If — if —- economic problems turn into a full-blown recession (and some people don't think that's going to happen), that means time, energy and space opens up for a little creative ferment. Rents fall (think of all the financial services workers now wondering if they'll have to break their leases), wages stagnate, the young and unemployed have little incentive but to slack off. Some will divert their new idle time into what were once personal side projects or arty self indulgences.

Politics, meanwhile, would get a bit more scary. The George W. Bush years, for all the terrifying bloodletting, aggression and brutality, have been leavened, until the past 18 months or so, with cheap capital that has kept the economy going in the face of major disruptions. The next president, whoever he may be, will inevitably arrive in office on hopes for change and improvement. If it doesn't come swiftly enough, or if a recession mutes the impact, the popular letdown will leave many Americans feeling particularly hopeless. What do you do when your change agent fails? Elect another? Resign yourself to fate?

More likely, you watch a Janeane Garofalo flick, light up a joint and think about what you'll do when the unemployment works out.

(Probably work at the Gap.)

[Times]

Gould concedes that such an experiment is unsustainable in the modern world. She'd just like to see more nuanced books about the internet, balancing positive effects with negative ones, like the way in which "social-media technologies are creating simulacra of social connection."

But even with this hedging Gould adds to an ongoing neoluddite meme that counts as contributors online sock puppeteer Lee Siegel (also considered a partial rather than full-blown internet hater) and a variety of others, many of them named at the top of Gould's essay. The meme surfaces more obliquely in the ongoing backlash against against online commenters and mean blogs and in the retreat from the internet by various high-profile bloggers.

The bloggers always come back. The comments sections continue to multiply. Lee Siegel still publishes online and must still contend with anonymous snipers. The best one can hope for, in walling away the modern world, are some new insights. Which you will then be DYING to blog.

[Technology Review]

April 4, the Guardian: "An elegant pause - or merely a 'pretentious comma'?: For and against the semicolon: The end of the line?"

April 6, Sunday Telegraph: "Punctuation is not a political issue; or is it?"

April 25, the Guardian Weekly: "Jon Henley examines claims that the French semicolon has been rubbed out by Anglo influences"

May 2008, in Corporate Writer & Editor: "Why writers need the semicolon; The semicolon is mysterious, but it provides a much needed wink, pause and reflection."

May 12 in New York Mag: "Anarchy and Semicolons; A novel in which a punctuation mark could almost be called destiny."

June 20, in Slate: " ; ( "

June 27 in Slate: "A Punctuation Nation Speaks Out"

And finally:

August 10, Boston Globe: "Sex and the Semicolon"

Here are the terrifying pictures of the Bigfoot set to be "unveiled" Friday at a horrific press conference that will change the history of mankind forever or at least devour a couple of minutes during the slowest news period of the year:

The men who found this thing are noted Bigfoot Hunting Hobbyists and first disclosed their findings several weeks ago in the respected, peer-reviewed journal/internet radio funtime show Squatch Detective. The thing is 7 foot 7 inches tall ad weights more than 500 pounds and is estimated good for a Nielsen 3.2 share.

[Complex Blog]

Salkin's story on the hot ukulele trend is out, and fits perfectly in his oeuvre. His past investigations have exposed chicks who eat meat, revealed how no one goes on vacations any more, and uncovered prepsters who hang out downtown—as well as their rival hipsters who hang out in Atlantic City.

We're now prepared to reveal Salkin's journalistic method to the public: He solicits you to hang out with him in casual settings and mines you for minutiae, which he then seasons with his patented significance-inflating sauce:

"I see you're no vegetarian!"

"Downtown is getting so preppy."

"Can you believe my dumbass roommate bought a ukulele?"

Lately I've been tying my shoelaces inside the shoe, to prevent those floppy strings on the outside. Others in Brooklyn are doing the same. Call me, Allen.

[NYT]

Newspapers nationwide lost more than $130 million last year in auto ad sales. Car ads have gone from 10% of national newspaper ads, to less that 3% in just three years. That's terrible by any standards. Magazines are experiencing a similar decline. So how to put this disaster in a good light?

Amid this gloom is actually good news for traditional media because the effects of the auto downturn suggest that the impact of the Internet on the business models of newspapers, magazines and broadcast television is being exacerbated by more cyclical forces. And cycles turn.

“If the economy were better, newspapers would be better, and we’d be having a slightly different conversation,” said Mr. Goldstrom, of the newspaper association.

