Fake AP Stylebook on Twitter: Because real grammar geeks dig linguistic satire. (via)

Someone has come up with a brilliant way to recycle NYC's remaining supply of pay phones (the ones you haven't touched since around around '99) and make the city prettier at the same time. Finally! [Blade Diary via AnimalNY]

Bill Thompson now trails Mayor Bloomberg by 16 percentage points in the polls, which is a bit of a setback for Thompson since he'd narrowed the lead to 9 percentage points back in September. But shouldn't Bloomberg's lead be bigger right now, especially given how much cash he's spent on his wildly overpriced campaign?

When Ken Feinberg, the guy Obama charged with reining in bonuses at bailed-out firms, asked AIG who its top-paid executives were, they couldn't answer. That place is a black hole of money.

In the elite all-guy fraternity of big time directors it's a rare thing for one of their own to speak out against the excesses of the brotherhood. But notoriously difficult auteur Doug Liman seems to have forgotten his loyalties.

Apparently no one was listening the first time we went over this because now there is Balloon Boy costume for sale. Don't you dare! We also have some other played-out ideas to add to the list.

How quickly the internet coughs up wonderful things in this age of online romance. Here we have some fun Facebook messages between Salman Rushdie and his brand new love cookie, Harvard-educated model-lover Min Lieskovsky. Plus! Min's secret blog, "Mongol Whored."

A U.S. district court judge has rejected an Illinois sheriff's bid to shut down Craigslist's erotic services category. You can't spank the website, the judge ruled, for the actions of some naughty, naughty prostitutes.

In February, we noted the sad decline of the once-posh, boutique-strewn neighborhood of NoLIta, where Gawker HQ is located. We sent the interns back to the streets and have a new report: more sales, more closing, and only some redemption.

In your extra-good Thursday media column: We get results for aggrieved media employees, a scandalous media blind item for you to examine, a Texas paper loves LSD, and Chuck Todd is the new Samson.

Last week, the home accessories company Rosenthal USA teamed up with the salon Warren-Tricomi to open a "pop-up concept store" at the Plaza Hotel. To celebrate the occasion, last Wednesday designers Geoffrey Bradfield, Campion Platt and Antony Todd hosted a party in the hotel's Terrace Foyer. Party correspondent Douglas Marshall took a few minutes to chat with style maven Patrick McDonald, one of the most recognizable figures on the fashion scene (and someone you'll be seeing a lot more of when Bravo's new fashion-centric reality show, Launch My Line, debuts in December). On tap for discussion: men's fashion, shopping during a recession, and Barack Obama's wardrobe.

Quo vadis, y'all? It's Joshua David Stein. I'm still emotionally shaken from the mental shipwreck of last night's Top Chef, a competitive alternate reality located somewhere in Las Vegas. Let's cry together.

The Chicago Tribune is a terrible newspaper that was driven into bankruptcy by timid bureaucrats posing as editors. So who is the New York Times hiring to launch its new Chicago edition? The same people that ruined the Trib.

Some goodbyes go on for a very long time. But the day does come when the train pulls out of the station. Live singing Shrek, memory-erased Eliza Dushku and Michael Jackson, it's time to take your seats.

If the city really wants to crack down on people who chat on their cellphones while driving, why does it announce in advance when it plans to enforce the law? Who knows, but the "24-hour citywide effort" to stamp out the bad habit will continue up until midnight as the NYPD hands ten times as many tickets for the offense as usual (and the city collects an extra $1 million or so). But if your cab driver got pulled over today and you had to sit in the back seat for five minutes while a cop wrote him a ticket, you now know why you were inconvenienced. [NYT]

Inexplicably (but admirably) magnetic elderly author Salman Rushdie is now out on the town with another attractive younger lady: Min Lieskovsky. Who is she? We will tell you what we know, okay?

It seems the Florida Department of Law Enforcement updated its headshot of Jeffrey Epstein in its database of sexual offenders and didn't bother to tell us! This photo was taken in August, so it's possible the pervy money manager's appearance has changed since then. But what's with the pale skin? We may have to send him a bottle of self-tanner if he keeps this up. [Previously]

You've got to feel for NBC TV's newish chairman Jeff Gaspin; not only does he take the wheel amid the Mother of All Media Typhoons, but he inherits it from a Captain hell bent on steering directly into an iceberg.

Do you know what it takes to get Slushie out of your hair? Patience, persistence, and Palmolive, that's what. We were soaking in two of those Ps, as the kids prepared for a frosty beverage right to the face.