New York city’s Wall Street barons and supermarket baronets and real estate dukes have, it actually seems, been shut down by the White House. (Except for all the ones that work in the White House.) The old-fashioned, Clintonesque Presidential check-receiving tour of Manhattan is donezo! “Speaking on the condition of anonymity to explain the hard feelings toward the president, many of his most generous donors express a more personal grievance, as well: They have been treated like pariahs. Obama has not only denied them government jobs, but thank-you letters and White House invites. He has not anointed a new first couple of fundraising.” (It doesn’t help that big bundlers such as Steven Rattner are wrapped up in PensionGate and Hassan Nemazee is off to the big house.) And the rest of them are so neck-deep at the trough of American job destruction, who’d want to be near them anyway? (A: Tim Geithner?)

‘What have you got left to do here? You’ve done everything you are going to do here.”
Local newspaper’s magazine editor-man somehow believes it isn’t being “shoved out” when his boss says this to him.

“And if you’ve ever seen any of his shows, and ever watched his shows on at least a two-week basis, then you surely saw how he would review, let’s say, eight movies a week and every week liked probably six of them. And that is just simply inherently dishonest.”
Former New York Film Critics Circle chair Armond White says Roger Ebert likes movies too much, too often, to be a film critic. And he has another interesting (if incorrect) point of view that informs lots of discussions about the media (“reporters” v. “bloggers”): “I think he does NOT have the training. I’VE got the training…. I’m a pedigreed film critic. I’ve studied it.”

Um, can we PLEASE CUT OUT THE CELESTIAL BODYSNARKING? It’s a total astronomy shame trigger! “A huge ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighboring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered-hundreds of times more massive than the sun, scientists said Wednesday after working out its weight for the first time. Those behind the find say the star, called R136a1, may once have weighed as much as 320 solar masses. Astrophysicist Paul Crowther said the obese star-twice as heavy as any previously discovered-has already slimmed down considerably over its lifetime.”

“I am of course willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner.”
-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack emerges from emergency spine-implantation surgery to announce that he will reconsider the firing of Shirley Sherrod. The NAACP has also reversed its early and hasty condemnation of Sherrod, who was the victim of a credulous media which operates at the beck and call of Andrew Breitbart’s “moral ugliness.”

Previously: How to Kick a Soccer Ball

Amy Jean Porter just recently finished 106 drawings for her first book, “Of Lamb,” a collaboration with poet Matthea Harvey, to be published in early 2011.

In case you didn’t get enough from our photos of the High Line when it opened or, uh, haven’t been there yet yourself, here’s a pretty decent gallery that takes a more recent look. Enjoy!

Tortured, Near-Drowned Donkey Gets Russian Parasailing Company In Trouble

This is the worst idea since Mr. Carlson’s Thanksgiving turkey drop on “WKRP in Cincinnati.”

(Or maybe just the worst idea since whatever those Quiznos guys did to those poor cats over at Quiznos!)

A call for refudiation: “Not only do female grizzlies like to play the field-with multiple partners, and repeated encounters that last up to an hour-they also terminate the pregnancy if the timing is poor. A female grizzly won’t carry a fetus to term unless she is in ‘peak condition’ and has the wherewithal to support her offpsring. Like other bears, ‘if the mother has not accumulated enough fat to sustain herself as well as developing cubs,’ the fertilized embryo will be reabsorbed into the not-going-to-be-a-mother-yet’s body.”

by Nate Freeman

There are four words-and, of course, the accompanying slurping sound-that will dog Paul Dano for the rest of his life: “I drink your milkshake!” That phrase, spat at him by Daniel Day-Lewis in the modern classic There Will Be Blood, remains wedged into our collective unconscious. Why, then, does the actor who played the owner of the hypothetical milkshake feign surprise when offered these tasty beverages for free?

The Daily News reports that diners frequently order Dano these malted drinks when he’s out to eat, which he initially finds confusing.

“I don’t get it right away, but then I remember the movie,” Dano says. “But I never get mad, it’s a f-ing free milk shake.”

Perhaps he’s still trying to separate himself from the endless t-shirts and parodies, but c’mon, Paul Dano-when we see you, we think “milkshake.” So when we give you one, don’t pretend like you don’t know what the fuck is going on. If you don’t want to play along, then… we’ll drink your milkshake. We’ll drink it up!