String 'em up [Mark Steyn]
I often reflect, as I hang upside down in my bondage dungeon of a Friday lunchtime, that the worst category to fall into is that of people just famous enough for their indiscretions to make the papers but insufficiently celebrated for any of the sob sisters to bother fluffing up with the usual price-of-fame tragic-downfall Oprahfied hooey.
Thus, Richard Quest, a pseudo-Wodehousian figure with whom I used to work at the BBC many years ago, turned up in The New York Post this morning. These days he's on CNN International (which makes CNN domestic look like Rush) and I mainly see him when I'm in the Hyatt in Amman or some such and they feel the ambience in the breakfast lounge wouldn't be complete without piping in Richard interviewing some former Assistant Deputy Assistant Deputy Secretary of State about how the quagmire's getting worse. The poor fellow seems to have landed in his own quagmire:
This is CNN? Kinky!
CNN personality Richard Quest was busted in Central Park early yesterday with some drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, law-enforcement sources said...
The criminal complaint against Quest said the park was closed at the time - something Quest should have known because of all the signs saying "Park Closed 1 a.m. to 6 a.m."
Quest was initially busted for loitering, the source said. Aside from the oddly configured rope, the search also turned up a sex toy inside of his boot, and a small bag of methamphetamine in his left jacket pocket.
It wasn't immediately clear what the rope was for.
Ha-ha. Give a man enough rope and he'll hang himself. You can't blame the Post for running the story, even though they can't quite conceal that they'd have preferred it had it happened to Larry King or Anderson Cooper (or better yet Lou Dobbs and the rope was attached to an undocumented immigrant). But I don't really understand how a fellow who gets stopped in Central Park merely for being there after it's closed (and it doesn't really get "closed" so it's an easy mistake to make) winds up getting "searched", having his genitalia inspected by the cops and its various fashion accessories leaked to the media. If it's not "immediately clear" what the rope is for, it's even less clear what criminal offense it represents. Is roping your genitals illegal in New York? Do you need a permit? Do you have to complete a course and be licensed by the State Board of Genital-Tethering Accreditation? Ann Althouse is outraged by the public humiliation, though her commenters seem to divide between those who think (a) "loitering" is a euphemism for public sex or (b) "loitering" is a euphemism for being a tiresome CNN twit.
04/19 06:51 PM
<--- research, it's research. 
