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Anyone Notice Anything … Magical About the Cover of Bob Woodward?s New Book?
Finally! A name and a face for Bob Woodward’s hotly anticipated new Obama book. According to an announcement by Simon & Schuster this afternoon, the book will be titled Obama’s Wars and focus on the president’s foreign policy, particularly his military strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Its cover does not, unfortunately, suggest the same severity and gravitas as the aforementioned prospectus. (As the idiom goes, let’s hope prospective buyers will judge the book by its content—or at least the outsize reputation of its author—rather than by its cover.) After spending several minutes attempting to deduce whether the alleged cover posted on The Washington Post’s Web site was not a terribly Photoshopped practical joke, we eventually convinced ourselves of its veracity after reading that the Associated Press was also vouching for its legitimacy. Still, is this not more disturbing than if the media were just momentarily misled by a dummy cover? How could no one at Simon & Schuster have noticed the similarity with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

Know Your Washington Power Residences!
This week?s New Yorker features a sketch of C Street House, the shared Washington, D.C., residence of many of Congress?s most high-profile Christians. In the piece, staff writer Peter Boyer reveals house rituals, residents, and reforms, and discusses the scandal that threatened to tear C Street asunder. Careful observers of contemporary urban studies will note that the theologically inclined town house is hardly unique among the capital?s roster of multi-V.I.P. residences. For example, a cadre of Democratic politicians?including Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin?populated another Washington home, while Matt Yglesias and Spencer Ackerman once shared their digs with a pack of progressive bloggers. Here, we contrast C Street House, the blogger-infused Flophouse, and an unnamed Democrat-dominated two-bedroom row house.

The C.E.O. Candidates: Class of 2012?
Today?s Wall Street Journal examines the phenomenon of the chief executive candidate: the enterprising businessmen and women who forsake capitalism for the campaign trail. ?A hunger for fresh faces, especially among Republicans, has propelled a bumper crop of novice politicians into the electoral fray,? the Journal reports. ?Prominent among the rookies are several CEO candidates running on their business resumes.? Recall the recent primary victories of former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O./Republican senate nominee Carly Fiorina, former eBay C.E.O./Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, and health-care executive/Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. Will 2012 become a banner year for business barons? Taking our cues from the Vanity Fair 2010 New Establishment list, we drafted a troupe of potential politicos from the pool of powers-that-be.

A Spiegeltent in London
Emma Divine, one of the performers at this year?s Greenwich Comedy Festival, inside Le Moulin Rouge, an original Belgian Spiegeltent. By Andy Hall. You may scour in vain the world?s (other) great journals of record for a notice commemorating the birth, exactly 100 years ago this week, of a tent. You read it here first. This is not any old tent. Marlene Dietrich once sang in this tent. (Probably. Well, maybe. And even if she didn?t, she should?ve.) Think low lights, stained glass, and thousands of tiny trick mirrors. There are great engorged folds of velveteen above, groaning wooden floorboards below, and cozy little gas-lit booths, a well-stocked bar, and all manner of human loucheness in between. Such tents are known as Spiegeltents?Spiegel means "mirror" in Flemish, and the point of all the mirrors is to facilitate flirty eye contact with strangers. Spiegeltents, along with chocolate and Tintin, are one of Belgium?s great contributions to world culture. They began to appear around the turn of the 20th century as portable dance halls that would pop up overnight in pre-war fields in Flanders. They have enjoyed something of a revival on the international festival circuit in recent years, no doubt partly because of their suitability for racy cabaret and burlesque shows.

Quiz: Loch Ness Monster or Joaquin Phoenix Documentary?
Photo by Sam Fentress. Illustration by Juli Weiner.Yesterday marked the premiere of I'm Still Here, the Casey Affleck–helmed documentary about the life and times of banal malcontent Joaquin Phoenix. Debate about the veracity of the film has raged—simmered, really—since January 2009, when Affleck announced he would be chronicling the trajectory of Phoenix’s ill-fated rap career. The project achieved infamy one month later when Phoenix, in a state so altered he was nearly unrecognizable, cannily misbehaved during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Many cultural critics wrote the entire enterprise off as a sophomoric piece of performance art; others believed Phoenix really had lost it. Now, upon finally seeing the film, viewers are just as confused—if not more so—about the genesis and nature of Phoenix’s fall. Verily, it has become a great mystery of our time! So great, in fact, that the debate now mirrors that surrounding another one of our era’s contested (rumored!) hoaxes, the Loch Ness monster. See if you can tell whether the following descriptions refer to I'm Still Here or Nessy, illustrious sea beast.

