Oh this is great, great great, the story of the lawsuit brought by the National Center for Lesbian Rights against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, hosts of the Gay Softball World Series. I don't even want to summarize and spoil anything for you, but the issue at hand is: how many straight people, if any, can play on a gay sports team? (There are of course a number of sub-issues, including "Are White People Racist" and "Do Bisexuals Exist?" Which, oh God, really people?) Anyway, the phrase GAY TRIBUNAL comes into play.

The Daily Beast turns two years old today and its honcho interviews herself.

You have been accused of having your finger on the Zeitgeist. So where is it located right now? What do people want to read and consume? Sexy brain food. Give us something to make us smarter, but for God's sake don't make it feel like work. People are in such a glum frame of mind they are looking for confidence, audacity, practicality, and FUN.

This photo tour of the offices of Etsy is a dream-nightmare! It's wonderful! It's slightly heinous! I'm incredibly jealous! I want to go craft now.

The fight between the Newsweek Tumblr and CNN/Washington Post octopus Howard Kurtz is my favorite thing ever. Kurtz wrote a really iffy piece that rests, ultimately, on What It Means That Newsweek Is Keeping Secret About Its Potential Bidders, which… unlike every other sale process in history, which is oh-so transparent? Now he calls Newsweek "thin-skinned and defensive" for ripping on his piece. More fun please!

Knifecrime Island Stabber-In-Chief Gordon "One-Eye" Brown went off to the Queen for her permission to dissolve Parliament, and now the elections are on for May 6. Most are predicting a hung Parliament (you can learn what that means here!), and it's not unlikely that the Conservatives will win a narrow majority; also, they are running on a platform of "hope" and "change." (That means something different in England, though, since they're already a socialist monarchy.) The English are excited, of course: "Quick! Gordon Brown is in Kent! Lets go raid his fridge!!" is how the kinder Twitters are going. (Fridge is slang for "face" and raid [...]

This is how you roll across the pond on Moneycrime Island: English TV queen Anthea Turner's megamillionaire businessman husband Grant Bovey officially went in for bankruptcy yesterday. And? "The entrepreneur, 48, admitted he couldn't pay £50 million worth of his debts after the collapse of his property empire at Guildford County Court yesterday. Following the devastating declaration, the couple headed off on holiday for a few days to 'chill out.'"

Paul Gogarty, Green party member of the Ireland's Dáil Éireann (that's house of representatives to you), had his fill of his country returning to the sewer from which it so recently emerged, and took it out on the Labour Party Chief Whip. I love Ireland! Language in the video above really not safe for work. Fucking Gogarty has since fucking apologized.

Oh no, work stopped, it's the Find Where In The World This Google Street View Shot Is From Game! Goes nicely with this gallery of Google Street View shots by Michael Wolf.

"I don't come to refute Gladwell's strawman argument…." -I've been waiting for someone to take a swing at Malcolm Gladwell's argument about how Twitter… isn't… the Civil Rights Movement? Well here we are, with your host, Anil Dash.

HEY CHICAGO! Your hosts Tyler Coates and Maura Johnston would love to receive you at 11 a.m. on Sunday, at WestEnd, on Madison west of Racine. Location chosen due to its 11-minute walking distance from the Pitchfork Festival! Time chosen so no one has to miss Best Coast!

Today until 4 p.m. Eastern Time, the Biblioracle will tell you what book to read next if you tell him the last five books you have read. Handy! (In other local news, there is a lost corgi puppy in Bushwick, should you happen to find one.)

There are now two conflicting 2010 and 2012 election narratives. (Well, three, really, if you count the "Mayan disaster" narrative, in which, in '12, everyone in politics is killed when the Mayans RELEASE THE KRAKEN.) One is the Republicans' "resist and repeal and refuse and other words that start with 'r'" about how they will use the giving of health insurance to the working class to get the Demoncrats out of office. And now, well, this is different: the Dems and their labor union pals think they can crucify the five Democrats who switched their votes on health care reform to "no." Basically Nancy Pelosi is going [...]

I am actually very excited that Tucker Carlson's website, the Daily Caller, is finally launching on Monday! (I will be calling it The Gaily Dollar, of course, but also I will be a devoted reader.) Also, the more independent web operations there are on the Internet, the better. I also think it is very brave to spend $3 million on the first year alone. If I'd spent $3 million on our first year, most of it would have been on like Kiton suits and PIZZA PARTIES FOR EVERYONE. Also to admire, this belief: "When was the last time you saw, on television, a straight explanation of what's in [...]

Ooh, you know what opens tomorrow at the Morgan Library? The exhibition of Jane Austen's letters! See you there, yo.

What do NBA players do to blow off steam after practice? Apparently, it's put on Halloween masks and have a dance-off to Rick Ross' remix of Waka Flocka Flame's "Hard in the Paint." Kevin Garnett really does go hard in the paint! This is great.

This is pretty awesome. (via)

"Shopping for food and keeping a good conscience is hard. To help you out, the team at the WONDER-TONIC Organic Approval Committee have released a downloadable set of 16 stickers to let you label your favorite foods, books, and appliances as organic. Just print them out, stick them on, and start feeling good about yourself!"

I am really, really pre-enjoying the coming chapter of the battle-saga of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times-way too much. I love that there are two rich men, Arthur Sulzberger and Rupert Murdoch, both delightful and wacky in their own ways, who have staked out both an ideology and a business practice and now they are going to get all Greco-Roman about it-and will drag their deputies into it, too. (New Times spokesbot (not doing too well so far!) Big Bob Christie v. Robert Thomson (mean as can be!).) So this is the perfect curtain raiser for the coming bloodbath. Here's Thomson's latest: "My advice [...]

Awl Chief Drawing Person Amy Jean Porter has a new t-shirt for sale, from the series North American Mammals Speak the Truth and Often Flatter You Unnecessarily. It's from this drawing and it's got a jaguar who compliments you on your handwriting! In other news, Amy is finishing a very exciting book right now but she'll return here before you know it.

Oh hello! As a special treat for this holiday season, we've commissioned some thoughts (both deep and shallow) from writers (both near and far) to look back (in anger or otherwise) on the 00s. (Whew!) You may think that this was just a delightful public service on our part, but you'd be wrong. It actually means we're going to schedule these fine and glorious contributions throughout the holidaze that follow for the benefit of us regular folks doing somewhat less typing for a few days! Daddy's fingers are tired and crampy. Also we will not really get into this whole "BUT IT'S NOT REALLY THE END OF THE DECADE!" business [...]