Salma Hayek and her co-stars from the movie Grown Ups were doing a promotional interview with “Extra,” a snake slithered up to them. No one was pleased, but Hayek in particular was all freaked out with no where to go.

A few weeks ago, I shared the story about the gag “tourist” and “New Yorker” sidewalk lane markers that mysteriously appeared on a New York City sidewalk. Now the improv team behind the prank has come forward, with a video clip and photos of how it was done.

There’s really nothing to this story other than the fact that I wanted to share the quirk of the Billboard chart I was looking at tonight. Taylor Swift’s Fifteen is the number 15 song on the Adult Contemporary chart.

It may be called New York magazine but from the links it posts on Twitter you’d be forgiven for thinking it was based in Antigua and Barbuda. That’s because the magazine has started using .ag as a link shortener. These short URLs are quickly becoming the vanity plates of the Internet. By the same logic, readers of Pat’s Papers may think we’re based in Serbia when they see our .rs suffix, but we really we just wanted a quick way to spell out pape.rs. 

I think the AP Stylebook is more important than ever in our world of instant journalism. I’d love to have three copy editors over my shoulder for every tweet and blog entry, but without that a good reference book for style and language usage is a big help. The 2010 edition of the Stylebook is out today, with new words like “unfriend” and official status for terms such as “app” and the “Great Recession.”

If the President “will not rest” until the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is capped, why was he spending time on a basketball court with Marv Albert?

Imagine the surprise when BP’s public relations department let this gem loose on the unsuspecting Twitter-verse: “I’ve gotta say, at night the gulf really doesn’t look that bad.” No, it’s not a corporate version of reverse psychology - it’s a fake Twitter feed set up in the wake of the company’s embarrassing oil spill.

Two-year-old Walker Ciorobea was featured on the Today Show this morning. The kid’s talent? He can name any car on the road. VIDEO

Maybe it’s because I’m stuck at work on a sunny Memorial Day. But the summer cocktails in the New York Post look particularly appealing. Among the offerings: an iced tea/rum punch blend, and a Caipirinha with a strawberry twist.