If the economy were better, we'd be having a different conversation! And if newspapers were printed on $100 bills they would be more popular. Print media has come to realize that the internet represents a fundamental shift in their business model, not some temporary cycle. But they're clinging to the hope that the auto industry, of all things, is in a mere momentary slump.

The auto industry is not in a momentary slump! Gas prices, global warming, etc. (Insert standard explanation here). GM was once one of the mightiest companies on earth. Now it can't pay its dental insurance. Besides this vague, unfounded optimism that things will turn around, there's not a shred of evidence in the story (even from marketing execs) that anyone is actually counting on car ads coming back to their earlier levels. Maybe when they invent viable electric cars, in 20 years or so. Until then: you newspapers better find someone else to sell to.

[NYT]

"That image is in the air," said Jason Christopher, editor of the J.C. Report, a fashion blog that has followed the games closely. "Given the publicity [from athletes wearing the masks], I think it's likely we'll see brands rolling these out in multiple colors."

That is perhaps the most unlikely shot-in-the-dark insta-trend of the entire Olympic Games. Good effort, though.

The exposure for these sleek black masks, which he called "surprisingly" well designed, figures to further fuel that trend, which he said has already manifested itself in inner-city style and even in the controversial Dunkin' Donuts ad in which celebrity chef Rachael Ray was accused of wearing a keffiyeh.

Masks: Edgy in all situations!

[Ad Age; pic via Telegraph]

Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign — choosing a running mate.

You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice.

Sign up today to be the first to know:

http://my.barackobama.com/vp

You will receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.

“'If you get to be 23 or 24 and you’re not married, your parents are going to say you shouldn’t be living at home anymore,' said Rabbi Allen Schwartz of Congregation Ohab Zedek, a synagogue on West 95th Street near Columbus Avenue that is heavily attended by young Orthodox singles. 'Where are you going to go?' he added. 'To Teaneck, where there might be another 10 singles like you? You go to the West Side, where there are another 5,000 singles like you.'

"[Baruch] November, an English professor and poet from Pittsburgh who moved to the Upper West Side five years ago, put it this way: 'It’s like all roads lead to the West Side [...] Matchmakers still have the idea that if you put two Jews together, it will work,' Mr. November said. 'But that’s a shtetl mentality. In the shtetl, what else did you know but your neighbor and your neighbor’s daughter? If you’re not sheltered, that’s not going to work. All we have are Marc Chagall paintings of that life. We’re not in the shtetl anymore.'"

Young and with-it and looking for love? Cue the SATC reference!

"But while the Upper West Side may offer an expanded pool of singles, some say its social offerings can distract from the presumed goal of marriage. The lifestyle sometimes resembles a relatively chaste version of that depicted in the television series 'Sex and the City,' featuring below-the-knee designer skirts and kosher wine in place of Cosmopolitans."

Followed neatly by the sad reality of that series:

“'In a way, the West Side is like Never-Never Land,' Mr. November said. 'People tell their parents they’re going to meet someone, but it’s an extended childhood.'” [NYT]

Or mass hysteria. Even when there were "droves" of jellyfish at Long Beach a few weeks back, 90 percent of them were harmless clear ones. Of the red stingy variety, you might spot a few—little girls were scooping them out of the water and watching them jet around in their buckets. For the last two weeks, the beach has been red-jellyfish-free. By which I mean, there were a few of them drifting around here and there. Because there are always a few of them here and there in the summer. And there always have been! I love a good menace, but this isn't one.

So enough of all this monster and jellyfish nonsense. The only things we have to fear are monkeys and sharks. For now.

She says of her passion for survivalism: “I don’t expect someone to drop a nuke on me, but after 9/11 — and certainly after Hurricane Katrina — I realized that, holy smoke, the cavalry doesn’t always charge in to rescue you.” Which, OK, fine. That's sort of on the plane of reason. But then she gives a tour of her house—full of sewing kits and cans and bottles of water and six months worth of freeze dried food—and you begin to see where her edges have frayed a bit.

When asked what she would do if the family had to suddenly evacuate the house, Mrs. Harrison walked to the mudroom, where backpacks hung on pegs, one for each family member, each containing a variety of supplies like water, tinder and flashlights. If the packs are combined with another, larger pack kept in the car, they form a kind of family survival superpack.

Scanning the pegs, Mrs. Harrison’s brow furrowed. “Karen, where’s your pack?” she said to her daughter.

Karen looked sheepish. “Um, up in my room.”

“You know your pack belongs here,” Mrs. Harrison said kindly but firmly.

