The first two items in Performance Editor Brendan Kiley's Mar. 30 column reported on a couple of incidents in which local theaters in Seattle were victimized by small-time hoods. Determined to maintain the petty-theft theme but "unable to find any outlaws associated with" the third production he covered that week, Kiley took it upon himself to steal a cookie from the concession table. He determined that the play was "so-so" but "the cookie, full of chocolate chips, was pleasantly moist." There is no doubt that someone at the theater read the review, because, according to today's Stranger blog, Kiley received a bill from the theater this week -- $2.50 for one "moist chocolate chip cookie."

Continue ReadingThe Case of the Stranger Critic and the Stolen Cookie

Before he was in a position to charge a fortune for protection from gossip, Jared Paul Stern was a writer for New York Press. In this week's issue, Ernie Koy describes his first encounter with Stern, "a pretentious man who was suffering from early male-pattern baldness" and who "sucked up to whoever needed to be sucked up to." Based on these attributes, Koy decided that "he would do well in the New York media."

Continue ReadingAlleged Page Six Extortionist’s Days at NY Press