Today's Idiot Reporter Award

Today's award for Most Idiotic Reporter Around goes to the NY Times' Allan Ripp, who, in a moment of weakness, engaged with a group of young toughs who were gathered 'neath the scaffolding of a construction site near his office.

The kid who shoved me just sneered while another told me to put my hands down and added a few choice insults. I looked more intently at the first one — he was slight and baby-faced, and I thought I might be able to engage him with a fatherly stare. I started to offer him a handshake to see if that would elicit an apology. He looked back with utter contempt, which was the last thing I saw before I was hit in the head.

Fatherly stare? Good lord. Handshake? Why does this elicit thoughts of Ignatius J. Reilly? After much agonized thinking about the encounter, he concludes

I grind out 350 push-ups every day and spend hours on the Lifecycle. But though I’m a capable fighter, no kid is going to let me warm up and stretch for 10 minutes before we get going.

Uh, yeah.