Lunchline: AP gives in to the masses

If you have difficulty viewing this newsletter, click here to view as a Web page. Click here to view in plain text. Wednesday, April 18, 2012 The NHL playoffs have become a flat out disgrace. The goonery, not necessarily the fighting, has reached a level that makes games not that fun to watch. Dear Gary Bettman and Brendan Shanahan, get your league together. D.C. is going all-out to keep Living Social in the city. The company that's revolutionizing the retail coupon game has grown roots in the District, and Mayor Vincent Gray is doing his best to make sure that doesn't change. To be clear, the CEO of Living Social is the son-in-law of Washington Post Co. chairman Donald E. Graham, but that aside I'm down with what their company is doing. They're renovating old edifices all over the place and generally just being awesome. Gray has sweetened the deal to stay. The fight over extending bar hours has focalized itself in Ward 1. Anecdotally, residents of the jurisdiction that encompasses multiple bar districts is not looking forward to the prospect of drunks getting more time to do what they love. But bar owners argue that not everyone is going to adopt the later last calls and it will help them make money. The Post's Tim Craig reports on the hearing held last night about how the city will regulate the hours in which you are allowed to get hammered. The Associated Press is a well known entity in my circles. Forget about their reporting, the stylebook is a bible for journalists and a rule book in many newsrooms. So whenever they make a change, copy editors of the world send grammatically correct emails to their friends about the shocking news. And now, the AP stylebook has caved to the philistines and changed the meaning of the word "hopefully" due to god forbid, public pressure. The Post's Monica Hesse chronicles the keyboard-shaking update. If Best Buy goes under, it will be a sad day in my world. The big box stores has been closing locations around the nation recently and is generally on the decline. I personally find this sad because I don't think I'm ever going to get over the feeling of being able to walk into a store with a 30-foot ceiling and stare at a gigantic television. Slate's Farhad Manjoo explains how the retailer that sunk all other electronics retailers can save their brick-and-mortar business. The NFL schedule came out yesterday and quite frankly I spent all night talking about it with my friends. The Redskins open up against the Saints in what my crew is calling 'The Bounty Bowl' and the two tilts against the Cowboys are in big time slots. The first is on the road on Turkey Day and the second is the final game of the season, at home. Thanksgiving just got a whole lot better, kids. The Post's Mike Jones details the rest. Extra Bites • In case you were on the fence about it, it appears that, yes, Ted Nugent is a maniac. He effectively threatened President Obama's life over the weekend, and yes, the Secret Service is looking in to it. Something tells me that this guy is going to jail. • In other loud spoken guy news, Marion Barry broke off yet another epic tweet the other day, in which he put the definition of a certain hashtag into question. • I hear next year's Coachella is going ALL-HOLOGRAM. And they've got a hell of a closing act. H/T my homey Benji. 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