I mean it's one thing to keep extra batteries in your junk drawer or whatever, but Mrs. Harrison says she's spent thousands of dollars on apocalypse kits in the past couple of years. Her 5-year-old daughter, Phoebe, probably doesn't live in a constant state of terror and anxiety or anything. There's nothing to worry about, dear. Other than THE SKY FALLING AND EATING YOUR PARENTS AT ANY SECOND.

[NYT, photo too]

The willingness of men to expand the amount of skin they are inclined to display can be gauged by the short-sleeved shirts Senator Barack Obama has lately favored; the muscle T-shirts Anderson Cooper wears on CNN assignment; and the Armani billboard in which David Beckham, the soccer star, appears nearly nude.

...When the hockey star Sean Avery took an internship at Vogue earlier this summer, the work uniform that the fashion-besotted left wing chose included a shorts suit that showcased his athletic calves.

“Why go to work and be hot?” he asked last week... “Why are women allowed to do it and not men?”

The slideshow, by the way, is called "who wears short shorts?"

It's only getting hotter, so get used to it, I guess. And maybe open a waxing salon, those should take off!

[Times]

Add your own!

Writes Gross,

"Another friend, Ann, shares my fantasy of setting up joint housekeeping, assuming she outlives her husband. Our thinking goes something like this: If one of us can see and the other hear, if one of us is mobile and the other cognitively intact, we’ll muddle through as long as we can and then pool our insurance premiums to hire home care. We’d prefer to use the benefit for a masseuse and a manicurist but know it would be a hard sell to persuade MetLife that those were the kinds of “activities of daily living” our policies cover.

I’ve written before about pairs or small groups of unrelated women who are already doing this, some even constructing houses designed for their old age."

This sounds like the perfect idea for the fourth movie, actually. Carrie, help!

Another idea: OMG, maybe a Sex and the City version of the Golden Girls. It would only be half as funny, but the product-placement opportunities are endless.

Mistah hipstah. He dead.

As you can see by my Harriet the Spy tattoo, I embrace the child in me and bite my thumb during sex.

Oh dear.

[Contrariwise]

In no particular order (with replies from Naomi 94 in italics):

Get out of your liberal bubble and head into Harlem, or black areas of the Bronx and Brooklyn any weeknight after 11pm, you'll see more black kids ages 2 and up hanging out, getting cursed at, and witnessing all types of violence on a regular basis.

I can't help but wonder if you would have displayed this level of passion if the poor little girl was not cute.

what crime is this lady committing that you want the police dept to go investigate "preferable in unmarked cars"?!?! and if seeing this homeless child out in this streets at this time of night is so disturbing to you then why would you wait 4 a few weeks to see if anything has been done to post another video?

Some people should just not have kids , regardless of income , look at the hogans. You have a striking resemblence to Alizee the french pop singer.
naomi94 (7 hours ago) Reply
you know i have heard that before

you should take the baby and the mother into your home. Feed them, wash them and get them new clothes and call acs and wait for them to get there. by the way take subway ride from time to time there's plenty of people begging. oh yeah i'd love to see you on 145 and bradhurst at 10:30 11:00 pm on a friday or saturday.

Good for you, Naomi. I hope something beneficial will be done for the poor child. what happened to your left eye? I thought the ending will be that you fought that woman lol

Typical liberal yuppy, if you are so concern take the lady in and help her instead of going to one of the most yuppu restaurant in NYC. You also want to start a petition to complain about the captain and the way he runs things, remember he runs things the same way that lets u and your yuppy friends do yuppy things out in the open, try living your yuppy lifestyle 10 to 15 years ago, there would be more people like that girl on the streets that u so much care for but not in your neighborhood.

naomi94 (7 hours ago) Reply
oh shut up moron
you are just jealous that i can go to expensive, post manhattan restaurants and you are too broke to

Damn Yuppie!...Go back to France. The 13 pct probably has 3 cars working a night. So guess what a robbery or major crime takes precedence. the NYPD does not remove children from parents ACS does. Why dont you call them. Its not a crime to have your kid out late. Uncommon in NYC hahahaha U need to leave the nice area your in toots, this is common practice in the ghetto. You wanna help her...call ACS. This isnt a bust, as you called it. Its a referral to ACS

naomi94 (5 hours ago) Reply
you are such an idiot
i make a video about child abuse and all you do is call me a yuppie! that is funny
The fact is: you are jealous that i go to nice, posh restaurants, live a fabulous life, have lived in france..... and seen things that you can only dream about.
it isnt easy being jealous is it? :-)

Kind of makes you wonder what's going to happen, no? Just like on the TV! Except with real, you know, consequences.