I Can Tell You About Steven Rattner?s Tell-All
Steven Rattner, the onetime New York Times reporter, former investment banker, would-be private equity media mogul, Hillary Clinton mega-fundraiser, and Treasury secretary-in-waiting, who became the stoic-but-obviously-disappointed Obama administration almost-car Tsar, and who is now being investigated by the SEC and the New York state attorney general for a kickback scheme involving his old firm, has written a tell-all about his brief time in the Obama administration helping to rescue the American automobile industry. It is being billed as the first Obama insider account, a record of privates chats and a participant?s view of public events. Well … several years ago, I wrote a tell-all (or anyway, what I had to tell) about the media business, and part of what I had to tell was about Steven Rattner?who reacted like a stuck pig. This column is not, per se, about Rattner?s book, which, from the snippets in circulation, seems readable and appropriately insiderish; nor about his performance as almost-car Tsar, which, judging by the apparent rebirth of GM, seems successful; nor about his complicated (to say the least) reputation. It?s about writing invasive books about powerful people. Continue Reading at Newser.com »

What We Talk About When We Talk About Not Talking About the Mosque
Proposed mosque site. Photo by Haley Cohen.New York governor David Paterson has requested that the media stay mum on the mosque this week. ?I propose that perhaps in light of the fact that Rosh Hashanah is this week, the Jewish New Year, that the celebration of Ramadan is coming at the end of the week and that we should all be focused on our concern to those who lost relatives [on] September 11,? he told reporters. Despite the spiritual significance of the start of September, the date is also that much closer to November?s midterm elections, one of the high holy days of the political calendar. It would be unsurprising and understandable if elected officials (and those hoping to replace them) did not share the lame duck governor?s desire to quell talk about one of the summer?s most contentious concerns.

If This Link Says ?Tiger Woods,? You Are More Likely to Click It, Reports The Washington Post
? S.E.OMG!: Articles about Lady Gaga and Tiger Woods often receive more Web traffic than those about Republican primary senate races. [The Washington Post] ? President Obama has requested that Congress funnel $50 billion into the repair of America?s crumbling transportation infrastructure. [Bloomberg Businessweek] ? Yesterday Peter Orszag made his New York Times debut: the former Office of Management and Budget director?s inaugural column argued in favor of (briefly) extending George W. Bush?s tax cuts. [The New York Times] ? John Lennon?s assassin, Mark David Chapman, is up for parole next month. He has been up for parole every two years since 2000 and has been denied each time. [CNN] ? After 13 years, David Westin has stepped down as president of ABC News. His announcement about the resignation came in the form of an e-mail. Subject line? ?Transitions?, naturally. [Politico]

Q&A: Michael Lewis Talks About the Banks That Brought Down Greece
Photograph by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson. In the October issue of Vanity Fair, Michael Lewis investigates the cause of the Greek financial crisis, one that translates to nearly a quarter-million dollars for each working Greek citizen. In V.F.’s April 2009 issue, Lewis examined the financial disaster in Iceland, winning Loeb and Overseas Press Club awards for his report. Lewis differentiates the two crises in this month’s article, writing, “In Greece the banks didn’t sink the country. The country sank the banks.” Aside from rampant tax fraud, nefarious number crunching by the Greek government, and more than one riot, Lewis found an affable group of monks living on a peninsula in northeastern Greece. The Vatopaidi order has been the recipient of much of the Greek outrage and the center of a parliamentary inquiry into its real-estate empire, which some speculate to be worth more than $1 billion. Lewis spoke with VF Daily about how Greece is the Pittsburgh Pirates of Europe, why Germany has the right to be self-righteous (for once), and why he is betting against the U.S. Treasury.

Crouching Duck, Hidden Draper: Mad Men Season 4, Episode 7
In theater, they?re known as ?two-handers?--a showcase duet for a pair of top-notch actors whose characters may initially represent a power imbalance, a different weight of experience or social ranking. Whether it?s teacher and student (Educating Rita), artist and acolyte (the recent Red), or mentor-guru and protege (Collected Stories, revived with Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson [Lavin?s role was originated by Uta Hagen]), shared confidences and bared resentments set up an intimate, tight-spaced dialectic--a sparring match that can escalate into a knock-down drag-out. So it couldn?t have been more apt for last night?s Mad Men to be set on the night of the momentous Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston championship fight...

Why Is Going the Distance Rated R? (And 24 Other Urgent Questions)
On-again, off-again sweethearts, Justin Long and Drew Barrymore, co-star in this weekend?s new romantic comedy, Going the Distance. This surprisingly raunchy film deserves its R rating, but is it actually funny? Should we waste 109 of our 4,320 Labor Day weekend minutes watching Going the Distance? As a service, we answer every question that you could possibly have about Going the Distance. Q: Is Going the Distance the long-awaited biography of the 1990s alternative rock band Cake? A: No. It?s a movie about a long-distance relationship between Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long).

Your Expanding Lexicon: Meet This Week?s Additions to the Vernacular
For your edification, a look back at the phrases, nouns, and neologisms that have, for better or for worse, shaped the week?s national discourse.

Does Robert Rodriguez?s Machete Have a Hidden Agenda?
Robert Rodriguez?s new film, Machete, knife-fights its way into theaters this weekend, leaving behind a gratuitous trail of carnage and scantily clad ladies. The Mexploitation masterpiece promises to sate fans? rabid enthusiasm for the fake trailer first seen in Grindhouse and answer such burning questions as where to hide a cell phone on a naked woman, how to mount a Gatling gun on a motorcycle, and who?d win in a knife fight: Danny Trejo or Steven Seagal. Yet despite Machete?s unabashed absurdity, the story kind of makes you think Rodriguez might be inciting a lowrider revolución. The film portrays a network of day laborers?led by a gorgeous taco-truck revolutionary named Shé?that stand ready at a moment?s notice to pick up their gardening sheers (and AK-47s) to revolt against the persecution of nativist politicos and gabacho vigilantes. The political iconography is so overt that amid all the explosions, blood, and lethal cutlery, you can?t help but wonder if Machete might have an agenda. Intrigued by this line of thought, we called Michelle Rodriguez, who plays Shé, to see if the country-club set should keep a closer eye on their groundskeepers.

On the Occasion of Hillary Clinton?s 2012-Campaign Kick-Off, We Remember the Greatest Hillary Ad of All Time
Despite the lack of willingness from the candidate herself, Hillary Clinton?s 2012 presidential campaign is off to an auspicious start! Above is the nascent movement?s first television ad, which aired Wednesday in New Orleans. We know what you are thinking: This campaign needs a slogan, and not just a catchy clause, but something I can trust, something like a mix of complete and incomplete sentences. Well! You, unlike Hillary Clinton?s 2008 campaign, are in luck: ?Hillary 2012: Hillary Clinton for President. Start now. Where there?s a Hill there?s a way? appears to be the official tagline. The commercial is the brainchild of one William DeJean, a Chicago dentist who fears for America?s future. ?I?m a dentist and I don?t think this country is headed in the right direction,? Dr. DeJean, D.D.S. told CNN yesterday. (This ad, he?s implying, is the right direction.) In addition to New Orleans, the spot? which somehow cost $5,000 to create?will run in ?Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, and possible [sic] Houston,? according to DeJean. The greatest Hillary Clinton presidential ad of all time, however, did not air on television?except, perhaps, on a news segment discussing the ironic roots of its Internet infamy?and we cannot imagine costs of production exceeding $500, let alone $5,000. Do you know the video of which we speak?

Another Oil Platform Explosion in the Gulf
? Another oil platform exploded in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana yesterday. Thankfully, there was no oil leak and no one was killed. [AP] ? Miami International Airport was evacuated this morning after officials spotted a suspicious package in a checked bag. [Huff Post] ? The government?s Cash for Clunkers plan boosted sales for the two months it was in place and ultimately failed to bring new buyers into the market. [NPR] ? 54,000 jobs were lost in America in August and the unemployment rate rose from 9.5 percent to 9.6 percent. [New York Times] ? The eye of Hurricane Earl passed around 90 miles off the coast of the Outer Banks last night. [Washington Post]