A dispatch from Jerusalem in the international section of today's New York Times begins, "The struggle over shuttered Palestinian offices in Jerusalem intensified today when another Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a group of Israelis, this time at a cafe outside Haifa." This suggests that the suicide bomber was participating in the "struggle over shuttered Palestinian offices in Jerusalem." But the suicide bomber, now dead, didn't say anything of the sort, and the linkage suggested by the Times is sheer speculation. These suicide bombers have been attacking Israel since long before the Israelis shuttered any Palestinian offices in Jerusalem; the struggle the bombers are involved in is not to reopen offices but to kill Jews and eliminate Israel.
Can't Spell: An article in the business section of today's New York Times profiles the editor Robert Gottlieb. "As his reputation flourished, Mr. Gottlieb began to indulge his more idiosynchratic interests," the Times reports. That's an idiosyncratic way of spelling idiosyncratic; the dictionaries here at Smartertimes.com headquarters omit the "h."
Late Again: The "E-Commerce Report" column in the business section of today's New York Times runs under the headline, "The fallen dot-coms are not yet cold, but some dealers are already selling their detritus as memorabilia." This is old news to readers of the Washington Post, which reported the same trend in its business section on August 9, 2001, under the headline, "Dot-Com Relics Scoot On; Buyers Misty-Eyed for Kozmo, Webvan and Other Flops." It's also old news to readers of the Wall Street Journal, which had a similar story on July 13, 2001. It's lame enough for the Times to waddle in a month late on this story without crediting the papers that got there beforehand. What's really lame, though, is that the Times even recycles a character. The Wall Street Journal article reported, "Rick Broadhead, an Internet analyst, collects Internet paraphernalia like old signs and gear with logos; he bought an eToys certificate for his collection." Today's New York Times story, published a month later, reports, "Mr. Broadhead, a consultant and author of e-commerce books, has spent about $1,000 this year on items like a sign from the receiving dock of an eToys warehouse, a Garden.com stock certificate and martini glasses bearing the Furniture.com insignia."