[YouTube]

John McCain, you'll recall, had a very loyal wife who eagerly awaited his return from six years in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Unfortunately, a terrible car accident left Carol McCain both shorter and fatter than the swimsuit model she had been when McCain married her. Said to be appalled by her appearance, McCain started seeing other women. He left her for a rich 25-year-old (his current wife!) after buying Carol a beach house, which turned out to be kind of a cruel gift to a woman with bum legs.

The thing is, Carol McCain blames herself for the end of the marriage, and supports her husband's political campaigns. She and others had an easier time forgiving McCain's behavior because of all he had been through in the war and the presumed emotional toll of that experience.

Edwards will not get such leniency, although it will probably noted that his life has not been without significant pain — not only is his wife battling cancer, but Edwards lost his only son Wade in a car accident in 1996, when the son was in high school.

Newt Gingrich has garnered even less sympathy for his treatment of Jackie Battley, his high school geometry teacher and first wife. As detailed in Salon in 1998, Battley bore Gingrich two daughters, put Gingrich through graduate school and stood by him over the course of two losing Congressional campaigns. So of course Gingrich had a bunch of affairs and insisted on working out his divorce from Battley while she was in the hospital recovering from uterine cancer surgery.

Gingrich, of course, went on to lead the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years, serving as speaker for half a decade. McCain will lead the Republican convention in Minneapolis this September. And Villaraigosa has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for California governor.

And those are all guys who actually left their sick wives for other women. John Edwards' career might actually be totally fine! Oh, except for the love child thing — no one else has actually taken it that far. And the kid will make it hard for Edwards to hold together the marriage. So, actually, nevermind, John Edwards is still totally screwed.

[NOT via Radar.]

I'm not the only one who hates it! New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni lamented last fall about "the increased popularity of sidewalk cafes in New York, the number of which has grown by 25 percent over the last four years." He posited, correctly, that people insist on it because it makes them feel like they're in Europe, where sidewalk cafes are more pleasant. (We're not in Europe.)

Even worse, in my experience? The "summer gardens" of bars. Sounds lovely! But the "garden" area is usually just a backyard/storage space they've cleaned up a bit for the simple amusement of us proles, who are pleased so easily. (It also serves as a handy way to shoehorn a few more groups in the bar.) Then everyone crowds in, and the vicious cycle repeats itself.

(I feel sorry for everyone involved in the garden situation—especially the neighbors, who hear the same five versions of the same five drunken conversations night after night, broadcast through their windows in a horrible feedback loop.)

What I resent the most about a city hell-bent on alfresco dining and drinking is the forced cheerfulness it requires. You're supposed to comment on the weather: isn't it great? So great. Lot warmer this week. Oh, it's lovely. If at night: "Look at the stars!" Etc.

The only time this anti-alfresco rule can be broken is if you're dining or drinking on a rooftop. See you at Top of the Tower.

[Photo: Ryan's NYC]

We, and no doubt the Times, wondered a month ago if architect Renzo Piano's "lace" skin shouldn't come down, after two ascents in one day, but the Times wanted to first try beefing up security. That clearly didn't work, but maybe this way is better: at least the paper can truthfully claim to have become not only more secure, but also a significantly more transparent organization than it was even a month ago!

[City Room]



(Photo by David Dunlap via Times)

Hipster Lesbians Are Working on Bergen Street

Courtney Golding was on deadline. She decided to go to the new vegan coffee shop on her block to get a tempeh reuben for lunch. While her sandwich was being prepared, she decided to run some errands, picking up a copy of The Secret Diaries of Laura Palmer at used bookstore Unnameable Books and then taking a look around the just opened Brooklyn locale of the girl-friendly sex toy emporium, Toys in Babeland.

At each store, Golding, a longtime Bergen Street resident, noted one unifying force: lesbians working who were wearing the accoutrements one usually associates with hipsterdom. “They we wearing things like Nike Air Force Ones, No Age t-shirts, and oversized plastic eyeglasses,” says Golding, 30. “All of them looked a bit like J.D. Samson from Le Tigre. One had a tattoo on her neck.”

To be sure, lesbians who have tattoos and, perhaps, piercings, have long worked on a variety of streets in Brooklyn.

“That sounds just like my block,” notes Jeremy Kiehl, a 28-year-old graphic designer. “But I live on Union, near Tea Lounge and Park Slope Yoga Center and the Coop.”

