Front page dots ripe for connecting

Before they disappear into the fog of old news, here are three front-page headlines from the Wednesday, July 2nd issue of The New York Times.

Taken separately, they inform in a sporadic way. Taken together, they cast a laser-bright light on these times.

On the top right of the page:

DEEPENING CYCLE
OF JOB LOSS SEEN
LASTING INTO '09

WEAK SIGNALS PERSIST

Directly beneath it:

Stock Exchange’s Former Chief
Wins Court Battle to Keep Pay.

(The “pay” in question was $187.5 million paid to Richard A. Grasso.)

And then over to the left on the bottom of the page, this:

Helmsley, Dogs’ Best Friend,
Left Them Up to $8 Billion

(The Helmsley in question is the late hotelier, real estate magnate and convicted tax-evader Leona Helmsley. Helmsley left her own dog, "Trouble" by name, $12 million. It was Helmsley who famously said, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.")

There you have it. A journalistic snapshot of our American society on one summer’s day in 2008, the eighth year of the reign of George W. Bush.

I suppose I could throw into the mix one other story from the front page, but it is a dot harder to connect. Upper left on the page:

CHINA INSPIRED
INTERROGATIONS
AT GUANTANAMO

COMMUNIST TECHNIQUES

Military Used ’57 Study
of Steps That Led to
False Confessions