The Times' Can 'O Worms: In the movies they call it a "meet cute." It is an essential part of any well told love story. That's why the NYTimes' announcement over the weekend that they will now publish same-sex "commitments" in their wedding section and write up these couplings in their popular "Vows" feature, makes life that much more interesting. As a great many gays meet under somewhat - ahem - less than dance cotillions circumstances, we can't wait to see how they will handle that.

Chris' Urine Turned Maroon: This is one of the charming details in Chris Matthews report on his 2 week bout with malaria. While we found his column interesting (we like information about other peoples' illnesses) --Ldotters have little to no sympathy for him.

Stand By Your Blurb: For one of the juiciest political pieces of the day check out Dana Milbank's snippy deconstruction of what W is reading at the ranch. One doubts that an AP reporter would have been invited into the Presidential Pickup unless the delivered message had not been oh-so-carefully crafted. Kind of makes one smile.

Clear as Ice: Is Donald Rumsfeld the only true grown up in the U.S. Government? One would have thought so from his interview for Fox yesterday. He makes his, and the White House's case, for taking care of business clearer than anyone has to date.

Duh: It's from the New Straits Times and is our favorite headline this morning: One In Four Malaysians Is Overweight From Overeating .

Dumb Is As Dumb Does: A desperate Cynthia McKinney has resorted to recycling old endorsements in her bid for reelection in the Georgia democrat primary being held today. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young calls her use of ads he made for her in an earlier campaign but not this one, "Fudge." We might doubt he initially chose that particular word but he made himself clear.

Life Notes: Pols, pundits and not a few assorted barflies assembled at Manhattan's Holy Cross church yesterday to say farewell to the now legendary New York Post columnist Neal Travis. A rather gaunt Mario Cuomo rose with a few gracious words and ended by saying "See you soon, Neal." Surely he can't be that depressed about son Andy's duller-than-dead run for governor.

-Your Viewing-the-world-through-hooded-eyes LComStaff