How does the other-other half live? You know, the families who are now forced to "squeak by" on $300K a year? Leave it to the Washington Post to not only find out, but to attempt to elicit empathy!

Washington establishment queen Sally Quinn knows what happens to black men in America, because once, some black cops spoke out of turn to her, at a Georgetown block party.

It's a good thing this epic recession is an opportunity to "reset" our culture, as Kurt Andersen tells us, or slough off the chains of corporatism, as per Douglas Rushkoff. Otherwise it would really suck for all the unemployed people.

Goldman Sachs earned $3.5 billion in profits last quarter. Also, it earned a huge fucking target on its back.

The New York Post is in high dudgeon over Obama's health plan, blasting a "terrifying" potential 57% "mega-tax" on "successful NYers" under "Obamacare" on the front page. Gosh, that does sound like a lot. Glad we're not successful.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the lefty author who likes to write the kind of stories about the poors which most magazines consider too depressing or otherwise unmarketable. So it should come as no surprise that her journalism-school commencement address is really depressing. Food stamps are mentioned!

Are you rich? Who knows what qualifies as wealthy in these topsy-turvy times? Do people who make $400,000 every year whine that it's unfair to describe them is "rich?" Yes. Let's take their money.

At last month's orgy of consumption that was the Yves Saint-Laurent's art auction, a $28 million armchair claimed the prize for decadence. Now The Economist has revealed the mogul who flaunted his obscene wealth:

Don't get us wrong: We despise the arrogant and overpaid financiers responsible for this economic mess. They, not taxpayers, should pay for their incompetence. But banker hatred is starting to get worrisomely extreme.

Professional annoying person Toby Young has an oh-so-self-serving theory as to why he is detested as a Top Chef judge: Americans cannot handle a person who speaks in complete, correct sentences.

So says Alessandra Stanley in today's Times. Instead we only care about Ponzi schemes, corporate looters, vapid rich wives and bribe-hungry politicians, because of the panic. Hahahahaha.

We just discovered this recent gem from the Times Higher Education. A certain Harvard professor is tired of babysitting teaching those "post-pubescent children of notables" who can buy and sell him! Especially Jared Kushner, son of real estate developer Charles Kusher—also known as the boy who bought the New York Observer. Professor John H. Summers recalls him as a student—which was not that long ago, as Kushner is 27. The juicy bit? Kushner's Observer takeover resulted in a pay cut for Prof Summers, who did freelance reviews there.

Wondering what will happen in tomorrow's Pennsylvania primary? You could look to national trends or polls of likely Pennsylvania voters. Or you could make like NBC and only poll the important voters of Pennsylvania: gun-owners, bowlers, and, yes, beer-drinkers. Nothing proves that you understand the working class like reinforcing a cartoon stereotype of blue-collar life! Of course the bowlers and gun-owners don't care for Obama. The beer-drinkers, though, are split. They should've specified domestic beer-drinkers, we're sure the Obama votes are coming from import snobs. Guzzling Kölsch and eating caviar! Elitists!

Marketwatch media critic Jon Friedman's MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: "Who is your favorite writer on the Internet?" Ours is MarketWatch media critic Jon Friedman! Today he wants to introduce you to 61-year-old Ron Rosenbaum, who, writing at Washington Post-owned internet magazine of conventional wisdom plus occasional contrarianism Slate, "represent[s] a turning point in the evolution of online journalism." Finally, these new-fangled internet websites are hiring ultra-established, book-writin' old white dudes.

Right in the heart of the Xmas-to-New Year's News Dead Zone, Mayor Bloomberg announced a sweeping change in the way New York City will measure poverty. The national standard remains tied, more or less, to the price of milk. Income and "annual cost of buying basic groceries" have determined who is poor in the US for four decades. Bloomberg would like to add other, more realistic standards—rent, utilities, child care—while taking into account "the value of financial assistance received, like housing vouchers or food stamps." Mike hopes this more exact method of defining who is the worst off compared to him will spread to the rest of the nation, and improve distribution of federal, state, and local aid. Also it will probably mean that there are a lot more poor people in New York than previously counted. Maybe you're one of them!

Defamer is committed to alerting the entertainment industry to any incipient acts of violence that might result from tensions between members of the favored-above-all, glamorous film caste and the small-screen untouchables who might be unacceptably inconvenienced by the needs of their megabudgeted movie projects, hoping to head off regrettable bloodshed with a civilized dialogue. While the Writers Guild loves to use sweatshop rhetoric for the conditions endured by nonunion writers, scribes on a WGA-certified TV production find themselves ready to overthrow the privileged neighbors robbing their office of the climate control mechanism that allows them to endure the punishing Valley heat. Oh, the humanity! Reports an operative on the Warner Bros. lot: