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In this age of ubiquitous Internet-based media criticism, it seems a shame that free weeklies get a pass from the cavity search daily newspapers often receive. It's not like weeklies are doing a better job of covering whatever it is they think they cover and thus are immune from criticism; they're certainly not so alternative that there's no need for an alternative to them. The truth is I've stumbled upon a web-era first - a subject too trivial for the Internet.

Giving the local free weekly a hard time isn't too trivial for this guy! I've spent years reading New Orleans "alternative" paper - Gambit Weekly - laughing my way through one goofy story after another. My wife has ceased sharing my amusement, so I turn to the world wide web in the hope that there are three or four people who, for reasons better left unexamined, get a kick out of making fun of it.

What gets your Gambit mojo working? The learning-on-the-fly reportage of its cub reporter, L'il Jeremy Alford? The relentless minutiae of Blake Ponchartrain, the "New Orleans Know-It-All"? The Least Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Rick Barton? Clancy DuBos's weekly tizzy over Ray Nagin?

I love 'em all! But for me, nothing quite tops the astonishing triteness of Andrei Codrescu, who might be the worst thing out of Romania since Count Dracula. Post to follow, the first of many on 'drei...