Singing in the shower

The New York Times last week ran a story entitled Tiger Beat: Still Squeaky Clean After All These Years, about a tweenybopper magazine. (The news angle is that the magazine hasn't gone raunchy, good grief.) Among the covers that illustrated the story was this one, featuring the president as a slumber party idol. One can understand why the NYT thought this was perfectly in order; after all, it loves Mr. Obama the way twelve-year-old girls loved the Beatles. But in fact the cover was a spoof by the Onion. Isn't it wonderful that what brings tears of laughter to consumers of a satirical online magazine causes the oldsters of the NYT to nod their heads solemnly over their chablis? (The newspaper has since run a correction, and has removed the bogus cover from the website.) Blue skies! -- Dan Ford