There's a hidden curse to being a current or former top editor at the New York Times. Yes, you've held one of the most powerful positions in journalism. But who is going to edit you? Nobody, not very stringently, at least. So we find that when current or former NYT editors engage in writing for their paper, it often could have used a heavy round of editing, into the trashcan.

WaPo writer Anne Applebaum has emerged from her cocoon of Polish Secret Service agents to assure everyone that her car explosion yesterday was simple mechanical trouble, not an assassination attempt. (Are you writing under duress, Anne? Blink twice.) The details!

Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum is A) married to a high-ranking Polish politician, and B) critical of Russia's shady government, which makes it—in the most general way—kind of alarming that her car blew up yesterday. [Update: She's okay!]