UPDATE: Doree blogged this too. Everyone really is linking to it!

[One-Person Trend Stories]

"This was an absolutely unjustified verdict," Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA centre in Moscow, a non-governmental group that monitors extremism, told Reuters. "Savva for sure wrote a rude comment ... but this verdict means it will be impossible to make rude comments about anybody."

Also funny is the letter from the blogger, Savva Terentiev, to Vladimir Putin:

"It is our duty to take responsibility for words on the Internet but ... I did not call for the inflaming of social hatred towards the employees of the police department," he wrote in the letter, posted at one of his sites, www.zasavva.ru.

Ha ha, no, you did not call for the inflaming of hatred toward the police, Savva. You called for the inflaming of the police themselves! Nice backhanded snark, buddy! Email me for a commenter invite.

[Reuters]

(Image adapted from Modern Humorist.)

The common implication of these covers is that highly produced pop has no real emotion or thought behind it. By slowing them down and focusing on the lyrics, you're pointing out that the lyrics make no sense. That's totally valid for My Humps, but Umbrella and Four Minutes to Save The World are fine pop songs. I'm annoyed with the sentiment that the musician is somehow doing or saying something by stripping down production value. Take a look at this Ben Gibbard cover of Thriller.

It's the self-satisfied smirk and the laughter of the audience that bother me. They're so proud of themselves for being better than pop music.

And also, in de-pop-ifying these pop numbers, what are they removing? The R&B influence, the Rap influence, and pointing out the fact that a lot of pop lyrics fail to comport with standard spoken English but instead reflect African American vernacular. I'm just sayin'.

Also, I totally think the acoustic Four Minutes and Umbrella are pretty, but they still annoy me.

Alexis gets her quarterly does of Botox from Dr. Wexler:

Lasik on a purported celebrity, yuck:

[NYT]

[UPDATE: And don't forget Mary Rambin already did a video for Restylane!]

The big award went to work for Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing retailer that creepily resembles a Far East version of American Apparel. With "Uniqlock," you can watch many Japanese people doing dances while wearing Uniqlo clothes, and that is too revolutionary to be put into words, almost!

"The industry is always talking about viral," said Titanium jury panelist Jean-Remy von Matt, Founder & Member of The Board. "The Uniqlo work is viral branded utility. It's so simple, smart and beautiful. All over the world people have it on their desktops, giving them a brand presence in countries where their products don't even exist."

Just what every company wants: huge popularity "in countries where their products don't even exist." The future is about brand presence, not about making money! Here's a YouTube clip of Uniqlo's [Robot] dancers in action. At least American Apparel ads have naked people.

[Portfolio]

Few details are known—the National Park Service has not yet confirmed the arrests or said why they have now begun patrolling the land. On the weekend of Friday, June 13, at least one gay man was detained in the small wooded area popularly called The Meat Rack, which is both a cruising ground and also a thoroughfare between the two gay towns of Fire Island, Cherry Grove and The Pines. The following weekend, at least two were arrested.

This coming Saturday, June 28, one Cherry Grove resident is proposing—via posters around the towns—a day of action, what he is calling "a circle jerk for freedom" around the park service's (abandoned) building in the Meat Rack at the edge of the Pines.

I mean, the reasons are all laid out in front of us. Television shows, especially those on cable, are of increasingly high quality, with big meaty parts for actors who may be a bit forgotten by the movies. It also might have something to do with stability and economy. The guaranteed paycheck, the steady hours, and being able to sleep in one's own bed at night are all big draws for doing a series, though it can be, by all accounts, pretty exhausting work. Maybe the old-timers just feel like seeing if they're up to the challenge.

The interesting thing though, for me, is that these are actors who started their careers, and found their first big successes, in a time when film actors just didn't do TV. There was a definite barrier between the two. To do television as a "film actor" was, really, to taint one's career. Though now these three fellows, along with Glenn Close, Dianne Wiest, Donald Sutherland, and others in the recent past are changing that old thinking. And I think it's great. Who cares what size the screen is, so long as the material is good. I mean, wouldn't it be terrific to see Meryl Streep headlining an HBO series someday? Plus, great filmmakers have been switching over, too. A TV revolution!

The Nerd Girls may not look like your stereotypical pocket-protector-loving misfits—their adviser, Karen Panetta, has a thing for pink heels—but they're part of a growing breed of young women who are claiming the nerd label for themselves. In doing so, they're challenging the notion of what a geek should look like, either by intentionally sexing up their tech personas, or by simply finding no disconnect between their geeky pursuits and more traditionally girly interests such as fashion, makeup and high heels.

