[Design You Trust via Cityfile]

"Letting Your Family In On Your Therapy," WSJ, 7/17/07:

When Tony Fama worries about recurring sadness or has questions about antidepressants, he calls a psychiatrist — his wife's.

Mr. Fama's wife, Helen Kraljic, suffers from bipolar disorder, and he calls her doctor frequently if she seems to be manic or having side effects from her medication. Often, Mr. Fama sits in on his wife's therapy sessions, offering his opinions. Sometimes, he talks to the doctor about his own struggles as caregiver.

"Clinic Treats Mental Illness by Enlisting the Family," NYT, 6/4/08:

It was a depressive swing that brought Helen Kraljic Fama and her husband to Beth Israel's clinic, on 17th Street near First Avenue, nearly 30 years after Ms. Fama suffered her first bout with the disease.

Ms. Fama, 50, who was once a bookkeeper and a cashier, said her manic episodes include an obsession with numbers, which she feels are friendly to her. ("I always brag that she scored a perfect 800 on her math SAT," said her husband, Anthony P. Fama, 60.)

We won't belabor the point; you can read the stories for yourself. Pay particular attention to the similarities in the sourcing. Note to the NYT: You're pissing off your competitors! Probably not a good idea, considering the economic climate at the moment. We beg you, follow the rules by only stealing from the other 99% of media outlets in America.

[Previously]

National Review says on its blog The Corner:

The similarities are striking, the most egregious of which is a device Labash uses throughout his piece. He repeatedly breaks up anecdotes with "Stone's Rules" — things like "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack," as well as "White shirt + tan face = confidence."

Toobin does the exact same thing throughout his profile, even including the same mathematical equation and, like Labash, basing his conclusion on yet another rule. The cover art on The Weekly Standard is a photo of Roger Stone with his shirt off, showing his Nixon back tattoo. Whaddayaknow? In The New Yorker's print edition (not online), they run a photo of Stone with his shirt off, flashing his back tattoo.

We can't quite agree with this. Stone's tattoo is probably the most obvious photo of him for any profile. And as for "Stone's Rules"—they're really quotable slogans that the man has honed to a fine point over decades of working with the media. To expect any profiler not to quote them is ludicrous. But judge for yourself: Toobin's profile is here. The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash profile is here.

(Further story-stealing sensitivity: a tipster accuses the New York Times of ripping off a year-old Washington Post story today. The Post's piece was on shrinking portion sizes at restaurants; the Times today talks about portion sizes as well as rising prices as a byproduct of increasing food costs. Again, we have to say this one is clean. The Times' story was broader, and has a solid current news peg. Disagreements in the comments, please.)

[pic via NYer]

Tired of a world in which Americans idolize wannabe singers and musicals about high schoolers pass as rock 'n roll music, Dr Pepper is encouraging (ok, begging) Axl Rose to finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, Chinese Democracy, in 2008.

Awesome work.

Their sense of outrage is refreshing. Lots of people line up zombie-style and shuffle in and out of "fun" clubs, tossing out money left and right, every night. We've all done it before. But mostly, although you know the night was a ripoff, you just shrug and tell yourself that's how it is.

Not the Hendersons! As much as most people would dread their parents going with them to a club like this (I mean, I think it's sweet, it's just not for me personally), maybe the LAX club should fear the parents more. Their daughter would have been thrilled to get in and party no matter what; dad, on the other hand, is like, "The fuck?"

And now it's all over the papers. As a bad thing! Not how things always happen in Vegas! We love the sweet smell of nightlife pretension burning in the morning.

Do not allow your parents into these shitty clubs, people!

To hear the Hendersons relate their bad experience on video, click here.

[pic and video via Las Vegas Sun]

Despite promises from the newspaper that each of its high-profile columnists—now hidden behind a pay wall on the Web—would provide bonus content and services at the site, Dowd so far has offered nothing original, beyond her twice-weekly print column.

This stands in stark contrast to her colleagues, Frank Rich, Bob Herbert, Thomas Friedman, David Brooks, Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof, and John Tierney.

Dowd is "rumored" to think, like most bloggers, that the whole TimesSelect thing seems to limit the audience and influence of once-powerful Times columnists.

So those of you unwilling to pay for your Dowd fix can rest assured that you're not missing those Nerve Personals-ish extra features all the other guys are doing ("Poll: What zeitgeisty tv show should I next compare with the Bush administration?").

Is Maureen Dowd Boycotting TimesSelect? [E&P]