* The Washington Post on the search for a Fairfax police officer who went missing in the waters of Pohick Bay on Tuesday. Second Lieutenant Francis J. Stecco "had volunteered to play the role of a "victim" during a training session for a helicopter water rescue, though he was not a member of the dive team."

* Attention Adobe Photoshop Elements 7: Do not fuck with Mr. T in D.C.

* Frozen Tropics updates you on recent homicide arrests North of Capitol Hill.

* Hookupmaps charts craigslist casual encounters on google maps. Logan Circle is bumpin'!

* And in this newspaper:

- Jason Cherkis on D.C.'s greatest unknown music legend, Mingering Mike. Check out Mike's special introduction and the making of a love-song collaboration between Jason and Mike.

- Mixtec's new Mexican-Italian take-out gets the Tim Carman treatment.

- Dave McKenna on why high-school homecoming is for nerds.

- In Loose Lips, at-large council candidate Michael Brown robo-calls the wrong guy.

- Why the death of Tony Hunter's remains "unofficial."

Photo by NCinDC.

The American workplace’s storied glass ceiling is in pretty bad shape. Female workers are on the fast track to conquering the upper echelons of all sectors of industry, including the nation’s highest office. But what about that unsung other half of our nation’s workforce: men? In 2008, what workplaces may truly call themselves manly?

In order to find D.C.'s remaining manly strongholds, The Sexist is pleased to announce D.C.'s Manliest Workplace Competition! Beginning next week, The Sexist will run 64 D.C. workplaces in eight industries through a highly unsophisticated algorithm to assess each organization’s manliness. In order to determine manliness, the Sexist will take the top 10 positions in each organization, ascertain which positions are staffed by men, then assign a point value to each male staffer. A man in the highest-ranking position (i.e., president, CEO, publisher) will earn 10 points; one in the 10th-most-powerful spot will receive one point. The manliest workplace—one that employs all men, all the time, in the most powerful and well-paid positions—can score as high as 55 on the Manly Index. The least manly workplace—one that employs no men, none of the time, in any position—will receive a zero.*

Read More "Man Madness: Introducing the Manliest Workplace in D.C. Tournament" »

* Miss the debate? Don't head to the live blogs: Head to the live blog of the live blogs.

* G.W. student blog The Colonialist has a couple photos of Dick Cheney being released from G.W. Hospital. He waves.

* Dear China: Wish we could give you some advice on this whole fledgling democracy thing. Regrets, The United States of America. [via Polymeme]

* Via Talking Points Memo: Ayers, Shmayers; even those people who believe Barack Obama is a terrorist are still voting for him. Says one Obama supporter:

"Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I'm sick of paying for health insurance at work and that's why I'm supporting Barack."

And in this newspaper:

- Photographer Darrow Montgomery and Senior Writer Jason Cherkis document the end of a Columbia Heights relic and ask: Does anybody care?

- Your Reel Affirmations film fest guide.

- In Cheap Seats, Dave McKenna talks race and Redskins. What's black and white and reluctant to integrate all over?

- In Loose Lips, Mike DeBonis does Peter Nickles does Alberto Gonzales.

- and The Sexist launches its Manliest Workplace in D.C. tournament!

Photo by Jason Mogavero

WASHINGTON CITY PAPER FILES FOR CONTENT BANKRUPTCY, SEEKS INJUNCTIVE RELIEF FROM YOU, THE READER

QUESTIONS?

PRESS INQUIRIES?

Debate over (and live-blog too), I have one message for the "undecided voters" of America:

Are you serious? Make up your fucking minds! I can't stand another month of this nonsense. If you haven't picked a candidate yet, you're just being difficult. I bet half of you are just playing hard to get in the hopes that you'll find your precious undecided fingertips in the tender embrace of Barack Obama's warm, proto-Presidential hands somewhere along the campaign trail. I am totally over you jokers.

UPDATE: Get The Sexist's take on women's issues in the debate here.

8:50 PM ... Alright, bitches: It's on. We'll be live-blogging the Joe Six Pack event of the presidential debate season---the town hall---for the next hour and a half. Thanks for tuning in.

8:57 PM ... Booooring

8:59 PM ... These are the country's undecided voters: Judge them.

9:00 PM ... Oh, you unconstrained home viewers. Brokaw smirks for you.

