toledoblade.com --

"...as human beings we are capable of making sense of situations based on the thinnest slice of experience."

— Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point.

DOMINOES KEEP FALLING: The latest big-name person to get sucked down into the Bernard Madoff investment scam is Kevin Bacon. You've got to bet he wished he had about 20 degrees of separation from that guy. (RL)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Ultra-reclusive Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger celebrates his 90th birthday on New Year's day, but no one is going to know exactly how because he's been in hiding for 40-odd years. Something tells us there won't be a big party. (RL)

WAIT A SECOND!!!!: When you go to ring in the New Year tonight with a toast or a kiss, take an extra second to clink your glasses and pucker up. Through one of those tears in the fabric or the space-time continuum -- or maybe it has something to do with the earth's rotation -- 2008 gets an extra second. (RL)

CELEBRITIES ARE NOT LIKE US: So word on the gossip line is that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are splitting up and we feel bad about that. But then you read that supposedly they're going to announce it after his Valentine's Day show at Madison Square Garden and after they perform a duet together. Call us traditional, but that's just weird. (RL)

WOMEN, CAUGHT IN THE WEB: Increasingly Web sites are cropping up devoted solely to women as advertisers and Internet sites scramble to stay relevant to folks who are online a lot. And, who spend money. (RL)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29

THE STARS CAME OUT: Here's a great recipe for an end-of-the-year box office bonanza: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Aniston, and Adam Sandler. Put them in a bunch of films and people will flock to the theaters to get out of the house and check out the movies. (RL)

ARE THEY OR AREN'T THEY?: Injured New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and super model Gisele Bundche could be married, but maybe not. The Internet was buzzing with stories of them preparing to tie the knot, but family members say not so fast. Could be that it's hard to get down on one knee to propose when you're rehabbing from a football injury. (RL)

THIN SLICES

Rod Lockwood

PAST THIN SLICES
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