Morning Briefing: 30 August 2010

Sliced Bagel, Taxes on Top [via The Wall Street Journal]

Who would have thought bagels would so soon make a reappearance in the Morning Briefing? Trying to beef up state tax revenue, Albany officials have begun enforcing an archaic ordinance taxing sliced bagels or bagels eaten in the store (even if not sliced by the staff). The approximate tax, around 8 cents per bagel, has upset patrons; one store owner said customers believe the store itself is charging to slice the bagels now.

Wildly conflicting reports about Beck rally size [via CNN]

CNN rounds up crowd estimates from Fox News personality Glenn Beck’s Saturday rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. CBS says 87,000 (plus or minus 9,000). ABC said more than 100,000; Fox News pegged it at over 500,000. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who spoke at the rally, reportedly had the highest number: “”We’re not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today – because we were witnesses,” she said afterward.

All the Men That’s Fit to Print [via NYTPicker]

So far this month, the New York Times has published 76 obituaries — 70 of men, six of women. For the year to date, it’s 604 men and 92 women. The NYTPicker throws out the Times’ argument that because the obits are based on people influencing the world in the 1950s and ’60s, there is naturally more of a bias toward white men. “As the gold standard of American journalism, it should fall to the NYT to aggressively find and chronicle the lives of women who deserve attention in the obituary column right now — women whose rich lives and notable achievements warrant the honor of recognition when they die.”

Bound for Glory [via The Los Angeles Times]

Today in Jobs I Can’t Believe Exist in This Economy, the LA Times profiles “personal-library preservationist” Michael Tuttle. A Class A book snob (although, I’m one to point fingers, I’ve got three bookcases in my bedroom), Tuttle says Kindles and such are fine for newspapers or beach reads, but there’s no replacing that first edition smell. (Side note: Writer Laura Zarubin seems to be of the use-one-little-quote-and-paraphrase-the-rest school of thought; ignore that maddening aspect of this piece and it gets much better.)

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Morning Briefing: 20 August 2010

Stuff you just have to read, served up hot every weekday morning.

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Starbucks Language Rebel Vows to Never Set Foot in ‘Fascist’ Shop Again [via DNAInfo]

Lynne Rosenthal, a professor of English literature at Mercy College in the Bronx, was ejected from a Manhattan Starbucks after she refused to call coffee sizes “venti” and “grande” and — horror of horrors — was asked by a server, “Do you want butter or cheese [on your bagel]?”

If you thought this seemingly minor incident would blow over quickly, you clearly don’t know a thing about the media in the slow news environment of August. Rosenthal is calling Starbucks’ lingo “linguistic fascism.” “It’s all about control,” Rosenthal said. “They’re trying to control the language and in that way create a different reality. Unless you obey that language, they lose control.” The professor now refuses to patronize the coffee chain ever again. Fine by me; it’s a shorter line for my half-caff half-fat soy latte grande with a shot of almond syrup.

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Councils Pay for Disabled to Visit Prostitutes and Lap-dancing Clubs from £520m Taxpayer Fund [via The Daily Mail]

This probably falls into the “only in the U.K.” file. The government (which one, nobody seems to know) has approved funds for a 21-year-old man with learning disabilities to fly to Amsterdam and have sex with a prostitute. The £520 million fund was intended to “empower those with disabilities.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer that we can control this, guide him, educate him, support him to understand the process and ultimately end up satisfying his needs in a secure, licensed place where his happiness and growth as a person is the most important thing?” the man’s anonymous social worker told The Daily Mail. “Refusing to offer him this service would be a violation of his human rights.”

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“Cougar” trend of women chasing younger men a myth [via Reuters]

Psychologists at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff report that the highly popular cougar trend — older women dating younger men — is a myth. The study, analyzing the age preferences of some 22,000 online dating profiles, found no considerable group of women seeking younger men.

“The transference of female desire from relatively older men to relatively younger men, it has been argued, is reflected by the growth of the toy boy phenomenon,” he said. “The results of our research challenges these assumptions. Although there was some cultural variation in extremes, the results showed clearly that women across all age groups and cultures, targeted males either their own age or older.”

The story is different for men, however. Until age 25 or so men target women their own age or only slightly younger; after that, the desired age gap grows. Shocking.

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10 Things to Do Before Summer is Over [via Gawker]

Gawker has a listicle of ten things to do before summer is over. Included: wear white; go swimming; eat corn on the cob; call in sick; read something stupid (not this blog!).

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