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ARGH!
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Have you ever noticed that the majority of the people in the world are incompetent nincompoops? In fact, Ed has calculated it to be 1 competent person for every 8 incompentent nincompoop. Today he's on his 7th person; odds, please be on his side!

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News
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1. NY Post
'Living' Blueprints

5/9/05
http://www.nypost.com/business/43768.htm

Warmer weather awakens the power of Mother Nature's textures and fragrances - but leaves us with far fewer excuses to forego weekend visits to the home-improvement warehouse. For inspiration, we turn to where we hope to find vibrant photos and editorial: choice decorating mags, a.k.a. the backyard books.

Fresh off its being named "Start-Up of the Year" by Adweek, Cottage Living gives readers dozens of reasons to get outside and make spring productive. Editor Eleanor Griffin continues to do her homework, producing a May/June issue chock full of gardening advice, adventuring and redecorating. If you believe you're able to transform the feel of your home simply by splashing on some vivid color, then you're Griffin's kind of person. It's one of her magazine's M.O.s. Her art director's use of big, bright photos does the trick. Plenty of how-to floor plans, garden design templates and easy to assemble room fashions give the first-year magazine a distinct look. Of course, the usual large photos of summer foods might be paying homage to Martha Stewart Living, which 10 years earlier copped the same Adweek award.

There's just a couple blueprints and schematic how-to drawings to help readers in Country Living's June issue and we wonder how long veteran editor Nancy Mernit Soriano can hold out from offering up more graphic assists, since they seem to be all the rage. Ad pages dropped 14 percent in the first quarter after a flat 2004 while new rivals, like Cottage Living, are offering some easy- to- understand service items and winning over readers - and advertiser dollars. Not that Country Liv ing's issue is bad: its closet makeover story hits the mark and it's fun and should be a big helper. Country's food and recipe dis plays are better than those in Cottage Living. Out of place, though, are the articles on using a 19th century camera and a story on the apron. It will be interesting to see these two titles slug it out over the next 12 months.

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2. Washington Post
In the Plame Case, Losers All Around
By William Raspberry
5/9/05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800914.html

I want to get really exercised about what the government is doing to a pair of fellow journalists -- Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine. I do hope they can stay out of jail.

But the more I look at it, the more it looks like a fight with nothing much in it for anyone, including the American public.

The bare outline of the case is pretty clear: In his syndicated column, Robert D. Novak "outed" Valerie Plame as an undercover agent of the CIA. Deliberate disclosure of an agent's identity by certain federal officials is a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison, so, not unreasonably, authorities wanted to know who leaked the information on Plame.

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3. NY Times
So Many Paparazzi, So Few Coveted Shots
By Lia Miller
5/9/05
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/business/media/09tabloid.html?

How much are a thousand words worth when the going rate for pictures is half a million? That is the amount US Weekly magazine is said to have paid for photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on a beach in Kenya together.

But the $500,000 photo is not proof that the overall market for candid celebrity photos is inflated.

Gary Morgan, co-owner of Splash News, a photo agency that specializes in paparazzi photographs, said that a typical picture that garnered $30,000 last year would sell for around $15,000 this year.

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Whisper Jobs
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Ed hears??¦

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