A column on the front page of the City section of today's New York Times concludes with a quote, in all seriousness, from one of the Times's carefully picked experts. The topic is the New York subway system, and the claim is that "The No. 7 is probably the best-known line outside of New York. It's a symbol of the diversity of New York." This is absurd, and it's hard to see why the Times would pass it along unchallenged. John Rocker may have lent some recent fame to the 7 train. But the Rocker incident pales in comparison to the attention that the A train has attracted over the years as a result of the Billy Strayhorn song "Take the 'A' Train," famously recorded by Duke Ellington.
Lost in Boston: A photo in today's New York Times magazine is described as being of "The Kennedy clan at the dedication of the J.F.K. Library in Boston in 1979." The building the clan is standing in front of sure doesn't look like the Kennedy library.