Soprano Sings.

“Mr. Chase said the show has, on occasion, ‘indirectly heard’ from real-life mobsters. ‘After about four episodes,’ Mr. Chase said, ‘we heard, “You’re O.K.” With one caveat: “We got word about those barbecue scenes where Jim would wear shorts. A don does not wear shorts.”‘” On the eve of Sopranos Season 6 (the penultimate season, to be followed with an eight-episode coda), series creator David Chase and star James Gandolfini have a sit-down with the NYT.

The Most Dangerous Game.

Will these terrorists stop at nothing? As you may have heard, an evildoer tried to jump our Vice-President yesterday deep in the South Texas woods. (Well, either that, or Cheney botched a hit, a la Christopher and Paulie on The Sopranos.) At any rate, both veep and alleged perp/target (Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney) are doing fine (notwithstanding the whole being shot thing), and, for what it’s worth, Scalia got the message. Update: Dick Cheney, Hunter-Stonewaller.

Check it with Chertoff.

Rick Perlstein’s recent comparison of Dubya and The Sopranos is given more credence with the revelation that Homeland Security nominee Michael Chertoff also vetted torture law for the Bushies in 2002-2003. “While the details remain classified, one method that he opposed appeared to violate a ban in the law against using a ‘threat of imminent death’…But Mr. Chertoff left the door open to the use of a different set of far harsher techniques proposed by the C.I.A.” Hmmm…and you thought Tom Ridge knew some crazy uses for duct tape.