Nighttime NW blogging

Today I went to the mall with Beth to look for a dress to wear at Melanie's wedding. Beth had recently got a very cute dress from Ann Taylor Loft and had a feeling that was where I should go. And it was; I'd been to T.J. Maxx twice before looking for a dress and man, there were some really nice dresses that made me look like a sack of potatoes, it was nice to put on dresses that didn't make me feel like a wide-bodied trucker.

So I found a dress to wear. I needed to buy an appropriate, er, foundation garment and Beth dragged me to The Underwear Store that Revolutionized the Selling of Bras. She told me later that I looked so out of place that even the incredibly petite women in black pantsuits that are there to help were passing me by.

So shopping is overwhelming to me. I came home and passed out for about three hours, thus generating the energy to stay awake and blog NW for its TLSs. Maybe it will help me get to sleep again. After all, if there's anything that wears me out more than shopping it is crummy prose.

So NW, last week, opened with a Mark Whitaker colum on that Periscope Sentence that Rocked the Muslim World. Although Whitaker said the information was checked with "a U.S. official," and doesn't say that it was wrong, now he has to say that other anonymous sources in the government are saying the info was not credible and he regrets getting any part of the story wrong. Damn, man, can't you burn the source who burned you? Or were you totally burned at all? I am so tired of these unidentified sources. Most of them don't have anything worthwhile to say to start with. As for Koran abuse, geez, there are already plenty of terrible stories coming out of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and now Afghanistan. Don't be so reductavist as to the core of the Islamic complaint against the U.S., Whitaker. It ain't all about you. Of course, if anyone knew what was really going on in those places — because our executive branch lacks transparency in the way its prisoners are treated (among other things) — there wouldn't be a need to rely on unreliable anonymous sources.

Also, the letter writers continue to kiss Fareed Zacarias' butt. I don't get it. He is not that smart, he is not that great a writer, he talks about himself constantly. Only one letterperson asks why it took so damn long to understand that China is a big honking deal. It's because the media is behind the curve on absolutely everything, apparently.

"Remember to be kind and rewind"

"Be careful, Gwyneth."

Eeeew. UGLY graphic on Capitol Hill. I've seen better collages by junior high students.

"Look for him on the floor, on the T this week."

"But Westerners, including those at NEWSWEEK, may understimate how severely Muslims resent the American presence, especially when it in any way interferes with Islamic religious faith."

"Good luck: Donald Rumsfeld is a man in a hurry."

"But meanwhile, constructive diplomacy might save the rest of the world some hair-raising years of danger."

"The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, they too, would never forget."

"Except for those Super Fans."

"the question now is whether today's celebrities can become CEOs."

"They were pals to the very end."

"To us that says good ideas never die."

"Anything but that."

"He's not designing cars for Ford, that's for sure."

Ahhhh, there's a long bit on design with photos. It's a nice break.

And that's that NW.