THE DAILY BLADE: Time Running Out For Libby
Unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturns U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton’s ruling, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will report to prison within weeks to begin serving his 2½-year sentence (second item, The Daily Blade, June 6, 2007). The Associated Press reports that attorneys Lawrence S. Robbins and Mark Stancil, who are handling Libby’s appeal, will seek an emergency order from a special panel of the Court of Appeals delaying the sentence.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that, "Scooter Libby still has the right to appeal, and therefore the president will continue not to intervene in the judicial process."
Perino added, "The president feels terribly for Scooter, his wife and their young children, and all that they're going through." As they say here in New York: "That and a token will get you on the subway."
The End Of Civilization Is Nigh
The New York Times on the dwindling ranks of classical music critics at metropolitan newspapers around the country:
Critics’ jobs have been eliminated, downgraded or redefined at newspapers in Atlanta, Minneapolis and elsewhere around the country and at New York magazine, where Peter G. Davis, one of the most respected voices of the craft, said he had been forced out after 26 years.
The developments have flustered the profession, which views robust analysis, commentary and reportage as vital to the health of the art form. But the changes have also disturbed the people who run musical institutions like opera houses and orchestras, several of whom have protested to local editors.
The worries come as classical music is already riled by fears of aging, declining audiences and an increasingly marginal role in American society: curiously enough, the same worries afflicting newspapers, which are cutting costs and trying to grope their way in the multimedia world. Often the first targets have been the arts and book review pages.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
The Washington Post reviews what it calls a "comic" multimedia exhibit by French artist Sophie Calle, 54, at the Venice Biennale, which runs through Nov. 21st:
"X" dumped Calle by writing her an arrogant, self-absorbed, self-pitying missive [via e-mail]. He used the old line that he was leaving Calle for her own good. He'd found himself eyeing other women again and didn't want to have to break his promise not to cheat on her. All of which, he implied, hurt him more than it hurt her.
If that wasn't true then, it is now. …
She shared the cad's communiqué with 107 other women and let them have a go at it.
The piece is titled "Take Care of Yourself," after the writer's closing words, and Calle and her comrades have certainly taken care of him.
Calle sent a printout to a copy editor, who tore apart the jilter's diction and grammar. The text, marked up by the editor in black pen and four highlighter colors, is blown up to fill a giant patch of wall in the pavilion …
[A]n etiquette consultant … pointed out, without sparing any bile, all the ways in which Monsieur X broke the basic code of love that any true "man of the world" would follow. …
It gets "interpreted" by a clown and a puppeteer. It's sung out by an opera diva and danced to as a tango, a ballet and tough punk rock.
In one moment of cross-species solidarity, a parrot - female, one assumes - shreds a copy of the thing with her beak. …
Calle’s revenge as a wronged woman would have been complete if she had also started a blog dedicated to every move X makes – as media miscreant Keith Olbermann, for one, knows all too well.
Update
He Must Have Really Loved Those Pants: Part II
On the opening day of his $54 million lawsuit (originally $67.3 million) against a dry cleaner over a lost pair of charcoal-colored pants, Administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson, 57, asked for a break and left the packed courtroom with tears running down his face, reports The Associated Press.
The New York Times, which describes the proceedings as being "laced with references to inseam measurements, cuffs and designer labels" explains why Pearson sued over the missing pants, which he had brought in for alteration:
"Apparently, Pearson "wanted to dress sharply for his new job as an administrative law judge … [s]o when his neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced a pair of expensive pants he had planned to wear his first week on the bench, Judge Pearson was annoyed. So annoyed that he sued."
The basis of Pearson’s suit is that the store broke promises made to its customers on signs that stated "Same Day Service" and "Satisfaction Guaranteed."
When it was their turn to present their case, defendants Custom Cleaners introduced into evidence a pair of pants that they said belong to Pearson. (For his part, the plaintiff claims the pants do not belong to him, and that he filed suit after Custom Cleaners ignored his request for $1,150 to buy a replacement suit.)
Christopher Manning, who represents the owners of the business, Soo Chung and Jin Chung, said the lawsuit is "a story of how one man has ruthlessly abused the legal system and one statute and caused a great deal of suffering for what was essentially a hardworking mom-and-pop business."
Judge Judith Bartnoff is expected to decide the case by the end of next week.
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