Income of an average Comair flight attendant, according to a federal bankruptcy filing. The filings, in association with Delta's bankruptcy, seek to void the labor contract with Comair's 1,100 flight attendants. Delta and Comair officials say Comair's future is at risk if the company cannot obtain $8.9 million in annual compensation cuts from the attendants, whose wages start at about $16,000 a year and top out around $40,000.

The filing (pdf) reported that Comair lost $120 million in 2005. The company reported an operating profit of $28.4 million through the first three quarters of 2005 on forms required by the federal government.

Which leads us to this nomination for Quote of the Day:

"We can't find where Comair lost money. They are using numbers that can't be substantiated, and won't give us the formula for how they came up with those figures."
-- Connie Slayback, president of Teamsters Local 513.

I'm totally not trying to horn in on all those dedicated sports bloggers out there, but it's gotta mean something when I see Andy Kennedy's name this many places in one day.

Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News thinks he's become the leading contender to continue in the job of Head Bearcat. A couple days ago, DeCourcy noted that UC's NCAA Tourney chances have been looking up recently.

Paul Daugherty says interviewing AK is more than a courtesy now while pondering whether the former UAB star might want to start over somewhere else. (Like, Indiana or Missouri?)

C. Trent Rosecrans notes there's a small but growing conference Coach of the Year campaign for the new Wizard of Clifton Ave.

My musical tastes tend to be a bit different from most of our staff. And, under the heading "Young People Doing Interesting Things," I've thought we should do some sort of story on the Azmari Quartet, the resident string players at Northern Kentucky University. Guess we missed our chance: NKU silencing string quartet.

Photo: The Azmari Quartet, from left, Meghan Casper, viola, Min Tze Wu, violin, Rebecca Merblum, cello, and Christina Merblum, violin. The Enquirer/GARY LANDERS

With the exception of having to smell the incredibly filthy phonecam-wielding high-school hipster sitting next to me, the Sigur Ros concert at Taft last night was one of the best I've ever seen. Anyone else reading this see the show? What did you think?

We hear a rumor that recently opened downtown restaurant The News has closed.

That's all we have for now. We'll let you know if we hear more.

In the spirit of our Number of the Week feature, a few digits jumped out while perusing the morning's news.

900 - Lonnie Billiter Jr. rolled 36 consecutive strikes Monday night. Assuming everything checks out with the United States Bowling Congress, he would be only the eighth person to roll a sanctioned perfect 900 since records started being kept in the 1890s.

10,000 - Starting in April, Northgate Mall will receive a $40 million face-lift. Slated to be completed by Christmas 2007, the makeover includes a new skin covering the mall's entire facade and a 14- to 16-screen cinema -- with stadium seating -- implanted into its southern extremes. The mall should gain 10,000 square feet of retail and grow to 1.15 million.

3.8 - Delta Air Lines lost $3.8 billion in 2005, including $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter, the company reported Tuesday night.

I can't sleep so I've spent the last hour reading the latest reports about Vice President/inept hunter Dick Cheney. For some inexplicable reason, I've written a haiku. I call it If Game Birds Could Talk:

Quail in Texas say
Please don't kill us, Dick Cheney
Go shoot the lawyer

Hey, my high school history teacher is running for Congress! (Well, not yet - she's running for the Democratic nomination.)

I haven't seen Ms. Downey in years, but I remember her as a smart and capable teacher who actually made me do my homework. Good luck to her.

P.S. Oh, um, our lawyers - or Katie, whatever - suggest that I point out that this in no way indicates the endorsement of Ms. Downey by CiN Weekly, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Gannett Inc., or any affiliated media organizations thereof. Void where prohibited. Sorry, Tennessee.

P.P.S. Hat tip (or other appropriate cliche) to Brian.

The Bengals found a new stand-in for Carson Palmer while The Franchise heals, signing the guy who used to be Mike Vick's backup -- Doug Johnson:

The Enquirer - Bengals add QB Johnson: "A lot of things appealed to me about Cincinnati. I can come in and immediately get a lot of reps in minicamp and training camp. They know I have started and come off the bench as a backup. They like my arm strength. They like to throw the ball downfield to their talented wide receivers."

One of the knocks on soon-to-be free agent Jon Kitna is he doesn't have the arm to throw downfield, thus constricting the Bengals offense. The Post reports that the Bengals will explore keeping him around though.

Kitna is due to become an unrestricted free agent March 2 and he has told the team that he wants to test the open market with the desire of competing for a starting position with another team.

That won't stop the team from trying to re-sign Kitna, who just completed his ninth season, the last five with the Bengals, and knows the offense of coordinator Bob Bratkowski as well as anyone. If Kitna signs elsewhere, the Bengals are expected to sign at least one other veteran free agent to compete with Johnson and [Craig] Krenzel for the backup spots.

