DON'T LOOK BACK: Look forward instead to this Sunday's announcement of The New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of the Year. Gawker has the leaked list here, and I won't comment further, lest you wish not to be spoiled.

LE TIGRE IS THE NEW UGG: Remember a couple of years ago when all of a sudden Burberry plaid was all over the umbrellas and necks, then shapely asses, of the stylish trendsetters? I remember thinking, "you cannot make me think Burberry plaid is sexy." Now the new old thing is Le Tigre polo shirts. Remember Le Tigre from when you were in middle school in the early 1980s? It was kind of like Garanimals for the 14-year olds who had made it to second base but hadn't yet taken up cocaine and whose parents were experimenting with non-American luxury cars.

Of course, if Anne Hathaway is to believed, Le Tigre is back. Since our culture likes to sexualize and infantilize at the same time – are you listening, Debra Lafave, aka Teacher of the Year? – the style is apparently to wear the shirt two sizes too tight. Or, if the ads currently running on Gawker and the less brainy, more superiorer Defamer are any indication (look to the vertical ads at the far right), more than two sizes too tight and without pants. I have to say, if I knew that clothing so stiflingly square and sexless was gateway wear to threesomes, I might have started a bit preppier.

Then again, maybe anything can look sexy if you bunch it around the midsection of a lasciviously tousled model and hint (or pretty much demonstrate) that there's nothing underneath. Except this. Go ahead, Brooks Brothers, the ball is in your court.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION? First, I recommend you read Julia Keller's remarkable series about the events leading up to and the aftermath of the deadly tornado that swept through the town of Utica, Ill., last spring. But almost as remarkable as the story itself is the 431-word "About the Series" note that is accompanying it. At the beginning it seems as if the note is meant to show us the great lengths Keller went to to get the story:

"To report this story, Tribune reporter Julia Keller interviewed the nine survivors of the Milestone collapse, and their friends, family members, neighbors and colleagues; and the friends, family members, neighbors and colleagues of the victims of the Milestone collapse; over a seven-month period, beginning a week after the tornado."

By the end, though, after passages like this...

"Scenes that were not witnessed by the reporter were assembled through multiple interviews with people who were present, both named in the story and not named. When thoughts and emotions are presented, those thoughts and emotions come directly from the reporters' interviews. Descriptions of the activities and thoughts of people who died in the collapse were compiled through interviews with those who were present, or those to whom the deceased had confided their thoughts and emotions."

...I was expecting to see a paragraph describing how Keller eventually took all of her notes and sat down at a computer and began to write the stories by interspersing direct quotations with her own narrative of the events to arrive at a rough draft, which she then sent to her editor for editing, after which she had a bagel and a cup of coffee before getting a revised copy of her story back from the editor, etc., etc.

Anyone have any theories about why the Trib would go into such detail about the reporting process in this case? Is this a pre-emptive strike against any criticisms? Is it an attempt to impress readers or potential prize judges gone a few steps too far? Is it there for legal reasons?

LIMBURGER LINES: We had some fun here a couple weeks back with the AFI's list of great movie quotes, so I wanted to point to this British list of the 10 Cheesiest Film Quotes. Titanic's "I'm the king of the world" tops the list and Patrick Swayze is the only actor to appear twice, getting nods for "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" from Dirty Dancing and "Ditto" from Ghost. It should be noted that none of the top 10 pre-date "Top Gun," which must mean the movies were pretty cheese free prior to 1985, right?

C'MON "BEST POLKA ALBUM:" Grammy nominations arrive tomorrow. I open this thread for predictions and discussion. Don't forget the odd eligibility year--October 1, 2003 through September 30, 2004. A few guesses of what may come up--Ray Charles' last album "Genius Loves Company" in the Album of the Year category, Evanescence's "My Immortal," the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started/Let's Get Retarded," and something by Maroon 5 (most likely "This Love") in the Record of the Year category. I also expect to see Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" in the Song of the Year category, with that single and her album nominated throughout the country categories. Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" also seems likely to rack up the nods, including a possible songwriting nod for Avril Lavigne. Best New Artist should be an interesting race, with my expectation that it'll be a fight between "Jesus Walks" rapper Kanye West and neo-hippie rockers Maroon 5. What am I missing? Let me know.

EAT, SLEEP AND MINGLE: There has been much discussion you may have been missing in last week's TAR comments thread regarding the amount of bunching on the show, and it deserves a separate post.

So let's open it up. Is frequent bunching a good thing for building the drama? A bad thing for deterring risk and not rewarding consistent success? Or just a bad-but-necessary thing?

"KING TUT WAS NOT A HONKY:" In today's Times, Steve Martin sets straight some misunderstandings about King Tut and "King Tut." As usual with his short humor/opinion pieces, it's well worth your time.