¶ Matins: Can’t make a difference? Do like Luis Soriano, the librarian with “4800 books on ten legs.” At least figure out how to get the man another burro and a few hundred extra books.

¶ Tierce: Best cheeky story in today’s Times: Stephanie Clifford reports on Ivanka Trump’s latest venture, a collaboration with ConAgra in which the entreprenootsie plugs prepared lunches that will last for up to a year in your desk drawer. No refrigeration required! “Office Workers, Ivanka Trump Is Thinking of You.” Yeah, sure.

¶ Sext: Another chapter of the terrible and unnecessary collateral damage of drug-prohibition: Mexican children coarsened by gangland slaughter. Marc Lacey reports.

¶ Compline: Bird & Fortune explain it all to you: Chronicle of the crash foretold:. But people were laughing then, way back in 2007.

Oremus…

§ Matins. And then look around at all the books you’ve got at home. (It’s safe to say that, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve got too many books; and if you don’t, let me know.)

§ Tierce. Here comes the fun:

While it is difficult to imagine the former model lunching on processed chicken from a plastic tub, ConAgra executives said she was an ideal promoter.

“We wanted somebody who would appeal to a younger office worker who’s technology-savvy,” said Michael Locascio, vice president at ConAgra. “We wanted someone they could identify with, someone they knew, but also not somebody that was on the front of every tabloid.”

Ms. Trump, possibly slicing baloney for her sandwich at home, was not available for comment. Asked whether Ms. Trump was the best choice to discuss budgeting, Mr. Locascio said that “we want to have her talk in a way that’s credible, which is why we’re talking about this as a business venture for her.”

“Slicing baloney…” Great show, Ms Clifford!

§ Sext. Is this a reasonable price to pay for the satisfaction of outlawing cocaine and heroin? (There can be precious little other benefit to our drug laws!):

Bodies have been hung from bridges, sliced into pieces, decapitated, burned.

Mr. González’s biggest fear is that the awful scenes playing out across much of Mexico are so common that they will eventually lose their shock value among the young, making killing an expected, even acceptable, part of life.

“They may grow up with this sort of thing being normal,” he said. “They can say, ‘I saw 12! How many did you see?’ You could never have imagined this years ago.”

Maybe if we put everyone who thinks that narcotics are an underworldly affair on a strong IV drip.

§ Compline. “Rewarding the ingenuity of the markets,” where ingenuity = spotting the men in string vests before anyone else does. (Thanks, Fossil.)

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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