Guess what? The New York Times is super proud of TimesSelect, that whopping success for which 218,000 (hey, that's .0007% of the U.S. population! Uh, if our math is good!) have signed up. We know this because they're trotting out Editorial Page Editor Andy Rosenthal to do a dog and pony show in today's Observer. Andy is beaming about the assload of contributors he's signed up to offer web-only content (Stanley Fish, Will Leitch, the dude who played guitar for former Bad Company lead singer Paul Rodgers during the recent Queen reunion tour). And blogs? They've got TONS of blogs! They've got blogs about blogs!

The Great White Way will never be the same: In an exclusive interview, Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, told EW.com that the psych-rock band will team up with acclaimed TV writer and show creator Aaron Sorkin to turn the group's 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots into a Broadway musical.

They may be pinching pennies when it comes to paper and pens, but MTV Networks isn't afraid to toss around the big bucks for the things that matter. The company just announced the newest recipients of its Labs Seed Money - "tax-free grants awarded to MTV Networks employees to further their private creative work" - and one of the lucky winners happens to be Ryan Kitson of Nickelodeon Creative Resources, who was given five grand to

We were forwarded the following e-mail about an upcoming Paula Zahn special that was too good not to share:

And now let's get back to the serious questions affecting this country: questions about Anderson Cooper's sexual orientation.

Yesterday we yelled at the seemingly boneheaded marketers who sent an email about a Rose Bowl trip sweepstakes offer to the erudite deep thinkers who subscribe to the New Yorker. "When was the last time you think a New Yorker reader watched the Rose Bowl, let alone wanted to go to it?" We were wrong again, though — and a reader helpfully corrected us.

So have you seen those Versus ads around town? Two blank spaces in which you're supposed to write your own opposing teams or whatever? (We're not quite sure, which is not a good thing for an ad campaign, is it?) Anyway, as the picture above demonstrates, some ideas are best left unapproved.

Galleycat brings word of a forthcoming children's book by Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens. Owens - who did not try to kill himself, no matter what his publicist tells you - has "authored" a rhyming story about sharing. That's right, the most self-centered player in football is going to teach your children "the lessons he didn't learn as a child (and has had to painfully acquire as an adult)." Works for us! We're also looking forward to Dave Meggett's big board book about personal relationships.

Good news for fans of Roger Toussaint, the Transit Workers Union president who had us all walking through the snow last winter: Roger's currently engaged in a heated re-election battle, and, in a bid to raise funds, he's selling autographed photos at $2 a pop.

Seems like not everyone was pleased with that News & Observer decision to warn readers about the internal Michelangelo nudity , including many of the reporters who forwarded us the following note from Public Editor Ted Vaden's internal blog:

Maybe next time they could show the Twin Towers as a pair of spread legs. That might be slightly more tasteful.

Breaking from AdAge:

Sometimes a story comes along that's so rife with implications for culture and our society and general that we can't help but tease out all its subtleties, examining every strand and offering our own prescriptions and commentary.

• Newspapers are packaging free CDs with each copy in an attempt to reach younger readers. Because that's what kids are into these days, CDs. This industry deserves to die. [LAT]
• Bloodbath at VNU. Yeah, us either. Apparently they put out Billboard or something. [Mediaweek]
• Cond Nast flack says don't call them a magazine company: "We're a company that provides content." Sure. Related: Gawker Media is not a blog company. We're an organization provides gratuitous use of the word "douchebag." [NYT]
• AOL fuckup. No, not the merger. [Reuters]

While we have a propensity to mock journalists on this site, let it be known that there are some dedicated, professional people who are willing to put their lives on the line in pursuit of the public's right to know. What, for instance, happens if you sit in a hot car for too long? Yesterday, the stalwart correspondents at Good Morning America investigated. The results... may surprise you.

Working on the assumption that there's nothing you'd rather have your product associated with than a pile of puke, the marketing innovators at US Airways have announced plans to start selling space on their air-sickness receptacles, or, as they are more commonly known, barf bags. We're of the belief that this is a bad idea for a variety of reasons, but none more so than the initial campaign, a prototype of which we were able to obtain and now share with you.

After an outrageous attempt at price gouging that rivaled even the purchase of the painting itself, the Neue Galerie has aborted its plan to charge fifty bucks a pop to see the Klimt recently acquired by Ron Lauder for $135 million. The Galerie - or, as we like to call it, gallery - had envisioned the plan as an opportunity for the public "to come on Wednesdays for $50, when it would be less crowded." But after an Associated Press piece mentioned the new pricing structure, Neue cancelled the idea, "saying the offer was misread by the public."

Either Katrina Vanden Heuvel is fucking with Dan Rather or she's got a deep-seated personal desire to see him come to harm. Her advice for the disgraced former CBS anchor?

You're smart and hip, right? The kind of person whom your friends ask about the latest restaurants, what movies to see, or how to invest their 401ks? Of course you are. Well, whether you know it or not, you're an "Opinion Driver," and there's a new online community for you! It's called HOTSOUP.com (notice how the all caps lend an extra sense of urgency), and it comes from a vast collection of "high-profile leaders from the worlds of politics, media, and technology." Who are these high-profile leaders? Well, there's some of the guys who almost got the vice president of one of last century's most successful administrations elected in his own right, but, uh, didn't. You've got some Bush ad people, who were responsible for that all-time classic commercial where wolves were going to eat your family if you voted for John Kerry. You've got a guy who advised the Kerry campaign, which means he actually got beat by the hungry wolves ad. And, on the tech side, you've got the president of some social networking site for ladies called sisterwoman.com (presumably because auntbroad.com was alreadytaken).

Unless you're some kind of political junkie or a member of his family, you've probably never heard of Tom Suozzi. The piece of rampant dumbassery you see here you provides a pretty good clue as to why. Suozzi is challenging Eliot Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor. As The Times reports, "Suozzi campaign aides passed out a set of 10 slick baseball cards that resemble the kind that came wrapped in wax paper with a hard stick of bubblegum. Instead of batting averages, the back of the cards list things like how much money lobbyists have forked over to Mr. Spitzer's campaign." Now, we're not political consultants, but we're gonna guess that maybe putting a picture of your opponent standing in front of a flag under giant letters screaming "All-Star" might not be the most effective use of your campaign cash. We'd say the guy's too stupid to be governor, but, you know, look at the rocket scientist that's been up there the last twelve years.