Obama probably not reading PD

NPR: "He also said he would use 'big sticks and big carrots' with Iran."

Fear of firing

Ms. Getty relished her late-in-life success, her son said. And she enjoyed reminiscing about more difficult times. In a 1990 interview she recalled one of her last secretarial jobs, at a company called Snap-Out Forms, where she kept her acting ambitions a secret for fear of being fired.

“At Snap-Out Forms, the first day I came to work, I had an audition, and I said, ‘Can I go for my lunch at 10 o’clock?’ ” she said. “The next day I had to go someplace else. I said. ‘Can I take my lunch at 2:30?’ The next day I asked if I could take lunch at 11 o’clock. The office manager said, ‘You have the strangest eating habits of any secretary we’ve ever had.’ ” —NYT

Inconceivable cross

Tuggs's fortune comes from the development and universal popularity of the Thingie^®, an object so nebulously defined that the reader keeps trying to come up with a real-world analogue—some inconceivable cross between a Post-it and Microsoft Office, perhaps.
—Ed Park, "The Sure Thing"

Welcome to the machine

From Restricted View:

I checked my card's account history when I got back to my desk and found this list of purchases:

6/11/2008 12:05 PM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:24 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:23 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:22 AM Purchase - Vending Location $1.50
6/11/2008 10:21 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85
6/11/2008 10:19 AM Purchase - Vending Location $0.85

Pachyderm query

To: allstaff@ruterperiodicals.com
From: ehandelman@ruterperiodicals.com
Re: The elephant in the room

All,

OK, um, seriously? I thought we were going to have cupcakes for Angela's birthday at 3, but then I get there and someone has clearly put an elephant in the conference room. I am sure whoever did this thinks it's pretty hilarious, but you guys are not the office manager, and you are not the one who is going to have to deal with building services when they find out that there's an elephant inside the office park....

—Wendy Molyneux, McSweeney's Internet Tendency

In a single bound

Time Out presents some online Gotham games.

Dusky jewel

Levi writes:

Your piece on office songs immediately made me think of "Piazza, New York Catcher," which I sometimes think is the best song ever. (Seriously: when he gets to the "I know it wouldn't come to love" line, then invokes "Don't Walk Away Renee," my heart just crumbles every time.) I realized that I tend to think of it as an office song—but looking again at the lyrics reveals that of course they're barely in the office at all (hell, the office is ultimately imaginary, too, isn't it?)—just "At dusk when work is over we'll continue the debate."