Stuff You Should Know

If you live in Toronto, the following site, filled with photos of abandoned bicycles will be instantly meaningful to you, despite the fact the snaps were taken in New York.

Kinnie Starr on living in Las Vegas for six months: "American culture really is different. They have drive-through everything! It's nice to get out of your car sometimes." (Globe and Mail, Jan 13/04)

Need some heavenly toner?

Already disillusioned hacks will shudder to learn that Lingua Franca, which went broke in 2001, is trying to do the impossible (NYT, Jan 12 / 04 / David Carr):

The bankruptcy trustee in charge of the case, Robert Geltzer, has served summons to many freelance writers who collected fees from the magazine when it was in its death throes. The demand: If the fees are not returned, he is threatening to sue.

Turn your online diary entries into cold hard cash.

From the January 11 Chicago Tribune, an article by Susan Chandler and Jim Kirk about Barbara Amiel receiving $276,000 in 2002 from the Chicago Sun-Times despite having not setting foot inside the newspaper offices for the past 4.5 years:

The dollars involved may be small compared with the millions her husband was pulling out of Hollinger International, but Amiel's behavior fits the same disturbing pattern, according to disgruntled shareholders: treating a publicly held company like a personal bank account.

"If this was a cow, there wouldn't be an udder that wasn't sore," said Christopher Browne, managing director of Tweedy, Browne Co., a large holder of Hollinger International shares. "Nothing surprises me now."