9:03 PM ... Obama and McCain look awkward on those seats.

9:04 PM ... NUMBER ONE is a winner! Alan is looking good.

9:05 PM ... Okay Obama ... real star, though, is pink shirt dude in the front. Here's to you, pink shirt dude!

9:06 PM ... "Alan" is lost in a sea of other similar-looking bald white dudes. Is this really a representative sample?

9:07 PM ... Ahhh . . . McCain's going in! He's really getting in there in the seats! Close to the real Americans! He's cutting right in there! Alright, there, he's out.

9:08 PM ... Wow, McCain is a dick to Tom Brokaw within eight minutes! . . . because he can't take it out on the "real Americans"

9:09 PM ... The "real American" questions are great because they're kind of weird and not to the point . . . hey, Palin should ask a question! Isn't she a "real" American? Where are you, Palin!

9:10 PM ... IS THAT A LIVESTRONG BRACELET ON BROKAW?

9:11 PM ... Buh, Wall Street / Main Street . . . come on, Oliver, you can't just pick a question that sends them straight to the talking points.

9:12 PM ... Why would McCain assume we'd never heard of this? Big Mac who? I'm American!

9:13 PM ... Oooh, Barack is "not surprised" he has to correct some history. Probably better to be condescending to McCain, though, and not "Oliver."

9:15 PM ... Barack Obama wrote a letter saying we had to "deal with this"? Jesus maybe you should have sent an e-mail or a fucking twitter or something. Ben Bernake doesn't have time to page through your scented stationery.

9:17 PM ... Oh John McCain wrote a letter TOO!

9:18 PM ... For the record, I'm writing a letter right now just in case some really bad shit goes down remember it's not my fault, I wrote a letter, kthx.

9:19 PM ... Woah, woah, lady with kind of my hair cut!

9:20 PM ... Seriously I know the teevee's not supposed to show anyone's response after they ask a question, but is that lady okay??

9:21 PM ... McCain understands "cynicism," "mistrust," "complete irrational anger," "horrific rage"

9:22 PM ... He voted for every increase in spending?? Every one?? Does the "surge" count?

9:23 PM ... "My friends" ... planetariums are simply irresponsible, pork-barrel, liberal earmark lies created by the mainstream media to steal your money.

9:24 PM ... Question from the Internet tubes! Where does McCain vaguely threateningly wander to now?

9:25 PM ... The monies go to terrorist organizations? You mean Barack Hussein Obama and his community organizer cronies?

9:26 PM ... Nodding audience members! Are these people really "undecided"? Are they allowed to look the candidate in the eyes? Get on this, Brokaw.

9:28 PM ... What sacrifices must we make? Oh come on, Internet lady, don't turn this shit back on all of us.

9:29 PM ... Wait McCain, I have to sacrifice earmarks and defense spending? Shit I'm already not fucking doing that!

9:30 PM ... "Shoving earmarks in the middle of the night into programs"? Holy shit, is McCain finally addressing women's issues??

9:31 PM ... Hmm ... if we save energy by turning out the lights, won't that just facilitate the shoving of earmarks into programs under the cover of darkness?

9:33 PM ... Wall Street got drunk? I guess it's not so much different from me, after all.

9:34 PM ... Hey! Blue sweater lady in the back! You are clearly giving Obama the dreamy eye! You are not undecided, lady. Quick note to blond mustache dude: Thanks for keeping it real.

9:35 PM ... Nailing jello to the wall? Oh John McCain, your folky aphorisms make no sense.

9:36 PM ... Senator Obama's SECRET THAT YOU DON'T KNOW . . . Muslim terrorist tax collector!

9:37 PM ... Obama breaking the rules! At least he's asking instead of just brushing off the next question and answering the one he wants anyway.

9:38 PM ... Tom Brokaw hijacks a true American's question now. Oh "rules."

9:39 PM ... Straight talk express lost a midnight earmark to the jello wall on that one, am I right ladies?

9:40 PM ... Is that your town hall debate tie, sir? Is it really?

9:41 PM ... Hey, if I say "I'll answer the question," and then I make a totally creepy laugh, then people might forget I said "I'll answer the question," right?

9:42 PM ... Is anyone sick of the number of votes the two candidates compile against the other? John McCain has been in the Senate since Jesus Christ was president and Barack Obama is a little internet lolcat, so how can you really compare?

9:43 PM ... jean jacket wearing enviornonmental green job lady are you really undecided?

9:44 PM ... John McCain was on Navy ships with nuclear power plants? OK---badass.

9:46 PM ... I bet you didn't ask that question to get that amazing Washington outsider zinger!

9:47 PM ... Brokaw's getting sassy. He should have been at the last debate. Catfight!

9:49 PM ... That bill was loaded down with goodies that you couldn't nail to the wall if the goodies were soft, jiggly jello goodies. Guess what? The person I am speaking about shadily in this old backdoor senate floor story is none other than my opponent, Senator Barack Obama! And you know what's more? He's right here behind this curtain!

9:50 PM ... is John McCain lost?? He's wandering around! Your awkward stool seat is right over there Senator. Stop wandering into "America."

9:51 PM ... "Bigger pool for health care so we can drop the cost" . . . man. Creative Loafing told me the same thing.

9:53 PM ... If you're trying to get health insurance for your child . . . Barack Obama . . . will fine you?

9:54 PM ... Gold-plated Cadillac plans  . . . hair transplants? Wah? Can you really joke about the excess of plastic surgery when you probably don't even know if you have a gold-plated Cadillac in one of your own dozen garages?

9:56 PM ... Lay it down Obama. Lay it on sweet.

9:58 PM ... Under McCain/Palin: Arizona: health care as Mexico: prescription pills

10:00 PM ... Fine! Mwa ha ha ha. Mwa ha. Heh.

10:01 PM ... America is the greatest force of good in the history of the world? McCain may very well know from experience.

10:02 PM ... I think we all know that it's "parents" who just don't understand.

10:03 PM ... Oh John McCain. Continue to lean jauntily against that chair.

10:05 PM ... Setting a date for withdrawl? God, the "that's what she said" opportunities in this debate are endless.

10:07 PM ... Red light, McCain, come on. No more time for you to say "beneficially" again.

10:09 PM ... Obama lady is SURPRISED BY THIS QUESTION, and probably by her pronunciation of "Vietnam."

10:10 PM ... Attention ... fading ... somebody wink!

10:11 PM ... Obama will KILL, CRUSH. McCain prefers to play hide-the-stick.

10:12 PM ... "Wahh, I want a follow up!" -McCain  "Tom Brokaw, you are a beautiful, classy man" -Obama

10:15 PM ... Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah alright take your time. No, no, go ahead, we have nothing to do. Lah dee dah, no go ahead. No, seriously, take your time! Oh, you made a joke with a veteran, eh? What are you talking about now? No please continue to ramble until you've taken up as much time as Obama.

10:17 PM ... "If" either of you become President as one of you will ... you hear that, Paultards?

10:18 PM ... Obama, just admit you were wrong. You're breaking McCain's heart.

10:19 PM ... holy shit I'm not sure I can take ten more questions from "The Internet."

10:20 PM ... I love the Putin talk! KGB! Do they have nuclear plants over there on their commie ships? Only John McCain's large, hidden stick knows for sure.

10:21 PM ... Egh, does Joe Biden really "love" this guy.

10:22 PM ... I think Obama's getting a widdle bit sleepy ...

10:23 PM ... YES or NO . . . well, it's a bit more complicated than that. Okay, well, if you hadn't done your creepy little chuckle, your "maybe" answer might have been a "LOL," as they say.

10:25 PM ... YES! PINK SHIRT DUDE! Bonus: pink shirt dude is in the military.

10:26 PM ... There McCain goes with the microphone again. Is that thing on?

10:27 PM ... Military options will not be off the table; but tell me, Senator, will they be nailed to the jello wall?

10:28 PM ... From New Hampshire and the Internet? My God, the power of technology!

10:29 PM ... Oh great, Internet person. Thanks for taking the time to interview Obama and McCain for the manager position at the local Cinnabon. Next question: "When have you gotten along poorly with a teammate, and what did you do?"

10:32 PM ... McCain doesn't know what will happen in America, world; Senator McCain, what does Heaven look like?

10:33 PM ... What the fuck are you talking about?

10:34 PM ... Country first. Debate last. My god. GOODNIGHT.

10:35 PM ... Commence handshaking! Michelle! Cindy! Descend! McCain just touched that guy's ears! McCain rubbed his ears for luck! But CIndy only gets a side-cheeky thing. Blond dude with handlebar moustache! Creepy blue sweater surprised Obama lady! I want to see you hug it out! That is the great journey we call America!

