True to form

As always, we are our own worst enemies. This time, it couldn't happen to a better person:

For as Barbara Amiel Black, in the company of her husband and stepdaughter, advanced into an elevator in the federal courthouse here in Chicago, she turned on two journalists, Stefani Langenegger of CBC Radio News and Joanna Walters of The Daily Express, and, clearly losing track of the script that she should be following in the many weeks ahead, snapped.

This is what she said: "You are all vermin."

The "you" in question would be the throng of media assigned to cover the fraud and racketeering trial of the downfallen media baron, Conrad Black. According to the two journalists in question, Amiel, just seconds before the doors closed, lashed out at a television producer with an even more ill-starred choice of words. Or rather, word.

This is what she said: "Slut."

...

The tragedy for Barbara Amiel is that her intemperate comments filled a waning news void. Prior to her outburst, a group of male Brit journalists had been engaged in a spirited discussion as to how best to describe Amiel's attire.

"Hacking jacket."

"Riding jacket."

"Hacket jacket."

And the shirt: burgundy or rust? The worst that any journalist could have dished on Amiel was that her chosen colours weren't all that becoming.

It matters not now.