Last week, we (acting against the recommendations of our doctors) mocked Dana Milbank’s new regular feature, CW “The Zeitgeist Checklist” (confidential to WPNI: We are also available to write lists of headline w/ arrows in exchange for lots and lots of money). This week, we are embarrassed to admit that we’re going to do it again.

We note first that Slate has not yet picked up Dana’s “This Week In Last Week” column. That’s no way to maximize synergy, Weisberg. On that note, here’s to the classes that chatter, and what they’ll be chattering about — we highlight a couple items worthy of futher investigation, after the jump.

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We know it’s not ’till Thursday, but we wanted to beat the rush.

The AP is amazed to learn that our President is greeting his 60th birthday not with deep, suicidal despair, but rather with — wait for it — relative good humor! But that good humor masks — wait for it — “unmistakably wistful notes.” Join us for a birthday think-piece fun-fest, after the jump.

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What we learned from Time Magazine’s list of the best and worst senators: MORE »

Listen carefully, there will be a quiz. MORE »

Today, I’m angry at… MORE »

We’ve liberated The Washingtonian’s “50 Best and Most Influential Journalists” list from Nexis, taking for granted that no one cares about the 500 words explaining criteria and* We’ve extracted the names from the Washingtonian’s list of D.C.’s “50 Best and Most Influential Journalists” and its sidebars, assuming that those of you who need two-sentence bios of each person can still run out and buy a copy (hey, THE STICK is on the cover) and the rest of you would just rather skip the context and carp and whine about who’s on the list. And, more interestingly, who’s not. The list skews heavily male (with only seven chicks, unless you count Dana Milbank), heavily white and heavily heavy (Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Tom Shales) . No bloggers, except in the sidebars, where AMERICABLOGGER (! Stars, stripes, cue music!) John Avarosis gets a shout out.

More lacunae: Matt Cooper escapes mention, tho his colleague Mike Allen and co-martyr Judy Miller are both on it. Snarky WP ex-WHC Milbank gets a nod over the Post’s current White House reporters. And while we heartily approve of not considering bloggers journalists (though we don’t consider Maureen Dowd one either, and she’s on there), tossing out the entire internet seems, well, obtuse: Jack Shafer’s meth addiction is, apparently, for naught. Pretty much the entire list could have been put together five years ago, actually. Perhaps it was.

List and sidebars after the jump.
*Of COURSE no one asked us to take this list down. We’re this nice just all on our own. Really.

Washingtonian

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