• The September 2009 issue of Vogue looks nothing like the issue from 2007, the making of which is detailed in R.J. Cutler's new period picture, The September Issue. Take a sec to let the image of the 840-page behemoth from two years ago—the largest issue ever—burn itself into your memory. Given the way things are going, you may not see anything like it ever again. [NYT]

When Ron Silver died in March, the New York Post's Cindy Adams eulogized him by revealing that he'd once been a CIA operative: "I remember him saying he'd been in the CIA at age 22." It's not true.

Aug. 6 @ 6pm [Submit your own Gawker Stalker sightings to stalker@gawker.com] We heard cheers in my office and ran to the window to see what was going on. We saw a mob of people surrounding an SUV.

John Hughes lovingly chronicled the American geek at his most acutely vulnerable moment — in high school. It is probably impossible to underestimate the impression his coming-of-age movies made on anyone who came of age in the mid 1980s, at the height of Reagan's big-haired Imperial Burlesque. The pendulum swung. As former hippies embraced the lavish, gaudy lifestyles born of huge budget deficits, Hughes captured, pitch-perfectly, the moody after-effects on the often psychologically left behind children of those neglectful Boomers. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink all bear his shy, iconic stamp. If that eternal, angry adolescent Ingmar Bergman's cinematic muses were Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman then John Hughes' were the brittle Molly Ringwald (whom he always portrayed with a gentle, fatherly love) and the acutely geekish Anthony Michael Hall, all squeaky-voiced and awkward gangly wonderful. Hughes created a self-contained but highly recognizable high school alternate universe where petty school bureaucrats ruled with an iron fist and soul-killing rules as cool kids, unpunished, roamed the halls like scavengers on the veldt. Anyone who grew up in the 1980s, at the height of the decline of American public education, saw ominous parallels. John Hughes, like all great artists, never quite grew up. The slings and arrows of outrageous adolescence stayed with him. Clearly they stung. But they also provided a fertile almost volcanic soil for him to produce such strong green chutes like Ferris Bueller, the large-hearted class cutter always one step away from the bitter High School Principal, or Allison Reynolds, the hypershy magnificent freak who — mirabile dictu — turned out to be a swan under all the the dandruff, melancholy and goth clothing. Rest in peace, John Hughes. Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

After Glenn Beck called the president a racist Nazi, some of his advertisers decided that bottomless white rage is off-brand: Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble and Progressive Insurance ads no longer appear during his show.

Ben Stein's TV ads for a scuzzy "free" credit product have finally caught up to him: The New York Times has fired Stein as a Sunday business columnist for violating ethics guidelines.

Just asking: Is it odd that deposed car czar Steve Rattner poured $35 million into Jay Penske's dubious internet adventure Mail.com in October, and then arranged for Jay's father Roger Penske to buy Saturn from General Motors nine months later?

Bob Dylan has been recording a Christmas album featuring songs like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Here Comes Santa Claus," according to two websites. His career trajectory does seem about at that regrettable stage. The precedents are sad.

John Hughes, director of generation-defining class conscious teen comedies, is dead of a heart attack, at age 59.

• Allen & Delancey has filed for bankruptcy, but will remain open. [Eater, GS]
• A peek inside the new Oceana opening near Rockefeller Center. [Eater]
• Le Souk is reopening on Ave B and now plans to open a second location. [GS]
• New NYT dining critic Sam Sifton on having his photo all over the web: "I look different now... I'm using a comb for the first time since the 1990s." [WWD]
• Which chain has better coffee: Starbucks, Mickey D's, or Dunkin'? [Slate]
• How does Padma Lakshmi keep thin? Exercise, believe it or not. [NYT]

As Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Rush, and other wackos compete to be the loudest and most hysterical opponent of Barack Obama, one former boogeyman has toned it way down. Bill O'Reilly just wrote the President a nationally syndicated birthday card.

Last week, we pointed your attention to a story in the Post about the very unusual Jeff Koons sculpture that hedge fund mogul Richard Perry and his wife Lisa put out on their penthouse terrace. We mentioned that Vogue had published a set of photos inside the Perry pad a few years ago. Now the magazine tells us they've posted the entire shoot from back in 2002 on the web. Do enjoy. [Vogue]

Good news, Harvard graduates! Your esteemed university has handed over its vaunted name to Wearwolf Group, a garment maker that plans to "take advantage of a taste for seersucker, khakis, loafers and other 'preppy' attire" with a line of clothing called "Harvard Yard." According to Wearwolf, which has done work for other prestigious brands in the past like Jos. A. Bank, trousers will start at $195, shirts will retail for $160 and up, and sportcoats will go for $495, and they will all "reflect Harvard's quality, heritage and excellence." Even better: It shouldn't be long before the university is able to begin serving hot meals to students once again. [Bloomberg via Dealbreaker]

Mother Jones has released a statement from a traveling companion of the three Americans arrested in Iran last week detailing how the trio—one of whom is a freelancer for the magazine—accidentally wandered across the Iranian border.

Sam Sifton is trying to stay undercover, as the New York Times food critic, despite the invention of internet photo-sharing. Fat chance. Precisely!

Who's had a crappier year: fallen real estate mogul Harry Macklowe or his son-in-law, developer Kent Swig? It's looking more and more like a toss up. Not only is Swig's condo project at 25 Broad Street blowing up, and his hotel venture at 45 Broad Street now in foreclosure, but Sheffield57—the drama-plagued apartment building Swig purchased with two partners in 2005 for $418 million—was sold off at auction today. The price? $20 million. [Crain's]

Did you like the part of the global economic meltdown where world governments had to step in to save the financial markets from total collapse? Then you'll love the part where they start rationing our food and oil supplies!

A New York lawmaker has introduced a bill that would charge rich criminals $90 a day for room and board at state prisons. That means a stay at Rikers Island (left) would only cost a dollar more than a night at the Hotel Carter (right)—otherwise known as the worst hotel in America—where rooms are currently going for $89 a night. The extra dollar is probably well worth it. We're willing to bet that Rikers is both cleaner and safer. [Daily Finance]

Sonia Sotomayor has just become our first Latina Justice of the Supreme Court. Senator Al Franken called for a voice vote, and, as predicted, Sotomayor was easily confirmed by the Senate.