Agence-Vleeptron Presse Thursday Apology

Soane's Magician
The Tragic Genius of Joseph Michael Gandy
An exhibition at the Soane Gallery
[London, free admission]
from 31 March to 12 August 2006

Unlike The New Yorker, which is renowned throughout journalism for its scrupulous and superthorough fact-checking, Agence-Vleeptron Presse has a rather small staff, which it pays pathetic sub-minimum wage to and overworks mercilessly. (One nearby newspaper defended itself in a lawsuit about its employment practices by arguing that Journalists are Professionals, and therefore exempt from state and federal Labor Laws.)

So sometimes little mistakes slip through the Agence-Vleeptron Presse editorial machinery.

In a recent post about the campaign to preserve Net Neutrality, the illustration was identified as

Elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate discuss pending federal legislation with telecommunications industry lobbyists on a recent all-expenses-paid trip to an exclusive Caribbean island resort which you could never afford.

A-VP has now learned this was not accurate. The illustration is actually "The Orgy" by the English artist William Hogarth, from his series "The Rake's Progress," painted in 1733-34. It hangs in Sir John Soane's Museum, a joint we confess we had never heard of before, in London.

So all those people in various stages of intoxication and dishabille are not really elected members of the U.S. Congress and Senate.

We apologize for any misunderstanding or embarrassment this may have caused Tom DeLay or Bill Frist or Hillary Rodham Clinton or the guy from Ohio who's probably going down pretty soon for his unusually intimate relationship with the convicted lobbyist.

This is what happens when you let tabloid paparazzi supply your photos. We should have been more alert to this possibility. A-VP has stopped payment on its check to Paparazziyobbo, and will no longer be buying photos from Ryan Todd Scott Zbuqq.

Meanwhile we direct our readers' attention to this remarkable London museum ...

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Welcome to the web page of the house and Museum of Sir John Soane, R.A., architect.

Soane was born in 1753, the son of a bricklayer, and died after a long and distinguished career, in 1837.

Soane designed this house to live in, but also as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived here alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. Having been deeply disappointed by the conduct of his two sons, one of whom survived him, he determined to establish the house as a museum to which 'amateurs and students' should have access.

IMPORTANT VISITOR INFORMATION

Owing to the current high alert security situation, large bags or suitcases cannot be taken into the Museum. All bags may be searched as a condition of entry. We regret that large bags and suitcases cannot be accommodated in the Museum.

Unfortunately we cannot accomodate prams or pushchairs in the Musuem. They can be left in the porch by the entrance if there is space, and at the owner's risk.

We are just a short walk from Holborn Tube Station on the Central Line.