Headlines from January 19, 2009

Bush spends last full day commuting sentences, placing long-distance calls.
What it's like to conduct Obama (see video).
The Meridian Star apologizes for "acting with gross neglect" concerning segregation and civil rights.
Round-up of varying blog responses to Goldberg's "Why Israel Can't Make Peace With Hamas" op-ed.
Sri Lankan journalist returns from the dead with an essay to run in case he's assassinated (see essay here).
Summary of today's British bank bailout.
Print for the commute: The last time the American newspaper business got this gothic was 1765.
Tell us about your broken resolutions, and vote for your favorite novel from this year's Rooster contenders.
TMN's Rosecrans Baldwin on inspiration for your interior.
The video series "50 people, one question" goes to London.
The new face of French intellectuals is 36, female, and probably the top expert on why development programs fail.
The new face of Sam Brown (Exploding Dog) is Dog Hates Me; see also, a 2003 gallery Sam did for TMN.
Ceasefire called in Gaza; death toll rises to 1,300--a third of whom are children.
As long as Hamas holds to the ceasefire, says Israel, we'll pull troops from Gaza before Obama's inauguration.
"I think a weekly magazine is a standing dinner date...Sometimes they're the most delightful person in the world, sometimes they get drunk and throw up on you."
I call my wife and tell her I'm going to sleep at the lab. She reminds me that she left me a week ago. Noah Baumbach on the science of wine.
Todd Levin's guide to choosing wine: "Red, White, and You."
Drinking to Bush's failures guarantees a long drunk, an even longer hangover.
It is a time for renewal. Reincarnation without death. A pilgrimage to Washington is taking place, with politics as the civil religion.
The site "44 Presidents Coming" is exactly what it sounds like.
A collection of presidential inauguration videos, from McKinley on down.
In absence of a theory of consciousness, bees come close with selfhood, bureaucracy, navigation.
All activists struggle in Russia--not least the eco-champions trying to keep Russian industry in check.
Living on an equatorial Atlantic island, the Italian consul experiments with chocolate after finding solace with Márquez.
Finding a parrot in Brooklyn, last year in Octopus Pie.