Chatterbox

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Matier and Ross should update the casting book for their "Movie of the Week" feature; last Sunday, they cast the very much dead Telly Savalas as Milton Friedman in Three Men and an Economy. ... Likewise, the Examiner needs to rewrite the subscription promo that appeared in the Sunday funnies that hypes only-in-the-Examiner features such as "The Insiders -- poliltics [sic]!" "The Insiders" was spiked in December and was recently replaced with "The Outsider." ... The July 10 San Francisco Bay Guardian contains no fewer than 19 self-references ("told the Bay Guardian," etc.), down from the personal best of at least 27 recorded in the July 5 issue. (The nearly universal convention is to credit other periodicals when borrowing a quote and use the more modest "says" or "said" when a source talks directly to a publication.)