I post my "Overheards" at my other blog. TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse, but the eavesdrop I experienced earlier today, and that I already posted over there, is too annoying not to share with a larger audience, and so here it is, in full:

There's something unusually painful about overhearing a woman, loudly and openly professing -- bragging about, in fact -- the extent of her knowledge about all things media related, referring in the present tense to an entity, "Cap Cities/ABC," that hasn't existed for 10 years.

I'm not sure why that comment of hers, just one of many irksome remarks, became embedded so deeply under my otherwise fairly thick skin, but there it is.

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Thanks to reader K.P., I learned that a certain Hannah earlier this week won the title prize at Drake University's 27th annual Beautiful Bulldog Contest.

For the details, and a terrific photograph, see "Hannah Named 'Most Beautiful Bulldog,'" by Luke Meredith of the Associated Press as published in the San Jose Mercury News.

I have to say, Hannah looks an awful lot like Mildred (who did not enter the contest), though my bulldog doesn't do the dress-up thing. Not happily, anyway.

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Something has gone terribly wrong with the Pulitzer Prizes, or with the art of writing newspaper columns, or both, to wit: "The Pulitzer for commentary went to Nicholas D. Kristof of the [New York] Times."

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There has been too much going on lately to post as much as I would like, and I would have hoped to marked today, the fourth anniversary of the launch of this blog, with something notable or at least interesting. Unfortunately, such cannot be the case, so allow me only to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time over the last four years to pay a visit or two here. It's been an incredible experience, and I hope you will stop by again soon.

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The latest issue of the New York Observer is on the web, and in "Andrew Sullivan Sees Straight in New 'Out' Editor," Choire Sicha reports Sullivan got it wrong when he characterized Aaron Hicklin, the new editor of Out magazine, as a "hetero."

[Clarification: Sicha's item is not in this week's Observer. It was posted to the site under the heading of the paper's "Daily Transom" feature.]

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The quote of the week comes from Jeffrey K. Skilling, former chief executive office of bankrupt Enron Corp., in a response from a question posed on direct from his lead defense attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, regarding Mr. Skilling's abrupt, some would say, departure from the Houston-based energy scheme concern in August 2001 (as reported in "Enron's Ex-Chief Says He's 'Absolutely Innocent,'" by Alexei Barrioneuvo and Vikas Bajaj in the New York Times):

Some would say I was obsessed with Enron. It takes a very personal toll. I was tired, I was exhausted, it was emotional exhaustion. I had not spent the time I should have with my family.

Does anyone, outside of Mr. Skilling's immediate family, really believe this?

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I wonder who thought this was clever?

The implication, it seems, is that bulldogs are unattractive.

As if.

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Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) tells the Philadelphia Inquirer's Steve Goldstein that the immigration debate in the U.S. Senate has sparked unprecedented tensions, strife the senior senator from Pennsylvania said he hasn't seen "since high school." ("Specter: Tensions are High in Senate.")

Measuring his frustration on a 1-to-10 scale, Sen. Specter said, "I'm at 212 -- degrees -- that's the boiling point."

Oh, and by the way, Sen. Specter characterized Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid as "a thorn in the side of the world."

Well, I suppose if anyone knows about thorns in sides, it would be Sen. Specter.

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Remember when we were sitting here, or maybe it was over there, not so long ago, talking about -- believe it or not, considering all my hang-ups -- urinals?

Well I do.

And I'm sure Inga Saffron does also, peeing -- whoops! -- seeing as she returned to the subject in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer, with "Phila. No-flush Standoff Unclogged, With a Catch."

The upshot, or maybe I should say the downshot, of that piece, was that, yes, the Comcast Tower, or the Comcast Center (it's the really big one in that photograph), as I think we're now supposed to be calling the building, under construction in Center City, will, in the end or as it turns out, incorporate no-flush urinals, putting the cable giant's headquarters at the head of the line for designation as the nation's tallest "green" building.

However, this being Philadelphia, a union town, and I don't think that's a bad thing, the urinals will be installed with enough extra plumbing and work rules to make even the great-grandchildren of every pipe-fitter carrying a wrench hereabouts optimistic enough to cast aside whatever tuition-savings plan may already have been in the, um, works.

God, I love this town!

[Post-publication addendum (April 6): Update: The Plumbers Advisory Board yesterday voted to approve the developer's plan to install the waterless units.]

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I'm letting the spam collect in the "bulk" file of my Yahoo Mail account, just out of curiosity but also in order to determine just how many messages the system will allow before it sweeps all of the crap out of that folder.

As of this evening there are 2,031 messages identified as spam, and that doesn't include those that made their way into my in-box during the period I've been collecting this junk, estimated at about a dozen a day over the past week.

