There have been many outrages uttered during the past few days around and about these parts, but for my money (literally speaking) the cruelest blow of all came within this dog-bites-tennis-ball story about how former mayor Richard Riordan, in light of the recent Spring Street tumult, still doesn't care for these L.A. Times. The offending (to me) bit:

Riordan once fancied himself as a newspaper publisher. He toyed with the idea of creating a paper that could compete with the Los Angeles Times. Eventually, Riordan determined that the project wasn't viable and dropped it.

"The smartest thing I ever did was not following through," he said. "I was in over my head."

He walked away lighter by a few hundred thousand dollars, but much wiser. "I lost a quarter-million bucks, which is nothing."

Italics mine, to emphasize the fact that WHERE THE HELL WAS MY CUT, HIZZONER? Barely four figures for basically four months' solid work on my part, during which time I was literally begging pathetically for scratch, while the consultants peddling last century's business models just kept the meter running? The rich are different from you and me ... they think we don't need money.

L.A. Examiner prototype editor Ken Layne (disclosure: Layne is reportedly my bandmate) comments:

It was fun to make a pretend paper with Dick Riordan. My only real regret is that I didn't take at least $100,000 of that $250,000 for myself. When Antonio Villaraigosa wants to start his pretend paper, my fee is $50,000 per month.