Ah, the "smart or sexy?" question that has haunted women for decades. YES YOU CAN BE BOTH.

These girl geeks aren't social misfits; their identities don't hinge on outsider status. They may love all things sci-tech, but first and foremost they are girls—and they've made that part of their appeal. They've modeled themselves after icons such as Tina Fey, whose character on "30 Rock" is a "Star Wars"-loving, tech-obsessed, glasses-wearing geek, but who's garnered mainstream appeal and a few fashion-magazine covers. Or on actress Danica McKellar, who coauthored a math theorem, wrote a book for girls called "Math Doesn't Suck" and posed in a bikini for Stuff magazine. Or even Ellen Spertus, a Mills College professor and research scientist at Google—and the 2001 winner of the Silicon Valley "Sexiest Geek Alive" pageant.

Revenge of the Nerdette [Newsweek]

The WSJ reports that there's an internal battle at Live Nation right now over whether to press ahead with more of these monster deals, or slow down. If they did 15 more at $100 million per (a lowball estimate), that's $1.5 billion. If the company lays out that much scratch, you better believe they plan to see their profits. Ultimately it could mean that the 99.9% of less-than-mega artists that get shut out of deals like this have even worse financial career prospects than they have now, if such a thing is possible.

Homogenization forever! The entire music industry is now riding on: Madonna and Jay-Z, along with the Jonas Brothers, U2, the Rolling Stones, and maybe Shakira—Live Nation's roster. Not everyone is a fan of the company's strategy, though. Their stock is down 44% since they started signing these deals. Also, "profit margins in concert promotion are perilously thin, and a bad tour could undercut the overall value of a package deal."

So if you don't want the Jonas Brothers to be considered cutting edge music by the next generation, please boycott the next Madonna tour. This has been a public service message.

[WSJ]

See, nobody watches commercials any more, so now companies are making their own entire shows. It's a throwback to the days of the "Toastie Postie Cereal Morning Variety Hour and Talent Competition," and whatnot. The Times looks at two current examples of this exasperating phenomenon: a Dos Equis beer reality show tied to its ad campaign, and the aforementioned Meow Mix Game Show, which is a sure hit among people who just can't get enough Meow Mix information:

The sole commercials during the game show will be from Meow Mix, Mr. Tuza of Del Monte Brands said, but rather than sell the product, they are meant to "educate you on how to be a better pet parent and how to better understand your cat."

You can find audition info for the show here. The ad industry is using your cats against you, urban sophisticates!

[NYT]

The company's stock price since 2004:

So yes, Lyne oversaw a decline of more than 75% from the stock's February, 2005 high point. Was that due to her incompetence? Keep in mind that that high point came in anticipation of the company's resurgence when Stewart got out of jail. And Wall Street didn't seem to react ecstatically to Lyne's departure; the stock fell another 3% in the wake of the news this morning.

Magazines are on a longer, slower decline than the newspaper industry is, but an inevitable decline all the same. Public publishing companies with a big stake in magazines are going to see their revenues decline, their stock prices fall, and their investors get angry. They can fire people left and right, doing their best to momentarily assign blame for what is, in reality, a tectonic shift in the media marketplace. But they won't start seeing a real turnaround until the Internet has been fully monetized by old-guard media interests. And that day is a long way off.

Maybe Lyne's successors with do a better job; maybe they won't. Either way, magazine company stocks are a dangerous bet—for investors and CEOs alike.

UPDATE: From an interview conducted two weeks ago with Susan Lyne: "Q: Assuming you finally get some time off, what would be your dream vacation? A: My dream would be going somewhere I've never been that's reasonably exotic." Now she can! Also: Slate's Daniel Gross used Lyne's career path from journalism to the executive suite as the prime example of why journalists shouldn't become CEOs. Back in 2004. The more you know!

[Trendhunter via Adrants]

The gym offers classes including "Yogod," its take on yoga, and "Chariots of Fire," a spinning class. Spaghetti-strap tank tops and short shorts are not allowed, and women's tops must cover their bottoms...

"I don't need anything to lead me into temptation," Mr. Heistad said. "I can get there on my own."

"It's a Christian business, a Christian environment," he added. "It's a better feel. You stand a little taller, don't grunt, don't get pumped and yell, 'Daddy's got a new set of pipes.' "

Hey: it keeps the Christians out of our gyms. Daddy's got a new set of pipes, baby, yea!

[NYT]