My New Favorite Writer

Usually it's only the way gay T-hersday Styles Section of the NYT that makes me giggle so hard I spew pretzel detritus on my keyboard while reading the paper of record. But I've got to hand it to Richard W. Stevenson who wrote a fairly hilarious article in the first section of the Times today, On Bush's Birthday Abroad, Lots of Cake and Then a Spill .

Apparently Bush got through the cake eating part 'jes fine, but it was when our 59-year old cowboy-in-chief decided to burn some of those extra calories while mountain biking that he got into some trouble. Stevenson writes: "The president, who was wearing a helmet, slid across the asphalt, suffering 'mild to moderate' scrapes on his hands and arms, Mr. McClellan said and was bandaged by the White House physician, Dr. Richard Tubb. The White House provided no details of any damage to Mr. Bush's ego."

But not content to let the guy go with just scrapes and bruises, Stevenson goes on: "The president has had to give up running because of a bad knee, and he gained weight during the campaign last year... But he is no stranger to painful spills; he picked up some cuts and bruises last summer after tumbling off his bike at his Texas Ranch."

Stevenson really brings it home in his final graf, though, when he speculates why Dubya might have been feeling so invincible: "Perhaps before mounting his bike in Scotland, he had been lulled into overconfidence by the horoscope in The Washington Post on Wednesday for people born on July 6: 'You have so many brilliant ideas this year!'"

Richard W. Stevenson, I salute you. All the news that's fit to print? Maybe not, but pretty damn funny nonetheless.