What does it all mean? According to the ever-vigilant Times purple is the new beige, or blue, or whatever news anchors used to wear prior to this week.

Is this, as the Times seems to suggest, some sort of code for "we are not biased!" — purple being what you get when you mix red and blue. Or is it all just a mid-summer sartorial coincidence? Or is the Times merely feeling the mid-summer lack of news (and, if so, who are we to criticize?) We leave it to you to decide.