• Is Rupert Murdoch losing it? Surprisingly, a rival paper thinks yes. [Telegraph U.K.]
  

We have to give Charmin's marketing dept their propers. Their ads — the ones with the bears merrily traipsing off to shit in the woods — have always been our favorite because they link toilet paper to its actual purpose, whereas all the other TP companies tend to show people rubbing cottony-soft squares against their (facial) cheeks and pouring blue water on them and stuff. If an alien that didn't poop came to our planet, it would have no clue what toilet paper was actually for if it wasn't for Charmin. And today, we learn from the Times that they're engaging a kind of sweet promotional stunt: intalling a 20-seat temporary lavatory in Times Square, just in time for the onslaught of Pumpkin Spice Latte-full holiday shopper tourists. Way to go, Charmin!

"Money can't buy you happiness...but it can buy you a boat big enough pull up right alongside it." - David Lee Roth

Today's Times brings news of a classic brand's renovation:

"The Ethicist" is Randy Cohen's long-running advice column in the New York Times. Each week, Gabriel Delahaye's "The Unethicist" will answer the same questions as "The Ethicist," with obvious differences.

Remember those bygone days traipsing around Europe, when the only way of getting news from the English-speaking world was to pick up a copy of the International Herald Tribune? Yeah, we barely remember those days either. Now they're even more bygone, according to our tipster, who sends word that the words "International Herald Tribune" will no longer appear under the bylines of IHT writers whose work appears on the NYT's website. Somewhere, Jean Seberg and her IHT-hawking ways are crying a little bit, inside. The memo after the jump.

The Times, which has been pooping out blogs with the celerity of a contestant in a speed-shitting contest, farts out a new one today. It's The Lede, and here's what it's about:

Noted Amazon sockpuppet Alex K's Critical Shopper column contains a revelation: Alex isn't too classy to shop at H&M! Okay, she is. But she can stomach it for a little while if she wears earplugs. So she pops them in and prepares to brave the commoners and the distasteful smell of souvlaki. After all, she has a very important purchase in her sights:

• Jeff Zucker may take over for Bob Wright as head of NBC by the end of the year. Honestly, you get the feeling that Zucker could rip the head off a transgendered prostitute and skullfuck it in the middle of a board meeting and he'd still get promoted. [NYP]
  

• Washington Post shrinking. Yes, yes, "tightening up the paper's news hole," is a funny phrase. [WaPo
  

Yesterday we alerted you to the NYT article about pussy-ass suburban parents whose pussy-ass kids couldn't hack it in big, bad rich suburban public schools, and who fled to even more pussy-ass private schools. One example the Times highlighted rang a faint bell—it was about a woman named Stephanie Percy who took her kid out of public school and placed her at Claremont Preparatory School, a private school in NYC. Hmm, where did we hear about that school before? Oh, that's right, in NY Mag's story about struggling private schools.

"The Ethicist" is Randy Cohen's long-running advice column in the New York Times. Each week, Gabriel Delahaye's "The Unethicist" will answer the same questions as "The Ethicist," with obvious differences.

The Times takes a look at Bill Maher's recent appearance on Larry King, where

A reader writes:

• Yep, it's true: Time cuts its rate base, tries to convince advertisers that people pass issues on to friends. Be real, Stengel: Those nursing homes only get one copy each week. [NYT]
  

• Morgan Stanley continues to slap Sulzberger around. [NYP]
  

Dow Jones in reporting that:

Times dining critic Frank Bruni starts his review of Lincoln Center cheeseateria Picholine with a recollection of a previous visit :

• Bill Keller, everyone he knows, disagrees with NYT ombudsman (sorry, "Public Editor") Byron "Barney" Calame on banking story. [NYT]
  

"The Ethicist" is Randy Cohen's long-running advice column in the New York Times. Each week, Gabriel Delahaye's "The Unethicist" will answer the same questions as "The Ethicist," with obvious differences.