Refresh for more.

* Headline of Politico's VP debate preview makes me giggle. Plus: We watch for the crashes:

With all their potential for pitfalls and insta-classic moments, the pair has made the build up to the showdown, to take place here Thursday night at Washington University, feel more like a NASCAR race than a serious political forum: the audience may be tuning in as much in anticipation of cringe-inducing pile-ups as they are to watch the typical parry-and-thrust of debate.

* The Onion, on the other hand, makes me cringe.

* Financial bailout: U.S. Senate tries, tries again, this time with "higher tax breaks, FDIC limits," reports the Washington Post: "The Senate last night easily approved a massive plan to shore up the U.S. financial system, but the measure faces a tougher test tomorrow in the House, where leaders will try to reverse the stunning defeat the legislation suffered earlier this week."

* Some inside stuff: Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy, a veteran of City Paper owner Creative Loafing, lends some valuable insight into the inner workings of CL and CEO Ben Eason, who Fennessy calls "a tireless networker with a love of jargon." The piece details a history of the Eason empire and its plans for the future. I'll say this: Despite the bankruptcy crunch, Creative Loafing employees and alums have been producing some great work about Creative Loafing lately.

* Catch up on Wonkette's gchat interview with "Washington's Only Wasillan." Spoiler: She's a sarcastic liberal! She's also boring enough to have to block during daytime hours to prevent that incessant gmail "ding" from disrupting your office banter. Pay $25 tonight to hang out with her at an Obama fundraiser at James Hoban’s, 1 Dupont Circle NW.

* And in this newspaper (still here!):

- Delaney, Greenwood, Janssen, and Wemple gang up on the Washington Nationals: Take my ticket, please!

- In Loose Lips: the Nats' finances are fucked, too.

- Tricia Olszewski on Bill Maher's Religulous and teenage love adventure Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

- The debut of our new real estate column, Ruth Samuelson's Housing Complex.

Photo by Jeff Kubina

* In case you missed her: Washington Post's Howard Kurtz on Palin's Katie Couric interview. "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in her third interview since joining the Republican presidential ticket, licked her finger and stuck it in the air, saying that Sen. Barack Obama might wait and "see what way the political wind's blowing" on the Wall Street rescue package," he writes.

* For those interested in competing in one of those high-stakes, emotionally wrenching reality television programs---and for those whose place of employment merely imitate them---Slate's Joanna Weiss has your guide to how not to be the first contestant kicked off a reality show.

* New Columbia Heights has updates on the proposed neighborhood farmer's market: At a recent ANC meeting, William Jordan proposed that the market be run by EMG Marketing Group and Change Inc. and be held three (!) times a week.

* Mr. T in D.C. bows respectfully to the employees of the Columbia Heights Subway sandwich shop:

I just wanted to thank them here today. By now, all the employees there recognize me, and know what kind of sandwich I usually get. . . . The two women who work there on weekday evenings are particularly helpful and pleasant. They recently told me they were from Eritrea; I wonder what their lives were like there? It's not very far from lawless, violent places like Darfur and Somalia.

And in this newspaper:

* Arthur Delaney on D.C. Jail disaster readiness, terrorist threats, and the power of Google.

* Tim Carman tries to make a bagel, lies to City Paper staff.

* Mike DeBonis on the Nat's stadium slush fund.

* ... and the debut of Orr Shtuhl's Beerspotter!

Image courtesy pingnews.

* In 2003, Slate's Jack Shafer counted how many times Bill O'Reilly had used the phrase "shut up" on his show. Now, he counts the many ways that O'Reilly claims he rarely uses the phrase "shut up"---and recaps O'Reilly's best shut up moments:

Remember how you wistfully recalled your father telling you to shut up when you were a boy (Sept. 17, 1999) or the time you asked an atheist Eagle Scout why he didn't "just shut up" about his atheism when asked (Oct. 30, 2002)? Or the times you told "Canadians" (April 16, 2003), "Swedes" (Nov. 20, 2002), "loyal Americans" (Feb. 27, 2003), "spin-meisters" (Nov. 9, 2000), Clinton "partisans" (Feb. 4, 1999), the two political parties (Aug. 15, 2003), gay celebrities (March 21, 2001), and other folks who want to talk about sex to just shut up?

