Slow news day

It must be, because I just saw this headline above the fold on the Seattle Times site:

"Police: Man uses cell phone to take photo of woman tanning"

In other news, teen boys ogle big-breasted cheerleader at mall, and high school girls giggle at lunch. Not that anyone condones surreptitious cell-phone photographing of topless tanners, but come on, is this really news?

The big stories around here are a city councilman arrested for domestic violence -- mildly ironic twist being that he was appointed to the seat 10 years ago when his predecessor was busted for the same crime and resigned -- and also the discovery of the 10 people killed the other day when their skydiving plane crashed in the Cascades. I feel for the families and victims in that one. As a two-time skydiver myself, I know how fast that plummet is -- I can still hear the sound of my own voice screaming into the wind -- and I can imagine how horrible those final moments must have been.

Our little town made the New York Times today. Big feature on what compulsive recyclers we are in these parts. Says one food-scrap compost producer: “This is the cool side of trash.” Gosh.

I was surprised that the big Republican debate didn't generate much coverage, even in the NYT. Not that much news was committed, but I thought that with Thompson making his first major appearance there would be more interest. It's OK, I don't know that any next-day story could provide much better analysis than Michelle's trenchant play-by-play last night, or a more concise one than Kaye's.

My two bits: Thompson was a non-factor, surprisingly so. The Republican field seems divided into three tiers -- the main contenders, Romney and Giuliani; the legitimate but fading hopefuls, McCain, Thompson; and the windmill-tilting losers, Tancredo, Ron Paul and the rest. I still think Romney will win the nomination, but Rudy showed last night that he knows how to counter-punch and deliver a line. He's got a lot of fight left in him, and he's got a seasoned, smooth and occasionally funny style that will keep him in contention until the very end.