Today's title implies that we'll be bringing various unrelated things together, which is my job. The task of finding a harmonious relationship between the pieces is firmly in your bailiwick.

Funnier in Latin

The CFO of Veritas Software Corporation was "forced to resign" last Thursday when the company discovered that his resume was largely a work of creative fiction. Turns out that Kenneth E. Lonchar had "fabricated some of his academic credentials, including a Stanford University MBA that he never received." I certainly think this is funny, but investors were not amused and promptly punished Veritas by driving its stock price down nearly 20 percent by the close of business Thursday. Ouch.

We're bringing this up because in addition to accounting fraud, the Raven suspects we're about to go through a round of credential checking that could prove highly entertaining to watch. According to Ellwood Oakley, a professor of ethics at Georgia State:

"A lot of companies are going to be sending out internal e-mails during the next few days asking for executives to re-inspect their resumes for accuracy. There really is no excuse for this kind of thing."

RIP ASAP

Forbes magazine says it's pulling the plug on its daughter techno-pub Forbes ASAP. This is a real loss, as ASAP was always better reading than the flagship parent mag. The ASAP team, eight talented editors and designers, put together a sharp product whose loss will be missed.

Non Disputandum Est

Do you like to read really good food-writing? We certainly do. Because eating is an integral part of our lives that combines so well with wine and romance, perfectly tuned phrases that capture the soul of a brilliant dish can also inflame the imagination and fire our desires for culinary experimentation.

A review of Marcella Hazan's recipe for Pasta Carbonara that ran this week in the LA Times is one of the best I've ever read.

It's for food lovers. It's food best eaten warm, right from the stove, in the kitchen, as dinner for two. The preparation of spaghetti carbonara could not be more congenial. It comes replete with its own dynamic, its own tantalizing tempo and heady succession of good smells.

Panem et Circenses

Well, in the old days the people wanted "bread and circuses," but today they want pizza. Delivered. In most cases, this is a straightforward proposition: Pick up the phone, order, and get back to the football game. Unless, however, your neighborhood has been "redlined," which means the shop's drivers won't enter your district because they fear for their lives. An interesting body of case law is building up over this practice, and the latest salvo is taking place in Florida's Tarpon Springs where Pizza Hut drivers were refusing to deliver to the Union Academy area because of the frequency with which they were being beaten and robbed. Some residents filed suit and Pizza Hut capitulated. Our sympathies are extended to the workers whose lives have just been valued at $9.00 an hour (plus tips).

Omnia Vincit Amor

Does "love conquer all?" The prioress in the Canterbury Tales thought so, but Kathy Thompson in Indiana disagrees. She appears to be the first housewife on record to officially have gone "on strike" to protest her husband's slobberly slothfulness.

When her unconventional campaign made it into The Star Press of Muncie, calls from around the world started pouring in, she said.

Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit

Or, in the words of the song, "nothing from nothing leaves nothing." Which is our title for this story coming out of Bridgetown, Barbados, site of the current week-long African and African Descendants World Conference Against Racism. In keeping with their goals of promoting tolerance and diversity, about "200 delegates voted Wednesday for whites and Asians to leave the deliberations." That pretty much stands on its own, but to their credit, representatives from Russia, Cuba, South Africa, Colombia and France's overseas territories walked out of the conference in protest at this heavy-handed discrimination. Chairwoman Jewel Crawford of the United States saw absolutely nothing wrong with the measure, however, noting with aplomb:

"The motion of exclusion was the will of the majority, because there are sometimes when we feel that we just want to have a meeting of our own," she said.

11:35:10 AM