The Tart and the Dolce Vita, or Slate makes fun of the Italians

In Dispatches, Joe Klein describes Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's new global leadership role: party planner to the power elite. "At the G8 summit in Genoa last year," Klein writes, "Berlusconi wanted the entrance to the palace where the meeting was to be held lined with lemon trees. But there was a problem. The meeting was in June; lemons bloom in winter. Berlusconi's gardener delivered the bad news and was told by the prime minister, 'I think I have a solution.' Lemons were sewn onto the trees. The question is whether Berlusconi pays the same amount of attention to actually running his country."

And there is also a bridge to sell
China Paper Bites on Onion Gag (Culture 7:00 a.m. PDT), Wired News

According to China's most popular newspaper, the U.S. Congress is
threatening to move out of Washington unless it gets a new building.
Too bad the Beijing Evening News fell for a spoof from the Onion.
See May 31 item on this page.

Best description of the teams involved in the upcoming British-Argentinian soccer match

Tomorrow though it's "Les Rosbifs" (the roast-beefs, as the French call the English) against "Die Gauchos"
(as the Germans call the Argentinians).

A simple twist of fate?
today's papers
Commence the Offense
By Eriq Gardner, Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002, at 2:44 AM PT, Slate magazine
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The LAT also includes another story -- this one inside -- on Afghanistan, detailing the country's love affair with the five-year-old American film, "Titanic." Seen inside the country: a 132-pound cake in the shape of the doomed ship, men who wear the hair in the style of Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic shampoo, Titanic perfumes, Titanic vests, Titanic belts, Titanic shoes, Titanic mosaics...All this and an estimated half of the population has yet to see the film. A man by the name of Siddiq Barmak gives the LAT the holy grail of quotes: "I think there is a lot in common with the fate of Afghanistan and the Titanic. We're looking for a way to rescue ourselves," he said.