Weather story!

The vigilant Trackless Northwest Buro onpasses this excellent summation of life on the weather feature beat, of which this spillage of proprietary trade secrets is the best:

Forever sidebars
In addition to telling you it was hot yesterday, we can also tell you many interesting tidbits about the heat. We call these sidebars.

For instance, we sent reporters out the other day to find the places in the region that smelled the worst because of the heat. Get it? That's a sidebar.

Tomorrow, if it stays hot, we will think of other sidebars. Maybe we will go out and ask people how they are coping with the heat. Once the editors put their minds to it, the sidebar possibilities are endless.

Did you know that heat waves are a major cause of back injuries among reporters? It comes from hiding under their desks for hours at a time, trying to avoid sidebars.

Now back to your regularly scheduled complaining about the Fractious Near East.