I always swore never to blog while drunk. But I have a very busy day ahead tomorrow. And if not now, when?

Tonight, thanks to my friend Jen, I attended the farewell party for the New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street. The Times has occupied the building for almost 100 years. And it was a delight to watch the staff partying among the desks in the now vacant newsroom.

it was a little sad too. I only got to visit the building a few times since I arrived in New York. But the rooms definitely had a certain aura about them. The place just oozed news. In a hundred years will the new building feel the same? Probably.

It was also great to see my friend Nick (left) who splits his time between the Times’ research and development department and the news department. I knew Nick growing up in Leeds. But we hadn’t seen each other for about 15 years until we met up the other week via Facebook. Nick and his colleague Michael (pictured with Michael’s wife Kim) flew to England last week where they competed in Hack Day London.

Nick and Michael took on hundreds of developers from companies such as IBM and Google to design a new web mashup in just a couple of days. Apparently they were up until four in the morning putting the finishing touches to their application called Shifd, which syncs a computer and a cell phone. Not only is Shifd a brilliant idea. It also won first place.

A Brooklyn Lad is basking in the rays of a little schadenfreude. (I suppose by posting this, I am too.)

If New York’s mayor was in the Sopranos he’d probably be called Mikey “Deadpan” Bloomberg. Today, when a reporter asked under what conditions he might run for president, Bloomberg replied:

If everyone in the world was dead and I was the only one alive? Sure.

Is Labour peer Lord Ahmed potty? In what way has Salman Rushdie got blood on his hands for writing the Satanic Verses? If he bothered to look at it from a different angle, perhaps Lord Ahmed should be asking questions of the lunatics who react with violence at the publication of a book (or a cartoon for that matter):

Labour’s Lord Ahmed expressed surprise at the decision to give a knighthood to Rushdie, who was placed under a fatwa, or death sentence, by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini 18 years ago after the publication of the allegedly blasphemous The Satanic Verses.

“I was appalled to hear Salman Rushdie had been given a knighthood,” Lord Ahmed said.

“Two weeks ago the Prime Minister was calling for building relations between the Muslim world and Britain, then suddenly this knighthood is given to a man who has not only been abusive to Muslims, but also to Christians – because he used abusive language towards Jesus Christ.”

He said whoever had made the decision had made Gordon Brown’s job very difficult as he takes over as Prime Minister.

“The confidence that was being built within Britain with inter-faith work and community cohesion work has once again been damaged because of this provocative decision.

“This man not only provoked violence around the world because of his writings, but there were many people who were killed around the world.

“Forgiving and forgetting is one thing, but honouring the man who has blood on his hands, sort of, because of what he did, I think is going a bit too far.”

Meanwhile, in Tehran, the thoroughly reasonable members of the Iranian parliament reacted with typical calm and restraint:

…officials of a group called The Organisation to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Muslim World said a £80,000 reward should be paid to anyone ‘who was able to execute the apostate Salman Rushdie’.

Forouz Rajaefar, the general secretary, said that the decision to honour Rushdie with a knight-hood demonstrated the animosity of Britain towards Islam.

He added: “The British and the supporters of the anti-Islam Salman Rushdie could rest assured that the writer’s nightmare will not end until the moment of his death and we will bestow kisses on the hands of whomsoever is able to execute this apostate.”

Iranian MP Mehdi Kuchakzadeh declared: “Rushdie died the moment the late Imam (Khomeini) issued the fatwa.

“It would be a hollow dream for the Queen of England to think that with such a move she could revive one of her mercenaries to oppose Islam. Granting a knighthood to Salman Rushdie will only lead to further hatred towards Britain.”

Just when you thought they couldn’t hate you any more..

If we tickle them back, do you think they’ll forgive us?