Sadly, knowing the offense and being able to take advantage of all it can do seem to be two different things. Johnson might be better suited to taking over for Palmer, heaven forbid it ever becomes necessary again.

Dear readers and current hott band of the week the High Strung,

I'm sorry for the misinformation in this week's music notes. If you pick up CiN this week you'll see a lovely photo of indie rockers the High Strung, and a nice write-up. Everything's true - the band's songs are quirky and great. (And, as you'll see in this photo, sometimes they wear really cute white suits with blue stars).

But, they're not opening for Robert Pollard at the Southgate House on Saturday. (Instead you'll see Times New Viking.)

To see the High Strung, head to the Comet (4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside) at 10 p.m. Friday. The show is free.

Um, and keep reading my music column. I'll promise not to confuse you anymore!

I told you the wings were huge.....just ask Dave.

On one of the last nice days this past Fall at Mr Gene's, several members of the CiN staff were sitting around a picnic table talking about creating a "Wing Team". We wanted to go on a wing "quest", or a wing journey, if you will. Not really to even find the best wings around, but just to go and eat and tell you what we experienced. Definitely not scientific, no rhyme or reason, just people who like wings and the crazy things that happen when we try something like this. Well, today the journey begins......

Today's team consisted of Tyler, Jamie, and of course, Dave.
Destination: Zola's, Mainstrasse, Covington
Reason: 30 cent wings
Bonus: Can Dave eat 30 of Zola's wings?

Order:
Jamie - 15 wings, 10 medium, 5 hot
Tyler - 20 wings, hot
Dave - 30 wings, 15 regular mild, 15 garlic mild

First of all, these wings are huge! Very crispy, temperature nice and hot when served, and not too hot on the spicy end of things.

Side note: the bleu cheese that they serve at Zola's is awesome, very thick, seems like it's homemade.

Dave, right from the start had a bad feeling about 30, he mentioned something about eating a large quantity of chocolate covered raisins for a mid-morning snack.
Then when the oversized wings made their appearance, he really looked concerned.

I conservatively went with 15, which turned out to be a good move. I was very satisfied, and pleased that I at least ate what I ordered without needing a medic.

Tyler made it through his first 18 without much problem and then looked like he was done. Just to put a little heat on Dave, he finished his last 2, to put up a 20.

Dave seemed pained the whole way(as the video will show) and made it just past 20.

Our waitress offered to pay for each of our meals if Dave could finish all 30. Normally, a challenge that he would have attempted, but those damn raisins ruined it for everyone. It was also thrown out there that for each wing not consumed that a shot of some type be substituted( I know we work at CiN, but it is a Monday, and it is lunch ) Management will probably be removed from further wing teams if this offer is continued to be given.

Hope you enjoy the video as much as Dave did, and check out some upcoming photos(you'll see how big these wings are)....and if you want to enjoy some enormous 30 cent wings on Monday's....go to Zola's. This is not a paid advertisement, believe me, I'm the sales manager ... they're just good wings.

We'll be back soon with a new location ... when wings sound good again.

Today AOL Music has premiered our favorite hometown pop star's new single, "What's Left of Me." Sad! The song ... well, judge for yourself.

"Watch my life pass me by in the rearview mirror
Pictures frozen in time are becoming clearer
I don't want to waste another day
Stuck in the shadow of my mistakes.. yeahhhhh
Cause I want you and I need you..

etc etc

Later he says he's "Half the man I used to be.. but you can have what's left of me."


What do we think? Is this his big comeback?

I know this isn't newsy, but I just want to reaffirm my love for WOXY.com. If you don't know what I'm talking about, find out now! Fire up your iTunes and go to the radio area, then down to alt/modern rock and find WOXY. You can also go to the site and pick your player.

Some inspiring songs from the last hour:

The Raconteurs 'Store Bought Bones' (this is the much-talked-about Jack White/Brendan Benson/Greenhornes combo band)

The Apparitions 'God Monkey Robot' (Lexington band that played alchemize on 1/26)

The Afghan Whigs 'Going to Town'(classic Cincy alt band)

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness 'According to Plan' (danceable NY post-punk sorta stuff)

The Decemberists 'Eli, The Barrow Boy' (folksy-pop from Portland)


So great...

Also worth browsing the site for WOXY Vintage, the Lounge Acts archive, message boards and more.

Now it's back to editing the cover story before Jon gives me a look... Oh, and now Belle and Sebastian is playing. Perfect!!

Since it's the week of the Super Bowl and they did away with our Sports Roundtable blog months ago (so what other outlet do I have?), I figured I might try to get away with a quick sports-related blog post.

I'm not a huge Nick Bakay fan, but I did get a chuckle out of one line from his Xtra Large blog on NFL.com ...

"Anyone else getting the feeling that the best thing to happen to CFL in years might just be Marcus Vick to Chris Henry?"

Ouch.