Grey Lady, Grey Hair: Two Things I Learned From the Times This Week

1. Maybe the Sunday Business section should go to print a little later than Thursday: In an otherwise comprehensive, informative and excellent article on how gas prices reached the price where they are today, Nelson D. Schwartz had a very embarrassing sentence. When chronicling several senators' opposition in the early '90s to increasing fuel-efficiency standards, Schwartz writes one of the main opponents, Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, did not return calls seeking comment. Um, Helms died Friday. Now, obviously, Schwartz wrote this at least several days before Helms' death, but you would think in the calls he was placing, he would find one of Helms' aides (I imagine former senators still have personal/professional assistants on hand), who would've warned him Helms was about to die. Even with the correction in that day's paper, Oof.

2. Rush Limbaugh is deaf: Huh? It's true, mentioned in an entertaining profile of the radio talk show host in the Times magazine. He uses cochlear implants to hear, but, nonetheless, very surprising, considering the number-one requirement to being a talk show host is loving the sound of your voice. (Note to self: Look up "cochlear" in case it shows up on the GRE.) This story, by Zev Chafets, was very interesting because it sought to legitimize him as a learned, shrewd and influential kingpin of an otherwise hyperbolic and crude profession -- all in the face of what I'm sure was a skeptical readership. Among the many, many categories of stories there's the "More to X than you think is going on," and Chafets' piece is a premier example of it. I wonder if Limbaugh liked the story. I would hope he did because it's congratulatory and nuanced, i.e. "Even the Times, that liberal rag, recognizes my genius," but probably to keep up appearances, he tore it to shreds.