Nov. 14

--...[the dollar] has fallen on such hard times .. that even rap moguls are turning on it. In the video for his new song "Blue Magic" (off an album called "American Gangster" no less) Jay-Z can be seen flashing stacks of euos. On the official Web site for Wu-Tang Clan, the New York rappers who coined hte phrase "dolla dolla bill, yall," the group lists its new CD price in euros only. NEWSWEEK, Nov. 19, 2007 p. 14

--Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.—NYT A1, Nov. 12, 2007

--But even those who hailed absinthe saw unsettling shadows. Wilde explained: “After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”