Sunday November 12, 2006

The Final Word: “A-Rod at the Bat Edition”

(The media experiment in which we conjoin the headline and last paragraph of each bylined article in the A-section of today's New York Times.)

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Incoming Democrats Put Populism Before Ideology:

He has seen how ugly the partisanship can get in American politics, Mr. Walz said, and is adamant about changing it. "I'm convinced that what we need to do is heal," he said. "Tuesday was not a Democratic referendum; it was an American referendum. It's not that the American people are so enamored with the Democratic vision, but what they believed is what we said about cleaning up corruption, having some real open debate. It just seems so broken."

Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense:

"With Flickr you can find images that a computer could never find," said Prabhakar Raghavan, head of research at Yahoo. "Something that defied us for 50 years suddenly became trivial. It wouldn't have become trivial without the Web."

Democrats Aim to Save Inquiry on Work in Iraq:

"Our subcommittee chairmen will be able to bring oversight back to their individual subcommittees," he said.

Sectarian Rifts Foretell Pitfalls of Iraqi Troops' Taking Control:

"This is a tipping point. If we demonstrate to the Sunnis that we are not going to remove Shakir and that we are going to allow him to do business as usual, then they're going to lose faith in us and faith in the reconciliation process. And this thing is going to go kinetic in a big way."

Frustration Grows at Carousel as More Baggage Goes Astray:

"I got to go to my meeting in jeans," Ms. Ingram said. "You can't travel this much and expect everything to go right."

Sports Artist Sued for Mixing Crimson and Tide:

"It would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to the law," he wrote, "to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of pictorial illustrations."

Other News

Talks Collapse in Lebanon as Shiites Vacate the Cabinet:

Former President Amine Gemayel, leader of the small Christian Phalange party, said Saturday that the mood in the room during the negotiations was "cold, very cold." He said that the governing coalition was adamant about not giving Hezbollah the one-third plus one seats it would need for veto power. "They are still insisting on having the third of the government," Mr. Gemayel said Saturday after leaving the negotiations. "It is a way in fact to control completely the government and the very existence of the government."

The Movie Issue: A Wild and Uncrazy Guy:

"Baby steps," Ferrell said later, when he returned to the dressing room. "You can always make something better, but it's always baby steps, little by little." He sat down in a director's chair. He looked weary. But there was little time to rest. He and McKay were about to start writing their next script, "Step-Brothers," which will star Ferrell and Reilly. By February, Ferrell plans to have grown his curly hair into an Afro so he'll be ready to play a '70s basketball star in a movie about the American Basketball Association. "When I left 'Saturday Night Live,' I was off work for three months," Ferrell said. "That was the longest I haven't worked in years." He paused. "I do feel, at heart, that I'm a lazy person who found this thing that I love. Comedy makes me industrious. Without it, I'm just another guy."

Immigrant Protection Rules Draw Fire:

"It's not like people, if they are charged with a crime, they just escape immigration," Ms. Friedland said. "Even the cities that have ordinances limiting inquiries about immigration status cooperate and are in touch with the Department of Homeland Security when a serious crime is involved."

The $38,500 Closet:

"So buildings are going back to that focus on luxury, and they're allocating the space for storage again," he said. "But now they're charging for it."

Chess : A Farewell, After 34 Years, and a Memorable 1952 Game:

So, hoping against hope, he played 36 Qh3. But after 42 ... Rd5, he resigned.

Taking the Back Roads to Machu Picchu:

It had followed us all the way.

Coming at You:

He pays special attention to Hitchcock's cameos in these movies. It's a treat to watch the fat man pop up on almost every page.

International

Dubai Swats Pests Ogling Beach Beauties:

"You try to scare them a bit just to get them to stop," Abdullah said. "Ask him, 'What are you going to do with this picture? Would you like it if someone was photographing your sister?' That's usually enough to get the point across."

China's Muslims Awake to Nexus of Needles and AIDS:

"You can take methadone as long as you want," he continued, his wife looking on. "But I've got children and want to be a regular person. I want to atone for all the bad I have done."

U.S. Offers Reward for Help in Finding Missing Soldier:

The three officers were part of a group of 25 Iraqi military and police personnel attending a weeklong NATO training session on international law. The group arrived in Norway a week ago and its members were believed to have had visas that were valid for the duration of the session. The others in the group returned to Iraq on Friday, the spokeswoman said.

U.S. Vetoes Security Council Resolution Assailing Israel for Attacks:

Jean-Marc de la Sablière, the French ambassador, said he felt the final negotiated text was "a balanced one" and would have sent the right message to both Israel and the Palestinians. He added, "I hope that the fact this text has not been adopted will not renew tensions on the ground."

Venezuelans Square Off Over Race, Oil and a Populist Political Slogan:

Mr. Chávez had earlier boasted of the antipoverty mission created this year that he named Negra Hipólita, in honor of a slave who was Simón Bolívar's wet nurse.

National Report

After More Than a Century of Soaking, Washington Town Mulls Move to Higher Ground:

"By and large, they're the exceptions," he said. "The norm is that people don't have the money to move." As for residents who say they like life in Hamilton as it is and would not want to move to the new town, "I think that's kind of a smokescreen," Mr. Edwards said. "I think they would get out, if they knew they really could."

New Democratic Majority Throws Bush's Judicial Nominations Into Uncertainty:

If the Democrats follow that model, he said, they will be following the playbook of the Republicans, who blocked most of Mr. Clinton's appeals court nominees in his last two years in office.

G.O.P. Collapse in Indiana Emblematic of Larger Loss:

"We're the people who do the electing," Mr. Wahl said. "He's a servant of the people. And he seems to have forgotten who the people are."

In Gates Selection, White House Hopes to Close Rift Between State and Defense:

He counseled caution, arguing that "retributive violence, no matter how massive, almost inevitably begets more violence against us in response." He advised a combination of terrorist arrests, targeted military action and promotion of human rights and political freedom in the Middle East.

Isadore Barmash, 84, Prolific Chronicler of Retail Wars, Dies:

Besides his wife, the former Sarah Jasnoff, whom he married in 1948, Mr. Barmash is survived by three daughters, Elaine Charnow, of Jericho, N.Y., Marilyn Weinberger, of Livingston, N.J., and Pamela Barmash, of St. Louis; a son, Stanley, of Clayton, Del.; and four grandchildren.

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