Lunchline: Desperate times, desperate measures

If you have difficulty viewing this newsletter, click here to view as a Web page. Click here to view in plain text. Thursday, March 1, 2012 If you consider yourself a journalist, you need to make absolutely sure you watch this video. Frankly, it gives me hope for the future of the business. And you thought "The Three Little Pigs" was just a children's story and a bad gimmick song. Not so fast. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. And around the area, thieves have been resorting to more unusual methods to separate people from their goods. But beyond that, police have noticed recently that the items being stolen are not your typical high-end products. It seems that criminals are jacking everyday stuff like laundry detergent and diapers. The Post's Erica W. Morrison reports on the new trend showing that not even the smallest of items is safe if left out in public. Speaking of crime, Metro has good news on that front. The transit police released a five-year report saying that serious crimes dropped precipitously from 2010 to 2011. Larcenies, robberies and aggravated assaults are all down for the transit system. Also down are assaults on bus drivers, something that is sure to make employees happy. Authorities attribute the drop to an increased presence of patrols across the system. The Post's Dana Hedgpeth reports on the latest statistics. If you think your life is tough, imagine living like the rest of the world. The typically quoted stat from the U.N. shows that most people across the globe feed themselves on about $1 a day. Stefen Chow and Lin Hui-Yi put together a visual slideshow of what that looks like in specific food terms for different countries around the globe. Also, let's be real. The American middle class is far better off by international standards. Or, as Slate's Charles Kenny puts it: We're all the 1 percent. I need to get my act together when it comes to "Mad Men." The show that most people swear by, I've only seen in bits and pieces. But the AMC program is an obvious cultural behemoth. So much so that its latest collaboration with Banana Republic to launch a clothing line was a huge hit in the real fashion world. The companies held a collection launch not quite on the runway, but close enough. It was on a Virgin America flight from JFK to LAX full of bloggers, models, passengers and, of course, Instagram. The Style Blog's Cara Kelly captures the essence of the fly event. The Nationals are already media darlings and it's just spring training. More specifically, it's only taken The Post's Tom Boswell three weeks to fall completely in love with Bryce Harper, the 19-year-old hotshot that everyone believes will be the future of the franchise. But Boz apparently has a problem with Harper doing things his favorite athletes do. The big question is whether or not the team keeps him down in the minors for longer-term salary arbitration reasons. Also, Bryce shut down his Twitter account, which is truly unfortunate. Extra Bites • News entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart died overnight in Los Angeles. Losing a journalist of his acumen so young is extremely sad. Rumors of a possible hack and fake reporting were circulating Twitter, but unfortunately those were false. Breitbart was 43. • In random radio news: ESPN's Bill Simmons had a sit-down with President Obama, and D.C. Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg profiled John Thompson on the coach's last day on air. • This guy in California gets the creep of the week award, and it's not even Friday yet. Yeesh. Check out my Facebook fan page, my Twitter feed, or e-mail me at clinton.yates@wpost.com. Get The Washington Post, your way. Want to stay on top of the latest news, features, commentary and more? Here's how: Mobile: Alerts: Social Media: Applications Web site E-mail SMS RSS Feeds Facebook Twitter SEND TO A FRIEND UNSUBSCRIBE NEWSLETTER CENTER GET HELP Washington Post Digital E-mail Customer Care 1150 15th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20071 ©2012 The Washington Post Privacy Policy