This morning on NPR, a discussion of the new film The Believer made mention of the famous 1965 case on which it was based, in which New York Times reporter McCandless Phillips dscovered that Ku Klux Klan organizer Daniel Burros was Jewish. Burros threatened to kill himself if this fact was made public. It was, and he did.

So, here's a question for discussion:

You have a newsworthy, factually-accurate story ready to go to press (or weblog or whatever), but a subject of that story has threatened to kill himself if you publish it. What do you do? Do you publish the story anyway? Withdraw the story? Report the suicide threat to law enforcment or mental health professionals, and then publish it anyway?

Does it make any difference to your answer what sort of person the subject is?

If you do publish the story, are you in any way responsible if the subject proceeds to kill himself as threatened?

I've been working out the math...

Had I received my much-anticipated sabbatical, it would have been paid at 90% of my salary for the 3-month period. This works out to 22.5% of my annual salary. Since the sabbatical option comes once every 5 years, this works out to the equivalent of a 5.5% annual bonus.

So, my new philosophy is that when the new job offer from the new parent company lands on my desk next week, I will ask them to add 5.5% to the salary, or else give me a 22.5% bonus up-front. I bloody well earned it, after all.

If they say no, the old parent company is making noise about wanting to hire me, which would probably actually be a downgrade in corporate culture, but I might consider it. I'd also have to live in Princeton.

Did I mention that mergers suck?

As part of the ongoing Chinese fire drill that is our merger, I "get" to visit the outgoing parent company's headquarters in New York next week. Correction: not quite. I'm not going to Manhattan, but Princeton. I really wanted Manhattan.

What do you do in Princeton? I can't think of anything other than "drive to the city and find something to do there". That's the plan I'm going with, assuming I can get approval for a rental car I can take to Manhattan.

Failing that, maybe park at the ferry and take the ferry? Or is there a regular train to/from Princeton?

Whatever. I bloody well intend to make the most of it. My missions include: catch Ida and/or Dan Littleton shows if there are any while I am there, visit Kinokuniya bookshop for cool manga/anime stuff, attempt to hang out with ex-roomie Phil if I can get in touch with him, and maybe attempt to locate and chill with Kyle Fischer, who was in my high school class and is now an indie rock star living in Brooklyn (he's in Rainer Maria).

I probably know other people in the area, so New Yorkers, if you know me and you're reading this, drop me a line and we'll meet up next week.

While I'm gone, site updates may be sparse to non-existent. I'll bring back stories and pictures, though.

Princeton. Did I mention that mergers suck?