Blog Log: 2 New Transients to Helm Wonkette

ALEX PAREENE is leaving his position as editor of Wonkette and is being called back to the Gawker mothership in Manhattan, just down the street from the SoHo outpost of fancy kitchen store Sur La Table. He'll be editing Wonkette until Oct. 15.

Pareene, who was recently robbed in Petworth, has been telecommuting today from that new discount bus with wireless Internet, which is apparently sort of spotty.

We'll miss Pareene, who has never been afraid to express his hostility toward the nation's capital — a breath of fresh air for those who have been entrenched here for years.

Gawker Media, meanwhile, will be sending down two fresh faces to helm its iconic politics blog, which still honors its trademark founding editor, Ana Marie Cox, with that odd Precious Moments-like graphic looming in the background, pictured here. And surprise, surprise, the two new editors, John Clarke Jr. and Jim Newell, are male. Here are their bios.

Clarke and Newell will join the countless thousands of transients to the nation's capital. It's often said that "nobody is from D.C." But as The Post's Marc Fisher reported last week, that sentiment is not entirely accurate when you look at statistics:

The District can't quite bill itself as a homegrown hometown Midwestern style, but it's no Sunbelt amalgam of outsiders either.

In any regard, we welcome the new Wonkettes to D.C. Just don't say anything totally idiotic like youthful talking head Ezra Klein — he recently caught much flak for a blog post complaining about the District. It said, in part: "There are, after all, lots of young, computer savvy white people in Mt. Pleasant, but nary a coffee shop to serve them. It's barbaric!" (Klein, who writes for the American Prospect and other political publications, later apologized.) [Wonkette; Raw Fisher/WaPo; Ezra Klein]

» GLUTTONY: The state of Mississippi is already well known for having the highest rate of adult obesity. Next up for the Magnolia State: An all-you-can-eat, 560-seat Paula Deen buffet in the town of Tunica! [Food Network Addict]

» QUICKLY QUOTED: Reaction to a study showing that more Americans know the ingredients of the Big Mac than the Ten Commandments:

I think God needs a snappier jingle. I mean who can't — upon hearing it just once — repeat the iconic Big Mac song? "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun" just rolls off the tongue better than "Covet not thy neighbor's wife, while honoring thy father and mother. And don't kill."

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Posted By Michael Grass at 3:19 PM on October 3, 2007 Tagged in Blog Log , Free Ride , Local Blogs , Top Stories

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