News about the passing of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti broke after midnight today.

The Globe and Mail did well to hustle the following onto page A17 of its Toronto edition:

Beloved tenor, Pavarotti, dead at 71

The left-most column of page A17 was the A book's In Brief section. Unfortunately, it contained the following as the second item from the top, putting it adjacent to the main Pavarotti story:

Pavarotti's health reportedly failing

AP

September 6, 2007

Rome -- Luciano Pavarotti's health has deteriorated and the tenor was in serious condition, suffering kidney problems and losing consciousness, a local Italian TV station reported yesterday.

The AGI news agency said the 71-year-old tenor, who has pancreatic cancer, was in "very serious condition." It didn't name its sources.

At least one former BGMI colleague noticed the juxtaposition as well. However, I call it a "there but for the grace of God" moment.

From NYT.com:

If more proof were needed that the rich are different, it could be found on aSmallWorld.net, an invitation-only social networking site.

“I need to rent 20 very luxury sports cars for an event in Switzerland on the 6th September,” a member wrote recently on the Forum, aSmallWorld’s popular nucleus. “The cars should be: Maserati — Ferrari — Lamborghini — Aston Martin ONLY!”

Another announced: “If anyone is looking for a private island, I now have one available for purchase in Fiji.”

Founded four years ago, the site, promoted as a Facebook for the social elite, has grown from about 500 members to about 150,000 registered users. At a time when Christina Aguilera has 466,550 MySpace friends, aSmallWorld has attempted to create an Internet niche by cultivating an air of exclusivity.

The site functions much like an inscrutable co-op board: its members, who pay no fee, induct newcomers on the basis of education, profession and most important, their network of personal contacts. Sleeker than MySpace or Facebook, aSmallWorld.net is not the type of site where one is likely to come across videos of amateur motorcycle stunts or girls in bikinis.