• On your marks...: Howard Wolfson, a senior advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton, says Mrs. C is getting ready to run for president. "She said before the election that after the election she would be considering a presidential run ... Part of that process is seeking the advice and counsel of her colleagues in New York." Part of that process is also having her looks evaluated (remember this?), this time by sneaky headline writers, like this one for the AP: "Clinton dogged by 'electability' questions."
• Editor missing: James Kim, a San Francisco-based editor of CNET, has been missing with his wife and two kids for over seven days. The family was last spotted on vacation in Portland, Oregon, and police and state troopers have been checking highways and hotels while the Oregon National Guard Air Unit is searching the sky.
• Fish in a barrel: Banksy, the wicked-clever British artist, has landed a sucker punch on a slow moving target: Michael Jackson. The new painting shows Jacko luring two innocent white children with a candy cane. Somehow an 18-year-old Jeff Koons sculpture feels more subversive.
• Wave of bad reviews: Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, is releasing his first album in 30 years, and he isn't coming to the publicity party empty-handed—he's telling for the first time the story of a Malibu swim and a little wave that pushed him toward Islam. The lameness of it is rivaled only by the album itself, critics say.
• Bullshit spill, aisle 12: Assuring that many a highly-flammable cheap stocking will be brimming with beef jerky and moon pies, modern day mining company Wal-Mart is extending an additional 10 percent discount to employees to curb their growing dissent over lousy treatment—while assuring they'll dump their measly disposable income right back into at Wal-Mart. Also, for those dedicated enough to work at Wal-Mart for 20 years, there's a sweet "special polo."