• The Chelsea, Now Hiring
  The New York Observer asks who would want to manage the hotel equivalent of ‘the quagmire in Iraq’?
  (tags: Hotel-Chelsea)

New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog warns Europeans that the more they cheer for Barack Obama, the greater the chance he will lose:

The Americans who would listen to the advice of Western Europe are the ones who listen to the BBC feed on NPR in the morning for their international news and opinion — in other words, the people who are already going to vote for Obama. The people who he is trying to win over at this very moment, as he campaigns in the red states, are the ones who will view a European endorsement as a total minus. Remember when there was a movement to rename French Fries “Freedom Fries” over here? Yeah, it’s those people who will be alienated by your support. Frankly, they think you’re a bunch of Socialist sissies.

Related:
Hey Europe, You Want to Get Barack Obama Elected? Then Shut Up (Daily Intel)

Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008)

Related:
Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79 (NYT)

• New Hints Seen That Red Wine May Slow Aging
  This one’s for you dad.

I have a travel story about turmoil at the famed Chelsea Hotel on guardian.co.uk.

I couldn’t have put the story together without the help of Ed Hamilton, who I first met a few years back when I wrote about the Hotel Chelsea blog. This is Ed in the 250 sq ft room he has occupied at the Chelsea for the past 13 years.

I had quite a time researching the story, popping in and out of apartments and meeting an array of characters. The resident who left the most impression, but who never made it into the story because of space, is a former singer-songwriter called Jann Paxton. Jann is very ill, suffering from cancer, he looked quite gaunt and would not allow me to take a photograph of him, hence the above picture of his dog Ginger.

Jann is among the Chelsea tenants currently threatened with eviction. As he told me, “I have nowhere to go…I wouldn’t even survive a night by myself on the streets.”

Related:
Chelsea Blues (Guardian.co.uk)
Living With Legends (Hotel Chelsea Blog)