I'll keep you posted, assuming you care as much as I do.

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Hard to believe it's that time of year already, but the New York Press is out with its annual list of the 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers.

I know, I know. Just 50. It must take the entire year to whittle down the list of contenders, even excluding a handful of the detestable people I knew when I lived there.

Names, and items, of particular interest around here, for various reasons: Andrea Peyser of the New York Post at No. 41; "supermodel" Naomi Campbell, ranking 33rd; fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi just ahead at No. 30; Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton at No. 26; the Meatpacking District, a neighborhood near where I once lived, at No. 25; Mayor Michael Bloomberg at No. 22, a steep drop from the past; "lame duck governor" George Pataki at No. 11; and too low, but still in the top 10, at No. 8, New York Times scribe and scribbler, Judy Miller.

You will have to read the list yourself to see who's number one on the list.

Notable among the deserving names from last year's list who dropped off in 2006 (presented alphabetically): Max Boot, Graydon Carter, Katie Couric, Ed Koch, Norman Podhoretz, Thomas Krens, Lawrence Kudlow, and Karen Schwartz.

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This is one heck of a story, of the sort you just can't make up.

Below are excerpts from "Developer on Eve of Guilty Plea Is Discovered Slain at His Home," by Alison Leigh Cowan of the New York Times.

The article is datelined "Greenwich, Conn.," and you know if Dominick Dunne isn't already there, he's on his way.

Andrew M. Kissel, the wealthy Greenwich real estate developer who had agreed to plead guilty this week to having swindled banks, title companies and others out of tens of millions of dollars, was found dead on Monday, his hands and feet bound, in the blood-splattered basement of his home, according to the police and employees of a moving company who discovered the body. […]

Before moving to Greenwich, Andrew Kissel and his wife, Hayley Wolff Kissel, lived in a richly appointed duplex in a co-op building on 74th Street near Third Avenue. He was an investor and a real estate developer who owned classic cars and a $3 million yacht; his wife, a former world mogul-skiing champion, was a widely quoted stock analyst.

His death was the latest tragedy to befall the Kissel family after years of apparent success.

In 2003, Mr. Kissel's brother, Robert, a successful investment banker with Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, was bludgeoned to death by his wife, Nancy, who had one of her children give him a milkshake laced with sedatives. The killing was called the "milkshake murder" in the Hong Kong press. […]

Andrew Kissel was scheduled to appear in federal court in White Plains on Wednesday to plead guilty to fraud charges in various real estate deals, according to his criminal lawyer, Philip Russell. Mr. Kissel also faced fraud charges in a separate case brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office stemming from the millions of dollars he had admitted taking and then repaid with interest to his Manhattan neighbors in the years he served as treasurer of his co-op.

Then, the kicker, a teasing, suspicions-raising kicker, if you're that type of reader:

On Friday, Mrs. Kissel called J. B. Moving, and said that she wanted the company to send movers to her house the following day to empty its contents and store them for at least a week to give her time to figure out where everything ought to be shipped, according to [company manager Doug] Roina. He said the company's owner, who did an estimate, "thought it was a strange situation. It was not our normal move scenario," having someone call one day to order a move large enough to require three trucks for the following day.

He said that the couple were arguing or "going at it pretty good" while his movers were on the premises on Saturday and that at one point, Mrs. Kissel turned to one of the movers and said, "He's going to jail anyway," by way of explanation for the heated volley of words. […]

On Monday about 8 or 8:30 a.m., when the movers returned to finish the job, they had trouble getting into the house and called Mrs. Kissel, Mr. Roina said. He said she gave them a code number that opened the gate and they began to gather the last of the couple's belongings. When they got to the basement, he said, they found Mr. Kissel, notified their boss and called the police.

At that point, Mr. Roina said he called Mrs. Kissel and notified her that "you need to get to your house; there's a situation there."

"She said, 'oh, O.K.,' no reaction. Not even a question," he said.

There's enough here for a two-part episode of Power, Privilege & Justice.

[Post-publication addendum (April 5): The Times updates the story today with "Details Emerge in Connecticut Murder Case," by Alison Leigh Cowan and Janon Fisher, while the New York Post, giving the story front-page treatment, offers, "Fraudster Eyed in 'Suicide by Hitman,'" by Tom Liddy, Murray Weiss, and Dan Mangan, with this lead: "Suspicions grew yesterday that a disgraced tycoon found slain in his Greenwich mansion may have paid a hitman to have himself knocked off -- so his kids could collect on his $10 million life-insurance policy." The New York Daily News serves up "No Forced Entry in Slay," by Jess Wisloski and Tracy Connor. Finally, the Greenwich Time has "Cops: Kissel Was Target," by Martin B. Cassidy.]

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