The New York Post is neither courageous enough to out Anderson Cooper nor respectful enough to leave him alone. Gay-baiting on the top of Page Six is a case of taking both low roads at once. The Onion, on the other hand....

My roommate bought a carton of eggs at the grocery store today, took out an egg, looked at it ... and looked closer. "I was like, 'Weird, wait a minute, there's writing on this--is that safe?'" she told me. "And then I realized it was a goddamn ad." For CBS, no less. There are ads on our food. On the food that we eat. OK the ads are etched, not inked... but still. How has this story gotten no play? Why is U.S. News covering it as an interesting business development? This is not an interesting business development. It smacks of all that is wrong with our food, our advertising, the state of our consumer society. Take the ads off our food!

An article posted today on time.com describes how things are going in Iraq this Thanksgiving weekend.

Jackie Gendel is a "young painter who finds ways of combining an arch attitude with forthright paint handling." So says Art in America in a fabulous first review of my friend and roomie, who shows at Jeff Bailey.

The Young Associates of the Chelsea Art Museum met last week with the artist Joanne Greenbaum, whose latest show is at D'Amelio Terras now through Dec. 23. Joanne's paintings are huge and striking, with bold colors, "doodlish" motifs, layers of paint and patches of the canvas that are left unpainted. Her work has a fearless quality, a bit like jazz improvisation--all that study and practice that only takes flight in performance.

I've been reporting a story on New York club life, which has taken me everywhere from packed and cordoned West 27th (of Sasha and Digweed fame in darker, strash-strewn days) to the small places opening downtown. Wherever I go, the DJ plays "Your Love" by The Outfield. I hear it three times a night. And you know what? People go nuts on the banquettes when they hear it. I looked up the song on YouTube and someone has actually posted the old MTV vid. Watch it once for the hairstyles, twice for the trenchcoats, and three times for the lady randomly finger-painting on set.

A few weeks ago I appeared on ThinkTalk, a college-oriented cable/Internet video network. It was tons of fun--I talked with college students from around the nation (quite a few from Alabama, actually!). Here's a clip.

It's 9:30 pm on a Monday night and in an hour I am heading out to report a story on New York nightlife. So my first ever blog posting will have to be snappy. This blog will not be a personal diary, nor will it be a headline-driven shoutfest. I am thinking of it as a kind of brainstorm. I hope to provide a place for people to meet and clash, to exchange thoughts and spark one another to take action. My aim is to propagate ideas, and not necessarily my own--just the best of the "currents" that I notice in conversation with friends and strangers. To inaugurate the blog, here's a link to one of my favorite online articles: Kurt Vonnegut interviewing Robert Caro. As a biographer by trade, I have a lot of admiration for Caro's work, and I think you will find Vonnegut's interview of him an enlightening read.