Bash first, read later (or never)

On the western side of the Atlantic, we encounter the increasingly prevalent opinion that when Dubya outlined his axis of evil, he forgot to include the New York Times. And we have a few bloggers who thus never lose a chance, any chance, to criticize the paper and its recently married editor, Howell Raines. But sometimes the critics reach so much, they stretch the logic even more than Dubya stretched UN Resolution 1441. Take Mickey Kaus, who in the course of linking to a Washington Post article about the fine rapper 50 Cent, cites it as the kind of thing you'd never see in the NYT. But (perhaps unlike Mickey), we've actually read the Post article, and it's basically about how 50 showed up late for a concert, had a large retinue in SUVs, sang a few songs, and then was gone. The crowd loved it all. Which jogged our memories...hadn't we just read a similar article in the NYT? Indeed we had. [Feb 28 by Kelefa Sanneh in the paper edition]. The NYT piece is shorter and better. Mickey seemed to be looking for a white guy's guide to 50 Cent in the Post piece and we don't see that. So let's help him out a bit. Take the following couplet from In Da Club

We're going to party like it's your birthday
Sip Bacardi like it's your birthday

Note (besides my grammatical adjustments) the key elements: references to partying, clever multiple rhymes, and a shout-out to brand-name liquor. And in this text format, we can't communicate the brilliant beats. So Mickey, go watch the video. MTV is channel 27 on your cable (2 up from your favourite channel).