One Lap of the Web: The Markchurian Candidate

-- When does a cartoonist become a short-track racer? When he's Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant, and he writes a book about his childhood in and around Indiana, a childhood spent fixated on oval racers. Englehart, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his political cartooning, explores why America's youth are willing to risk their lives to drive in circles -- and why he himself is so addicted to it.

-- The common notion is that paunchy, Piers-punching firebrand Jeremy Clarkson hates American cars, even when he doesn't. So it may come as a surprise that he would praise Detroit: "No city anywhere in the world that has contributed more to the happiness and well-being of humankind. None." Bold words from the irascible scamp, but we always knew it: Clarkson is a shameless Iggy Pop fan, nothing more.

-- With Mark Fields measuring for curtains in the Ford CEO's office, we must subject the candidate to the same muckraking and scandal-eyed sleazebag investigation we would for any modern political campaign. So far, we were able to dig up Fields' alleged high school photograph, which would surely make William Randolph Hearst proud. Fields used to have the nickname "Maaark," and wear novelty bow ties.

Image from Wikipedia.

By Blake Z. Rong