Of Powell Past lean on what's left of PBS to keep it clean than the pubcaster gets on its knees and starts washing its mouth with soap - even if nobody tells it to do so directly:

The Times tells us how local affiliates will have to sign a waiver indemnifying PBS if they want to broadcast an uncensored version of an upcoming program about soldiers under fire. Fishbowl can't imagine this is about wardrobe malfunctions or suggestive scenes. But when even "Saving Private Ryan" can't be shown in its entirety (again, without any FCC inquisitors giving specific instructions), we knew this was coming. We're also not surprised the FCC couldn't be reached by the Times. Because with PBS running this scared, why would they ruin the fun?

We wondered aloud yesterday whether the departure of Pat Mitchell as PBS prez would signal more shows like the (cancelled) one about the rabbit who goes visiting lesbian parents. Guess we got our answer, express delivery.

While the death of actress Nicole DuFresne left fashionistas clutching their clutch bags a little tighter last week (fret not, they've all forgotten her by now), the NYPD stats for the tented hell they've called home should make them feel as calm as the khakied Rebublican conventioneers a few months earlier:

Since Mayor Mike has turned NYC into Indianapolis-on-the-Hudson, Midtown South Pct. had no murders last year. So far, the area has had no homicides this year, either. What, the Imitation of Christ collection didn't inspire someone to take a bottle of Cristal to someone else's head? just wait for the closing show, and we're sure that'll change. Otherwise, what fun is it to freeze your ass off inside something that looks like Lawrence of Arabia sent it back?

Every reporter has a muse, we know that. And smacking poor Maureen Dowd around (twice in as many days, sorry!) for having one, too, might be considered excessive. Until you compare the column she wrote in today's Times with the one penned by folksy raconteur Carl Hiaasen in the Miami Herald - last Sunday!

Fishbowl isn't the arbiter of good taste, nor do we want to impugn Ms. Dowd's unquestionable integrity by whispering of Rick Bragg-ism or even Blayr-ism, but give us a break, already. She practically lifts Hiaasen's idea of Armstrong Williams-ing for the Bush White House as a paid columnist rather than living on the (not quite so) measly wages Pinch Sulzberger doles out, right down to the examples given of how such effort would make even the most heinous policy move look good.

You compare, then decide. We're envisioning Maureen at home in the apartment last Sunday, racking her brain trying to find a good column item. And then finding one too good to resist. What, don't they Google things over on 43rd Street? Carl? Wanna weigh in here?

Marvel Enterprises - which owns Spider-man and tons of other lucrative, spandex-clad titles - today was forced to pay creator Stan Lee at least 10% of all the movies his characters are used in. Except, Newsday doesn't ask the one guy whose greed forced the suit anyway. But talks to a lawyer.

continued...