Justin Timberlake signs on as spokesmodel for Fidel Castro's new clothing line

Agrees to be paid in cigars and hookers.

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Linkworthy celebrity news

Celebrity gossip, thankfully, was not halted by the MTA strike:

Gwen Stefani is pregnant.
[Pink is the New Blog]

Suffering from low divorce approval ratings, Jessica Simpson takes a page from GWB and projects her mistakes onto someone else. And so, the Jessica-Nick PR battle has officially begun.
[Lowdown]

Britney Spears sues UsWeekly for refusing to retract a story that claims she and Kevin Federline made a sex tape and for some reason screened it for their lawyers who reacted in some combination of disgust and amusement.
[Popsugar]

Sarah Jessica Parker says, contrary to what Victoria Beckham would have you believe, it’s ok to stay fat after you give birth. Unfortunately, for the childless there is still no excuse.
[Hollywood Rag]

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MTA strike awesomeness links

Although my MTA strike commute stories are a little dull, there are plently of New Yorkers who have had a far more action-filled 24 hours. Here are some strike links:

A cabbie hit a woman in the face after an argument over the fare.
[NY Post]

The MTA won a court battle against the TWU yesterday, forcing them to pay a $1 million-per-day fine for every day they are on strike.
[Bloomberg]

Lines to get home via suburban commuter rails are kind of out of control. First you have to wait in line just to get into Penn Station and Grand Central Station, then, if you are not a regular commuter with a monthly pass, you have to wait in line (I have a friend who waited for almost two hours) to buy a ticket. Then you have to wait in another line to get onto the train. But I hear you might be able to get a refund for at least LIRR tickets purchased.
[1010 WINS News]

I will probably not win Gothamist’s Most Inconvenient Commute contest.

Just because there are no subways and you can't get home, that doesn't mean you won't have a place to sleep. Commuters can stay in Manhattan and have casual craigslist sex instead of hiking over the Manhattan Bridge.
[Gawker]

If you’d like to see a bunch of New Yorkers walking, you can check out The Strike in Pictures.
[7 Online]

New Yorkers have shifted their anger from the MTA to the TWU and have some pretty harsh things to say about transit workers and their union. Here is the Daily News’s sample of four letter word-less commuter commentary:
"As I'm walking, I hope they are walking [Transport Workers Union leader Roger] Toussaint to jail."
"The strike is extortion against everyone in New York, especially the riders, many of whom are worse off than the strikers.”
"This is not a big thing or a disaster or an attack. This is about a contract. I've got a contract, too. I'm honoring it. And you know what? I'm really, really cold."
Edward Ramos of Brooklyn called the transit workers "overpaid ingrates."
[NY Daily News]

Even Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling had to hit the pavement in NYC
[Popsugar]

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More MTA strike horror!!!

Although I did not do any more posts yesterday, I assure you I didn't do very much work. Here is my commute story for today:
Yesterday I WALKED to Barnes & Noble where I purchased a copy of OK! Magazine. Then I WALKED for like 20 minutes to a friend’s house. Then I went to Burger Heaven and seriously pigged out. Obviously I was exhausted after all this, so when we got home we sat on the couch and watched I Love the 90’s Part Deux and the last 30 minutes of Crash. Then I fell asleep. Today I WALKED for ANOTHER 21 1/2 minutes (I left in the minute and a half it took me to get a cup of coffee). But don’t cry for me. I’m not being any more brave than the rest of New York.

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MTA Strike

Sweet transit strike. I managed to make it into the city this morning, and I feel that as reward for not opting to stay home and watch soap operas all day, I don't have to do any work.

I'm a little disappointed that I don't have any tales of hardship and struggle commuting to work. I walked from 1st Street & 7th Ave to Flatbush Ave & 7th avenue (10 whole minutes!) where I was picked up by a co-worker and dropped off right in front of my office. But I did have to wait in line at the Connecticut Muffin Company for an apple muffin and a stroller almost ran into me. Anyway, I'll try to post a few times today to keep us all entertained.

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MTA history lesson

I'm way bummed about the TWU possibly going on strike in a couple of days. Pretty much the only things keeping me going are NY1's constant coverage on the MTA-TWU 'talks' and NY1 heartthrob Bobby Cuza (*sigh*) reading updates from his Blackberry. Sometimes, in between the 20 minute news loops, NY1 inserts some special coverage. Today, instead of showing the same video of people walking over the Brooklyn Bridge during the 1980 strike, they gave us a little history lesson. Here is what I learned:

In 1895, Brooklyn street trolley operators went on strike. At the time, trolley operators made about $1.50 per day and their wages were determined by how many hours the trolleys spent in motion, not how long they were actually working. Apparently conditions were so bad for trolley operators that in order for them to complete their runs, they frequently had to exceed the trolley speed limit, making it so difficult for Brooklynites to cross the streets that "trolley dodging" became kind of a sport in the borough (sort of like bullet dodging and crack dealer dodging in the 80's), and that is where the name the Brooklyn (trolley) Dodgers came from. That is some interesting shit.

Who else wants to kick George Pataki and Peter Kalikow in the nuts?

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Poll

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Jessica/Joe Simpson still working the divorce PR

After officially filing for divorce, Jessica Simpson reportedly burst into tears while singing "What Child is This?" at a private concert in Cincinnati. She was also sporting her wedding ring on a necklace. Would a heartless slut earn her soon-to-be ex-husband $425,000 and have a public emotional break while singing a Christmas song? No. Only a heartbroken preacher's daughter slut would do that.

[National Ledger]
{Source}

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Celebrity humanitarianism is Time Magazine's Person of the Year

Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates, wealthy public figures who have positively affected the lives of millions of people around the world, were named Time's Persons of the Year. They beat out Mother Nature, which had a slightly less positive impact on millions of lives in 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who negatively affected me by a few hundred dollars this year, and some other people whom I had never heard of and had to Google. Actually, I think the Google guys made the list. Google is the winner in my book, because without it I'd have no idea that Bono did anything more than sell black and red iPods and that Bill Gates was married.

[Reuters]

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