Aliens, The Value of $4.50, And There Needs To Be A Word for the Opposite of "Selling Out"

No, Alex... YOU'RE so beautiful.

1. The Supreme Court is reviewing an appeal to an Arizonian case that might be significant to state insanity laws. Eric Clark, 17 and schizophrenic, thought he was being chased by aliens when he shot and killed a police officer 6 years ago, and since, has been sentenced to life in prison. Clark's lawyer appealed, saying his client was "guilty except insane" and should be sent to a psychiatric ward. That is now my official excuse/annoying catch-phrase for everything. (CNN)

2. Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise welcomed a new baby girl to their "family" yesterday. They have named her "Suri," which means "princess" in Hebrew or "red rose" in Persian or "freakish Martian baby" to everyone else. (The Age)

3. The Gulf Station under the Brooklyn Bridge is now charging $4.50 a gallon for premium gas, $4.26 for regular. In case you don't know what $4.50 means, the Daily News also reports that amount can get you a Lager at the Lighthouse Tavern, a hot dog and large soda at Nathan's, a ride past the Triborough Bridget, and a pair of Old Navy flip-flops for men. It's good to know there are still newspapers out there for lobotomized victims, which coincidentally is the paper that I've been assigned to at work.

4. On the same day the TomKat spawn emerged, Brook Shields delivered her own by the name of Grier Hammond Henchy. Both her and Tom's babies are bizarrely identical in height and weight, respectively 20 inches and 7 pounds. It's so movie-delicious: two babies born on the same day, one is evil, and one is good...but which one?... Well, perhaps the ending is a dead give-away, but it's in the same vein as all the rest of those religiousy movies. (Chicago Tribune)

5. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn lashed out against Wal-Mart as a NYC resident yesterday at Crain's NY Business Breakfast, saying, "Wal-Mart has a record as a bad corporate citizen. I think it's been well-documented across the country that they are not a responsible member of of our corporate community in this country," citing the company's inadequate health insurance for its employees. Wal-Mart Senior Manager of Public Affairs Philip Serghini took offense naturally and brilliantly defended itself with, “We do offer health benefits, and the bottom line is New Yorkers want the option to choose at Wal-Mart.“ The chain is attempting to open in all five boroughs. Can't we play nice and make it go away with Staten Island? (NY1)

6. In making up for its P2P move, giving White Stripes and Coke the hand, and making the band all the more awesome on the whole, Franz Ferdinand turned down an unnamed American company for a $50 million dollar ad campaign. Alex Kapranos comments,

"It would have meant we sold four times as many copies of the [new] album, just from the extra exposure it would have got. But the advert meant we had to completely surrender all of our identity and integrity to this product that was being advertised... It wasn’t ... Coca Cola or anything like that. It was just a thing that needed some music associated with it.”

Uh... at least I thought they weren't going to pull a White Stripes. (Ad Freak)