Jack Shafer on Times Digest: "The shorter New York Times, set in the same fonts as the newspaper, is the perfect brief news read, provided you're 1) not near a computer and can't download the Times Reader; 2) unable to get the regular Times; 3) extraordinarily pressed for time; or 4) in a mood to make only one hand available for reading (such as when you're in the whirlpool)." [Slate]

We heart Michael Gross, the gossipy author who works the Alex Kuczynski beat nearly as hard as we do. And so, apparently, does Liz Smith, who sends a mondo air kiss Gross's way in today's column: