NP: David Bowie, Reality (CD)

I'll give you three guesses as to what New York Times op-ed columnist wrote this today.

It was impossible to believe before this week that if you had Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and Carmelo Anthony, with LeBron James coming in from the bench, that we couldn't beat any five guys in the world.

Not hugely insightful, sure, but at least somewhat accurate, unless you're actively follow basketball enough to see the glaring lack of role players, team players and perimeter shooters. And it's from Maureen Dowd.

On the subject of journalistic gender roles at the Times, her story on The Daily Show about how Tom Friedman would come into her office all upset and suggest going out and getting daquiris (what, Tom, no wine coolers?) wasn't entirely suprising. And you had to love Jon Stewart nearly falling out of his chair over it. I nearly did the same.

This, on the other hand, made me check that they hadn't accidentally put somebody else's story under Dowd's byline. And to be fair, this has absolutely nothing to do with her being a woman. It has to do with absolutely nothing I've read from her in the past couple of years indicating she'd know Carmelo Anthony from a Caramel Frappucino. Apparently I'm wrong on that count.

For the record, I'd be at least equally surprised --and probably moreso -- if Friedman had said the same thing. I'm just sayin'.