New York’s currently: thanking you for this balloon mug filled with Tootsie Pops, not really meaning it

 Bush proposes using the strategic petroleum reserve to offset high gas prices—though he already tried this, and it didn’t work.

 Fox News commentator Tony Snow to step in as new White House press secretary.

 Jane Jacobs, savior of modern New York, dies at 89.

 Many concerned that Sunnis and Shiites in Saudi Arabia, sympathetic to their counterparts in Iraq, may make discord at home.

 In video, Zarqawi shows his face, claims Bush is lying about military wins in Iraq.

 Silverstein agrees to terms of World Trade Center construction; projected Freedom Tower completion date: 2012.

 “Not everybody will love you.” The trouble with traffic cops in Moscow: fake traffic jams and extortion.

 The men who know the mysteries of oysters, burrata, Guinness.

 In tall grass, look for horizontal lines that stand out against the vertical grass. How to see in the dark.

 Questions for George Saunders—120 of them, actually.

 Author Kaavya Viswanathan issues apology for “unintentional” plagiarism—but the cribbed books’ publisher doesn’t buy it.

 Tonight at How to Kick People: Patrick Borelli, Sam Means.

 CEOs who get a dollar a year; “I hate Secretaries Day.”

 Men more wary of potential rivals when their partners are at their most fertile; man accused of rape for trying to sleep with the wrong woman.

 “He seemed like a guy who cared a great deal about the quality of work he gets involved with.” Post-Freejack, mind you.

 China’s bra manufacturers can’t build big enough cups these days; “improved nutrition” is cited as the reason behind the recent boom.

 New Yorkers: no. 1 in clogged toilets.

 This is the Buddha Machine.