Lohan the New Cher?

Apparently Lindsay Lohan is as popular as Cher or Madonna. After all, don't we all just referre to her as Lindsay. That is the story Lohan's lawyers want the court to believe.
In case you have not heard, Lohan is suing E*Trade over their Super Bowl commercial. Lohan is upset over the line “And that milkaholic Lindsay wasn’t over?” According to the New York Times In Lohan says the second baby girl was modeled after her because the one-word name “Lindsay” was identified with her.
Here's the commercial. You decide.

The Hudson River @ 400 Years Old

A New York Times reporter takes a tour of the Hudson to see how she looks at 400 years old.

Stockholm Syndrome

There was a morbidly fascinating story on the psychological dynamic between captor and captive in today's New York Times.

One would think that the captive would be overjoyed at being freed; but it's not that simple. People held for a long time in captivity like Jaycee Dugard develop ambivalent feelings towards their captors.

Excerpt from the article:

David Wolfe, professor of psychology and psychiatry said:

“The child is frightened, and the perpetrator works to gain or regain the child’s confidence, to come across as a really good person: ‘I’m not going to hurt you, everything’s going to be O.K.’ and so on.

“So the child never knows when to fight or run,” he continued. “Do I wait and it’ll get worse? Or do I believe him and I won’t be hurt?”

Humans are wired to form social bonds, and such scraps of kindness can deepen even a relationship built on manipulation and abuse.

This Job Pays $40,000 - $50,000

This article in the New York times -- about a blogger who wrote that a recent murder in Pensacola, FL was not a robbery gone sour but was, in fact, a contract killing -- got me thinking. The hitmen in the case were allegedly paid between "$20,000 and $50,000." I was thinking, is this the market price for this sort of thing?

Simplyhired.com says (chillingly) yes: the average salary for a hire-to-kill job is $44,000. It also notes that "average hire to kill salaries can vary greatly due to company, industry, experience, and benefits."