The internets can be fun sometimes. Here’s a piece from Daily Intel.

Who’s Supporting Brooklyn Bound Obama?

Barack Obama is in Brooklyn for a fund-raiser tonight, and we were curious who — in addition to Caroline Giuliani, of course — might be turning out. So we looked to mybarackobama.com, where we discovered all sorts of affinity groups for supporters of the Illinois senator. There’s Burners for Barack (for Burning Man attendees) and Octogenarians for Obama (“We are never too old to back Barack”). There are groups for Final Fantasy fans (they plan to “fight back against the Shinra companies of our world” via Obama) and flight attendants vowing to harness their “unique ability to fly around easily” to spread the word. There are spiritualists and psychic mediums who “emphatically believe” that Barack’s the man for the job and Prince Fans for Obama, who believe he “upholds the ideals” of the singer and that “if Prince wasn’t apathetic towards voting due to his religion, he would vote for Barack Obama.” Ballers for Obama are planning three-on-three basketball tournaments to help raise cash for the campaign, and Canadians like him, even though they can’t vote. And then, of course, there’s NYC 4 Obama. “We have a lot of really serious supporters here as well,” insisted Molly Lombardi, spokesman for that group. —Janelle Nanos

New York Magazine’s Fall Fashion issue is out today – and looks gorgeous, naturally. In it is my item offering a bit of fashion advice for the folks over at Hearst:

Modesty Panic Grips Hearst Tower

The cascading glass escalators in the lobby of Norman Foster’s new Hearst Tower, which carry the ladies of Cosmopolitan, Town & Country, and Harper’s Bazaar to their offices, also offer a view up their skirts. Some editors were concerned enough that they warned members of their staff prone to wearing trendy mini-minidresses or ballooning short skirts to take care to keep their legs closed. “It’s the visitors that see the ‘view,’?” said one editor. “A lot of tourists walk in from the streets to see the building.” Other employees were more blasé. Says Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, “I know we’ve got some great views from Hearst Tower, but I was not aware of the one from the bottom of the escalators. We’ll have to add that to our docent notes. As for me, I don’t wear minis.” Besides, noted another editor, “I’m not sure it’s that much of a problem considering the fact that I can probably count the number of straight men who work in the building on one hand.”

Video

UPDATE: There’s been a lot of chatter about this piece on the web, and my dear friend Will pointed out that it made it’s way into a segment on NPR’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

Just home from an amazing day out in Red Hook, where I visited the Ball Fields and sampled the wares of the outdoor vendors, who have been cooking there for 30 years. Plainly put: Don’t eat breakfast, or maybe even dinner the night before. I’m stuffed. The tacos, papusas, grilled meats, empanadas, and cheviche were all incredible.

And hopefully they’ll be around for a while longer. As highlighted today in the Times and on Grub Street, first permit problems and now health code violations, are threatening the vendors.

From the Times:
“…there’s another very real threat to the taco scene in Red Hook: the Department of Health, which, according to a spokesperson, “only recently became aware that these vendors were operating” is now “working with the Department of Parks and Recreation and Red Hook food vendors to help assure the safety of the food prepared and sold at the Red Hook soccer fields.”

That the DOH claims not to have known about their existence is a bit hard to believe, but apparently inspectors will be visiting the park tomorrow to see if their requirements are being met. My fingers and theirs (in gloves preferably) are surely crossed that things work out ok.

My latest piece in the Times is just out, a great little story about the lifeguard who oversees New Jersey’s only nude beach.
SANDY HOOK, N.J. — In his 39 summers as a lifeguard at the Sandy Hook beach on the New Jersey shore, Tom McLaughlin has always had a fascinating vantage point from his stand.

When he started in 1969, he witnessed the ominous missile drills at the nearby Fort Hancock Army base. “You sort of hoped you wouldn’t see one go off,” he says. During the 1970s, he watched the World Trade Center towers grow floor by floor. He was there when female lifeguards became part of the crew and when mouth-to-mouth resuscitation became part of first-aid training. But it was with the creation of Gunnison Beach, the only clothing-optional section of New Jersey’s shoreline, that it became safe to say that Tom McLaughlin had seen everything.

“It’s really not that different from any other beach,” he says. “If you’re in need of being rescued, the last thing you’re thinking about is what you’re wearing.” Or not wearing, as the case may be.

Mr. McLaughlin got a summer job at age 16 and never left. Now 54 and a physics teacher in Holmdel, N.J., he has been the chief lifeguard at Sandy Hook for the last 26 years. Short in stature with a deep perpetual tan and a close-clipped sandy beard, he spends his summers training the rookies and overseeing the park’s five beaches, where the guards average 300 to 400 rescues a year.

On a recent Saturday, he stopped at Gunnison Beach to survey the scene. At this Eden with umbrellas, some of the naturists were engaged in an intense round of volleyball, while others happily lounged without the fear of tan lines. A new visitor approached and asked Mr. McLaughlin why everyone seemed to be on the right side of the beach.

“It’s clothing optional on that side of the signs,” he explained.

“So pretty much everyone is naked over there?” the visitor asked.

“You don’t have to be,” Mr. McLaughlin said, “but you can be if that’s your thing.”

An unofficial locale for naturists for decades, Gunnison got lifeguard patrols in the early 1990s, after Mr. McLaughlin and his staff found themselves rushing several hundred yards down the beach for rescues.

“We were responding to emergencies, although we were technically not guarding that section of the beach,” he says. Eventually, the park decided to have lifeguards work the clothing-optional section, precipitating a debate over whether the guards should be clothed while on duty.

“The lifeguards certainly wouldn’t be clothing-optional as employees of the National Park Service,” Mr. McLaughlin says. He says lifeguards have never had a problem with the nudity and rotate through the Gunnison post just like any other.

“It’s really not that different from any other beach,” Mr. McLaughlin says. “It becomes part of the job, and anyway, you’re looking at the water.”

In 1969, Tom McLaughlin, right, became a lifeguard at Sandy Hook, N.J. He is still there, and now so is his son Tom Jr., left.

[photos: Dith Pran/The New York Times]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/nyregion/31ink.html?ex=1187236800&en=ba0850c6e9a9e175&ei=5070