Alex Massie may think he’s the stupidest man on television, but the LA Times reports that Glenn Beck now has the third most-watched show on cable news. O’Reilly and Hannity are numbers one and two, but Beck is chasing. His two-month-old show has doubled Fox’s ratings in his time slot, recently attracting 2.2 million viewers–more than CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined. Beck’s take on all this: “I look at the ratings every day shocked.” Glenn, you are not alone.

What the el?: William Levin at the memorial to HARRY K DAGHllAN

On our way back from Vermont the other week, we took a detour via New lONDON, Connecticut, to visit a very SPECIAl place for a very SPECIAl man. BEHOlD, the abomination above! A stunning EXAMPlE of the misuse of lOWERCASE lETTERS in uppercase signage, and a final SlAP in the face to the first CASUAlTY of America’s quest for the atom bomb, “HARRY K DAGHllAN,” who died in a CRITICAl mass experiment gone awry.

lONGTIME readers of EiNY WIll be FAMIlIAR with my buddy WIllIAM’S lOWERCASE L obsession. I’ve had my eye out for such specimens ever since he lAUNCHED his BlOG a couple of years ago. But somehow, I never seem to find ones that meet his stringent criteria. My best-intentioned examples, sent via email, are usually rebuffed with lines like: “Thanks PAUl, but REAllY All the lETTERS should be uppercase, except the L.” Or “It’s good but, because the lOWERCASE L is SMAllER than the other lETTERS you can TEll it’s an L.” And so on. UNTIl the other week, when I came across this abomination on Broadway:

Which prompted the following email response:

Now THIS is a perfect lowercase L.

Success, at lAST.

Very, very sad news about the death of Bob Gusskind, whose Gowanus Lounge blog I have linked to from time to time. I only met Bob the once but we spoke and emailed about a number of stories. He was quite a guy and a very talented journalist and blogger. New York, particularly Brooklyn, will miss him. This from Brownstoner:

Swimming in the same small pond over this time, we got to know and and appreciate Bob for the passion with which he devoted himself to his subjects and his gentle-bear demeanor. While holding down a day job as a blogger for Curbed, Bob worked 16 hour days for years to publish his own blog, which was unequaled in its coverage and criticism of development and local issues in Coney Island, Gowanus, and Williamsburg. We are at a loss for words.

Death of a blogger — Robert Guskind, R.I.P. (The Brooklyn Paper)

Sofie and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, this week. Last year, we marked our anniversary by taking a trip to Costa Rica. This year, we decided to stay home and make full use of New York. We ate brunch at home, lunch at MoMA and dinner in the East Village. We window shopped in the diamond district and Tiffany’s (phew), had a glass of bubbly at the W in Union Square, watched one of the best movies I’ve seen in some time, and rounded off the evening in a local bar, which coincidentally happened to be celebrating its fourth birthday. In short, a magical day.

One of the many highlights was an exhibition by British photographer Paul Graham A Shimmer of Possibility at MoMA. The show is quite small (a pleasure in and of itself) and comprises images Graham took while traveling the US. The photographs are of very ordinary people and scenes – a crowd at a gas station, a man mowing the grass, a little girl playing in the street – and they are at once so beautiful and so melancholy that I did not know whether they made me love America more or want to get out of here as fast as possible. It certainly made me want to invest in a proper camera and hit the road.

I see some of Graham’s images are available online but the website does not do them any justice. If you’re in the city the next few months and stuck for something to do, go see this show.

A Shimmer of Possibility. (February 4–May 18, 2009) (MoMA)

This one from the department of great ideas. On Sunday, a British freelance journalist will set off on a round-the-world trip powered solely by Twitter. Paul Smith, the “Twitchhiker,” will only accept lifts, lodging and food from fellow Twitterers in his bid to get from Newcastle to New Zealand in 30 days. (What’s Twitter?) With more than 4,000 Twitterers following him already I’d say he has a pretty good chance of making it. He also has a wry, self-deprecating manner (as evidenced in the video interview with Web User, above) which should make his on-the-road reports even more entertaining. The following are his self-imposed rules:

The are five rules I have to follow throughout the 30 days. Obviously I’m at liberty to bend them if certain death or amputation will otherwise occur, but I’ll do my best to stick to them:

I can only accept offers of travel and accommodation on Twitter, from users who are following @twitchhiker
This means if a Twitterer’s sister’s boyfriend’s father has a spare train ticket, I can’t use it; the help has to come directly from the person using Twitter. This may be too restrictive, but I want to draw on the support of the Twitter community, not to use Twitter as a search engine to find third party services.

I can’t make any plans further than three days in advance
It’s entirely possible that before I begin this challenge, I could have my entire route pre-determined and that would be no fun at all. So unless an offer of transport or accommodation is made within 72 hours of it being applicable, I can’t accept it. Damn.

I can only spend money on food, drink and anything that might fit in my suitcase
All travel and accommodation must be offered to me through Twitter. If I can’t, then I’m sleeping rough.

If there’s more than one offer on the table, I get to choose which I take. If there’s only one, I have to take it within 48 hours.
I’m not entirely happy about this bit. If any part of this challenge is going to see me dead in a ditch or under a patio, it’s this part.

If I’m unable to find a way to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and I go home.
I hope my fellow Twitterers won’t let that happen.

Follow the Twitchhiker on his blog or better still on Twitter.