Did you miss Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifying today before members of the Senate Banking Committee? You can read about all the excitement here, but today was actually supposed to be a double-header for Geithner: He was scheduled to head over the House afterwards to testify before the Financial Services Committee. But then the committee decided it had something more important to do and postponed it for "a later date." No rush, guys. Really. [CNN]

As we stare at the ash-filled bowl on the coffee table and consider ourselves—hardly dressed, reeking of failure—we begin to see why some say dope is for dopes. And one of Anderson Cooper's blogging soldiers would agree!

Che Guevara's granddaughter Lydia has graciously decided to start a "vegetarian revolution" by posing for PETA with "the torso naked, covered only by a sling loaded with carrots as bullets." Good for her! As Che himself once said:

How does impoverished North Korea afford all those nuclear bombs? It makes money just like the mafia: Insurance fraud and selling counterfeit boner pills.

It's not just Mister Softee trucks that come out when the summer season begins. So do murderers! The Times combed through crime stats for the past few years and confirmed what had long been conventional wisdom, namely that "when the temperatures rise, people hit the streets, and New York becomes a distinctively lethal place." September, it turns out, is the single most murderous month, followed by August. (In case you're curious, Saturday night around 10pm is the deadliest time to be out and about.)

Iz The Wiz, a graffiti legend since the 1970s, died of heart failure in Florida last night. He started in NYC and went all-world. Blogue has details and a retrospective of his art.

The folks at Guest of a Guest forwarded us a statement from Pink Elephant regarding the bankruptcy filing we reported on earlier. They'd like to make it clear that it's just the Southampton outpost of Pink Elephant that filed Chapter 11. Since it's a franchise operation, the club in Manhattan (as well as the one in São Paulo) won't be affected by it. So if you were concerned you'd no longer have the opportunity to meet the sort of sweet, down-to-earth girls you see pictured, don't you worry. You will!

In your waterlogged Thursday media column: Bill Keller defends his Iran trip, Jon Stewart is cruelly eviscerated, the Weather Channel wants big ratings so it can then fail like other TV networks, and the internet reigns supreme.

Blubbering controversialist and "real American" Glenn Beck has no reason to cry, which he fakes doing, all the time, to make money. According to Forbes, Beck made $23 million in the last 12 months.

You ought to be! Sacha Baron Cohen's outrageous new comedy Bruno has dipped its balls on Great Britain, and early reviews are trickling in. The across-the-pond verdict? It's just a crazy good time. Emphasis, you know, on crazy.

• Advertisers are asking (demanding) that TV broadcasters cut prices by as much as 15 percent. The networks? They're not so happy about it. [LAT]
• Jared Kushner's Observer is launching a supplement for "stroller-wheeling New York City moms." The glossy is set to debut in September and "will address family-friendly topics for the society set and celebrity parents." [WWD]
• Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has sold off The Weekly Standard magazine to Denver-based media mogul (and fellow conservative) Phil Anschutz. [AP]
• ABC is changing up its executive management structure. [THR]
• Conan O'Brien was victorious in his second week up against Letterman. [NYT]
• Speaking of Letterman, Olive Garden—the "Italian" chain restaurant that you should never eat at even if you're dying of starvation—is canceling all of its spots on Letterman's show in solidarity with Sarah Palin. [Politico]

Sure, people have made books out of tweet collections and websites about emails and fatty foods, but has anyone parlayed a lone Facebook update into old-media glory? This might actually happen, insanely enough.

The Way We Live Now: Dashed upon the rocks of destiny. The dream of leaving the city behind to luxuriate in the fresh mountain air is finished. Sell everything, buy gold, and bail out. The Fourth of July is dead!

Those U.S. Treasury bonds worth $134.5 billion seized by Italian authorities from two suspicious Japanese businessmen last week are, alas, transparent fakes, according to the Treasury Department. And it was shaping up to be such a great story.

June 18 @ 11 am He had a diamond stud in his ear and was smoking a cigarette

Aw, they think they're people. Noted gay Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Plot Contrivance) and his partner, actor David Burtka, are in the hunt for a surrogate mommy. They're using the same agency as Sarah Jessica Parker!

Twilight star Robert Pattinson was hit by a taxi in front of the Strand on Broadway today, supposedly as he attempted to flee a group of hysterical fans: "A team of five security guards were trying to fend off a crowd of teenaged girls when Rob was leaving the bookstore. It was pouring rain as they tried to hustle him quickly across the busy street to the safety of his trailer. Some of the teen girls were hysterical and Rob rushed across the road. As he did so, a taxi grazed him." Got that? It grazed him. So he's fine. Please pass that message along to your 16-year-old cousin, okay? Thanks. [RadarOnline/National Enquirer]

Apple says it's a first: Men's Health magazine released an iPhone app that sells additional content for more money. Maybe this is the silver bullet that will finally save print journalism! But probably not.

Stupid Europe always gets the best sex scandals. While we here in the USA are unable to even find three days worth of interesting material in a Senator's affair, France is four years into this S&M banker-"whore" murder case.

Summer's here (supposedly) and that means television's gone bad. But while you wait for the next season of your favorite show to begin again next fall, there's always the ongoing, glorious, convoluted Astor trial, now rolling into its eighth week, to feed your drama fix. But just in case you haven't been reading all the stories about the case in the papers, we've gone ahead and recapped what you missed. This week's installment: "The Codicil." Join us after the jump, won't you?