Ah, summer, when everyone whose job relies on news should have a three-month vacation. But almost none of us do, so we of the media have to fall back on old standbys like animals, folk heroes, strange crimes, the gruesome quirks of the elderly, overly obsessive coverage of celebrity weddings, and, of course, mass hysteria of a non-life-threatening nature. In a non-presidential-election summer, a writer can ride a Steve Slater story, with all its “developments,” all the way to Labor Day. (And believe me, we all will.) And honestly, as a reader, slow-news-day stories can be the most fun, especially when the other news is depressing. Here’s a sampling of the milking-it news memes — let’s call them Montauk Monsters, for old time’s sake — of the summer of 2010.
