Tells all to the Gasbag of MSNBC. I’m sure you’ll want to give away your Saturday tickets to The Coast of Utopia in order to see this once-in-a-lifetime event.

If I were a certain young progressive who constantly posts links to Flickr photos and bloggingheadstv segments in which he shows that there are maybe a dozen people (who all seem to hang around together) responsible for a lot of the “progressive” writing in the blogosphere, I wouldn’t be going around trying to make a big deal of the fact that the fabled “neocons” consist of a few families. ‘Cause it’s got the same amount of relevance: namely, none.

And Andrew Sullivan is certainly old enough to know better than to throw this slab of rancid red meat into the young ‘uns’ cage.

What is Sullivan’s game? I’m beginning to wonder. ‘Cause it’s not about principled conservatism, that’s for sure. He is a street brawler—he throws first and thinks later. Just for the fun of it, it seems.

Students of the New York Times know that Saturday’s paper tends to be rich with stories rather than hard news (and that it’s often a great read for that reason). This past Saturday was no different.

My favorite story was about Sue Hancock, an idle-rich nouveau riche “nobody” and former resident of Ohio and Orlando, Florida, whom the Times celebrates as the new breed of art collector:

“When I first started out, none of the galleries would sell to me because they’d never heard of me and I lived in Orlando,” Ms. Hancock says. “They won’t sell to you if they think you’re just trying to flip the pieces to make money.”

She has also hired a series of art consultants — often people who are curators and collectors themselves — to whom she pays a commission based on what she buys.

“Right now we have the convergence of a buoyant market for luxury goods and a heightened mass interest in contemporary art,” said Jeffrey Deitch, who owns the Deitch Projects galleries in Manhattan, and who sold Ms. Hancock some of her first paintings. “A little while ago someone like Sue Hancock wouldn’t have been interested in this.” He went on, “Collecting has allowed her to enter a rarefied social scene and I’m sure it’s been a good investment.” But at the same time, he said, “She really does seem to have connected with the art.”

Maybe so. She’s certain to have connected with a PR professional or two, however—because (what a coincidence!) the unknown nobody Sue Hancock went on to make an appearance in Sunday’s New York Times too.

Jeremy Kost, the photographer behind [a new] show, “Not a Play Area,” described one shot that was removed after the opening on Feb. 2, which attracted hundreds of people. “It was of a guy who had his hand in his underwear, and his face was contorted and he was covered in raw red meat,” he said.

Mr. Kost mingled with the 40 guests who attended his cocktail party Monday night, among them Susan Hancock, an art collector dotted with diamonds,

Maybe I’ll sign up for a Times alert to see how Ms. Hancock does in her collecting-climbing

Wanna know the secret of the Jews’ success? Read about former Quiz Kid and present senior senator from New York “Chuck” Schumer, who helped take his high school to the New York City finals 40 years ago.

Then they lost the regionals, says the NYT. Where did Chuckie stumble?

Mr. Schumer said he did not remember the question that cost his team the regional. “I guess I psychologically blocked it,” he said.

Not good enough, says his mother!

Nor does his 78-year-old mother remember it, though he recalled that she said recently: “All I remember is, it’s one you should have known.”