Allons Enfants de la Patrie, le Jour de Gloire Est Arriv!

The day of glory has indeed arrived: It's Bastille Day, and, though we know we shouldn't give the Post this ammunition, it's by far our favorite national holiday. (Have you ever listened to The Marseillaise? How could it not make you want to storm the nearest Bastille?) More »

Gossip Roundup: This Is No Time for a Royal Range Rover

• The Range Rover driven by Prince Charles during his honeymoon with Princess Diana was put up on eBay yesterday, then abruptly removed after the terror attacks for fear of being insensitive. Rightfully so, but wasn't it just as insensitive before the bombs went off? [Page Six] More »

$6 for a Beer, $8 for Smokes: It Could Be Worse

When it's a hungover Sunday afternoon and you realize you managed to spend — without trying very hard at all — 80 bucks the night before on dive-bar beers, plus another $20 or so on cabs, and all you want to do is order in some greasy food, but you know that will end up costing $15 just for a burger and fries, and you remember the rent's due Monday, and you'll have to scrape together $1,500 for your tiny, ugly studio apartment, and you wonder why the fuck you chose such a ridiculously expensive city to live in, you can take solace in this: There are a dozen places in the world more expensive than New York, and at least you don't live in any of them. More »

Sadly, James Wolcott Still Can't Forgive His Brother For Calling Him a Pussy In 1974

Erudite pundit brothers Christopher and Peter Hitchens have been estranged for four years and no one told me? Apparently, it's over a rather lame Stalin joke. This is just like that episode of Frasier where Niles gets upset over Frasier's refusal to acknowledge the necessity of Lenin's crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion! More »

Consulate Bombing: We Got the NYPD Blues

Maybe they're right, that the boob tube really does shorten our attention spans. Because we can't begin to understand why the NYPD still has no clue on yesterday's consulate bombing in midtown (they're not even sure the Brits were the target anymore) when we know Sipowicz would have figured it out, found the skell junkie behind it, and even had a quick existential crisis, all in just an hour. (Even better: Fontana and Green would have it wrapped up in just a half-hour or so, because McCoy needs his chance to work up some righteous indignation.) It sucks when life isn't like TV. —JO More »

Consulate Bombing: Never Give In, Never Give In, Never, Never, Never, Never

What was the goal of this morning's bombings at the British consulate in midtown? To somehow affect the British election, happening today? To somehow affect New Yorkers, who aren't terribly fond of bombings? To screw up Third Avenue traffic? A certain British playboy-about-town acquaintance of ours suggests that maybe it was a plot to silence Tina Brown. Her Knight in shining armo(u)r, hubby Harry Evans, was scheduled to co-host "a British Elections Night Party" (the invitation, natch, is rather restrained) tonight at that very consulate. Coincidence? More »

Baghdad on the Hudson?

No jokes here, even. We're just freaked. Someone set off two "improvised explosive devices"—military-ese for the pipe bombs and whatnot Iraqis would rather throw at U.S. soldiers than the roses Dick Cheney promised—in front of the British consulate in midtown this morning. The IEDs were planted in the flowerpot security barrier things in front of the consulate, which it turns out are great places to hide bombs. Sort of defeats the purpose, no? On top of last weekend's second murder of some kid in the LES, we're not sure we're leaving the house anymore. —JO More »

Holding Hands and Watching Captain Kangaroo

Because Denton says Gawker must be about New York, I spent all day yesterday trying to figure out a local angle on this photo. Then it came to me as I filled my tank on Northern Boulevard in Queens and thought, "Wow, $2.55 a gallon for premium! What a bargain!" Peeling off $40 and handing it over, I paused to thank God that our fundamentalist President and Saudi Arabia s fundamentalist Prince Abdullah are obviously thick as thieves. —MG

How Far Will $500 Million Go?

The international community has pledged $500 million (half of it from the World Bank) to help the recovery effort in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia. But what exactly is half a billion dollars in today's global economy? Let's have a look. More »

Don't Forget Kwanzaa!!!

So maybe we're a few weeks early with our trumpeting of Kwanzaa (the holiday starts on December 26), but our favorite faux food company, Kraft, has their Kwanzaa menu suggestions available on their website. The good people at Kraft remind us that Kwanzaa is all about attaching "heritage" to stereotypes and, if you're anything like us, you'll be atwitter over the idea cooking up some butter beans, collard greens, and cornbread. We'd contemplate what Kraft suggests as holiday-appropriate after-dinner activities, but our court-ordered sensitivity training forbids it. More »

We Tried To Ignore This, Really

If you haven't seen it by now, Madame Tussauds London wax museum gives the traditional nativity scene a celebuwhore twist. More »