Thain's Wee Payday

THAIN MY NAME, THAIN MY NAME John Thain, Merrill Lynch CEO Finance

• Merrill Lynch's three top execs may get their combined $200-million in payouts no matter what happens. CEO John Thain has just been there since December, so he may get only $11 million if he leaves now. Also! All three may get stabbed on the street.

• Ha ha, here are all the finance magazines that recently told you to buy Merrill Lynch and Lehman and AIG and stuff.

Politics

• Barbra Streisand's Barack Obama event raised something like $10.5 million for Obama and the DNC. Here are some text messages from inside the event that make it sound fairly dull!

Media

• In the age of the e-mail forward, newspapers and magazines don't stand a chance.

• HuffPo traffic: way up!

Entertainment

• The long-time chief of the wig department of the Metropolitan Opera has died.

Random

• Here is the strange biography of the Metrolink train engineer who died in California's recent disastrous crash.