Last time we were inside the Reuters building, typically mild-mannered journalists who work for the news service were wandering through the crowd to distribute flyers bearing various sorts of union agitprop. That was because the reporters there went more than two years without a contract after the last one expired, and the union had already rejected one proffered deal. Last month, final, the two sides came to agreement. Then a memo arrived in New York Reuters staffers' inboxs today. The highlight:

The Daily News has a rundown this morning of the new laws that went into effect with the new year. The tab lets us know that Mister Softee trucks are now allowed to play the jingle when moving but not when stopped, that minimum wage has raised from one amount that's too little to live on to another amount that's too little to live on, and that people under 21 are not allowed to own spray paint, among other things. Also:

How much did that transit strike suck? More than I would know but let's pop open any remaining sores you may have on your feet and sand them over with some Morton's saltpaper. Turns out the Transport Workers Union Local 100 fared very well in the final settlement and no amount of bitchin' or fist-shakin' or Craigslist postin' can change it now. When it pains, it roars.

The strike is long done, of course. And now there's even a contract, too. The transit union's executive board approved it last night by a huge margin; the membership is expected to do likewise.

So Bloomberg's been getting crap for saying during the transit strike that union leaders were behaving "thuggishly." But perhaps no more. Reports today's Newsday:

Five things we now know:

Can't understand how the transit workers and the MTA could finally break through their impasse and come to a deal on a new contract? Someone on Craigslist has the answer, naturally:

It's the most beautiful NYTimes.com headline we've ever seen.

While the MTA and TWU kick one another in the shins and the rest of New York does its frozen crawl into work, we're happy to report that at least one union has settled its contract issues. The Associated Press and the News Media Guild has tentatively come to an agreement on new contracts, which would raise salaries and eliminate a mere 100 positions in the technical workforce. You win some, you lose some.

Never before had a Times headline made us quite so happy.

It's day three of the world's most goddamned annoying strike on earth, and everyone's beyond exhausted. Not content to let the Red Cross be the sole purveyor of goodwill, the fine folks at Craigslist (your Official Source for Fucked-Up Transit Strike Information^©) are doing their part:

With no fewer than 10 reporters on just one strike story today, the mind can't even fathom how many will be necessary for tomorrow's coverage. If only for the sake of the Metro desk, please, Roger Toussaint, end this madness now.

Oddly enough, not everyone on Craigslist today is using it to search for strike sex. Some are using it, instead, to make political points. Like in this terse message, posted late this morning:

The strike started a little after 3 o'clock this morning, and, frankly, we're a little disappointed it took nearly eight hours for the first email to arrive flacked some oh-so-clever transit-strike memorabilia. Here's the first t-shirt you might be interested in:

We know today is a sucky one for everybody, but, truth is, it doesn't really affect us at all. (We never leave our houses during the workday, anyway.) But what about you? How's your strike day shaping up?

We've been meaning all morning to take a good look at the TWU's strikeblog — and, more interestingly, the 300-odd kvetchy comments that have been posted so far this morning — but we haven't been able to motivate to sit and read 300-odd kvetchy comments. (Mostly because poking ourselves repeatedly in the eye with a dull pencil sounds more fun.) Yet one more reason to love the Observer's Ben Smith, however, is that he did it for us. Some comments highlights from The Transit Worker, as excepted by The Politicker:

The view down Broadway from 116th Street.

Days like today remind you of the advantages of living under a totalitarian regime. When no one has the right to free speech, or to assembly, or to association, or to control his own labor, at least the trains always run more or less on time. (In Soviet Moscow, the subways arrived every 90 seconds! Or something like that.)

While it's hard to think of any silver linings today, at there's this. Apparently it's much easier than usual today for Brooklynites to get a free cup of coffee. Two emails we received this morning report amenities for both Heights bobos and 'Burg hipsters:

Meantime, on the West Side, overworked cliches at the NY1 headquarters are considering a walkout of their own.