* Via WTOP: What "award-winning actor" is "campaigning for kids in D.C."? Hint: not Mario Lopez this time.

* Palin e-mails pwned. Yahoo, dude? Really?

* New Columbia Heights posts a photo of an eviction notice at the neighborhood's Carvel/Cinnabon shop:

My buddy sent me this picture at about 5:30 pm on Wednesday, showing Carvel's eviction notice. I went by at about 6:15 and it was gone. . . . They recently received the coffee making equipment from the closed Mayorga coffee shop next door, so who knows what's happening with that. And it might just be some sort of dispute between tenant and landlord that they'll work out.

* Do you like luxury? Brightest Young Things plays style judge at the Washington Post's new Fashion Washington magazine launch party: "A pretty tent was set up in the garden, there was glittery black mulch (!) on the floor and pink, flattering lights everywhere (the whole black and pink thing always scares me because it makes me scream “Hot Topic” very loudly inside my head, but it worked here)"

* And in this newspaper:

- Angela Valdez on the story behind the murder of an Afghan-American woman from Woodbridge, Va.

- Mike DeBonis on the Carol Schwartz fallout.

- Dave McKenna: In order for local triathletes to finish the race, they gotta get in the Potomac.

- Tim Carman serves up yummy news bites on Red Sage, the forthcoming H Street Country Club, and $8 glasses of mediocre juice.

- CP launches its new real estate blog: Housing Complex by staff writer Ruth Samuelson

Photo by NCinDC

* Seven years later, a Pentagon memorial is unveiled. [Via Washington Post]

* The Examiner asks if we're safer than we were in 2001.

* Via Politico: Republican foreign policy experts don't have much to say on Palin; Obama and McCain call a 9/11 "truce"

* In alterna-9/11 news, Busboys and Poets kicks off the "9/11 Truth Film Festival" this evening at 6 p.m.

* In case you missed it: Check out Brightest Young Things' comprehensive Large-Hadron-Collider-Will Kill-Us-All Doomsday coverage from yesterday, complete with stellar crying baby photo accompaniment. And via DCist: How to tell if the Hadron Collider has destroyed the Earth yet.

* And in this newspaper:

- Arthur Delaney on winning and losing rec centers

- Jule Banville on the long, slow investigation of an Adams Morgan hate crime

- Mike DeBonis on why Kwame Brown loves Love (and the Park at 14th)

- Dave McKenna on the Redskins' struggle to quit smoking

- And our arts & entertainment column, Show & Tell, meets its makers.

* Find your sex & gender roundup over at The Sexist.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Last Thursday, Barack Obama appeared for the first time on Bill O'Reilly's "The O'Reilly Factor." The Fox program uses a nice bit of that Rotational-Movement-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named to package the interview:

"'Factor' Exclusive," reads the online teaser. "Obama in No Spin Zone for first time." The video splash also identifies the spot as a "Factor Exclusive."

Wouldn't it have been embarrassing if some other news outlet totally scooped the Factor, scoring the first Obama interview with the Factor before the Factor?

Fact: Based on a number of factors, the O'Reilly Factor is still the best O'Reilly Factor of all the O'Reilly Factors.

The O'Bama interview will continue on tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday. If I'm lucky, O'Reilly will repeat my new favorite line, which I intend to shamelessly appropriate as my own: "I'm asking this as an American as well as a journalist."

Local feminist magazine Off Our Backs needs D.C.'s support. But first, D.C. needs to know what it is.

The quarterly news journal, which has been churning out feminist copy from the heart of Adams Morgan since 1970, bills itself as "the longest surviving feminist newspaper in the United States." But if you've never heard of it, you're not alone. I just discovered the publication today via an event posting on District scene blog Brightest Young Things advertising a benefit show called "Save Our Backs."

That's one way to get your 38-year-old, dead-tree feminist mag some attention: Book a punk band (Turboslut), a stand-up comedienne (Kat Wilderotter), and an up-and-coming DJ (Natty Boom), then send out a call for last-ditch, mag-saving donations.

"Like a lot of publications, we are struggling," says Karla Mantilla, a member of the Off Our Backs collective. According to Mantilla, the benefit is a two-pronged attack: One, "raise funds," and two, "just let the community know that we’re here." Mantilla & co. are hoping that the concert, scheduled for this Sunday at the District of Columbia Arts Center, will not only keep the mag funded, but also encourage a new wave of feminists to raise their voices.

"We’re run by collective," says Mantilla. "We don’t believe in bosses telling you to do this or do that. Here, you can come up with ideas and find a network of people to help support you." The magazine's low profile can be a good thing for local women looking for an outlet. Says Mantilla, "Off Our Backs is nice because we try to empower women to run with their ideas and make them happen. A woman off the street can come in and design the cover."

Feminist web designers would also be welcomed. "We've been running in print for a long time, but we're trying to transition to Web as soon as we can," says Mantilla.

The fundraiser will be held on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. The District of Columbia Arts Center is located at 2438 18th Street NW.

Last week, I reported on Obama's radiant,  mesmerizing, slightly spittled High Definition look as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president. In the post, I reasoned that if even the 47-year-old NILF came off as less-than-perfect in HD, the 72-year-old McCain had an even tougher beauty contest in front of him. (Earlier, Slate's Timothy Noah went so far as to suggest that McCain's championing of HD technology, as radium to Curie, might be the cause that would do him in).

How wrong I was.

Note to John McCain's beautician: Strike fast with the promotional tie-ins. How quickly can you pump out the McCain/Palin age-reversing foundation / ass-kicking lipstick box set?

Ralph Nader's campaign is looking to collect $100,000 by the end of the day to fund something called "Nader Media," which will allow supporters to continue to document Nader's run for office. Currently, the campaign has collected just under $90,000, leaving ten grand left to raise. According to a press release from "The Nader Team," "That's just 1,000 of you---our loyal supporters---contributing $10 each now."

Just one ten dollar bill: Not too shabby!

At an Aug. 27 rally in Denver, Nader gathered a scrumptious cornucopia of celebrity backers---Penn. Morello. Biafra. Kilmer---to help galvanize supporters and their Hamiltons. Like a self-promotional dust-buster, the event drew other, lesser celebrities out of the woodwork. Writes the Team: "When we asked for donations, Brooke Smith, star of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, rose out of the crowd, took the stage, pledged her support---and $4,600---to the Nader/Gonzalez campaign."

$4,600 sure sounds impressive, but then again, that's just 460 $10 bills.

Tonight, Nader will not only stage a rally, but a "Super Rally," pulling out even superer celebs: Sheehan. Ventura. Rovics*---in an attempt to get to the $100,000 mark---only 10,000 $10 bills.

The Super Rally costs $12 (1.2 $10 bills).

* Singer-songwriter David Rovics, the man Cindy Sheehan called “The peace poet and troubadour for our time."

* So, I fell asleep while listening to Palin's speech on NPR. Apparently, it was a doozy. Writes the Washington Post's Michael D. Shear:

[Palin] leaned heavily on her own biography, introducing her husband, Todd, as a commercial fisherman, a union member, a world-champion snowmobile racer and an Eskimo. She described herself as a mom-turned-politician with the "same challenges and the same joys" as other families.

She also offered at least one apparent ad-lib: "The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" she asked. "Lipstick."

A unionized, snowmobile-racing Eskimo First Dude? Watch out, Michelle Obama.

* Slate's John Dickerson uses the pit bull line to tell Dems why they should be scared. But why is a lipstick joke the closest this woman got to talking about women's issues?

* All Our Noise offer up another back-to-school remix, this time with some help from Van Halen, Alice Cooper, and Nirvana.

* From the New Yorker, your dose of short fiction that only sounds right when narrated in your brain with a wavering, old-tyme British accent. From Janet Frame's "Gorse Is Not People, a story about Nadia, a plucky, institutionalized dwarf:

For Naida was in love. She was in love with the pig boy. He passed by each day on the carts collecting the pig food, and each day he pushed a note through the window of the dayroom. He and Naida were going to run away together into the hills; they were going to dance every dance together forever; they would be married and have many children, and Naida at her wedding would have a long white dress and carry orange blossoms, and they would go to Hollywood or to Mexico City—it wasn’t decided which—for their honeymoon. The pig boy had arranged everything.

So, Frame died in 2004 and the story was written in 1954. Does that make the New Yorker's fiction section less ridiculous?

* Brightest Young Things links you to the eight most obnoxious Internet commenters. It could be you!

Photo by pingnews.com