All things New Yorkerish might be focused on the magazine's current cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama as a terrorist duo. But the New Yorker's Web site a few weeks ago launched a playground of a blog for its cartoonists who, most of the time (not getting the joke of a New Yorker cartoon being part of the joke) make us laugh blessedly without second thoughts. It's called the Cartoon Lounge.

As you'd expect from New Yorker cartoonists the entries have the sharpness of pith helmets ("Since I only work about fifteen minutes a week, I have a lot of time to follow my dreams and do what I’m passionate about: painting historical portraits of Paul Giamatti as television’s John Adams," Zachary Kanin tells us).

The Lounge's genius doodlers have been getting plenty of mileage lately out of the United Arab Emirates' Burj Dubai, the $4.1 billion tower that should reach 2,684 feet when completed next year, becoming the tallest structure in the world. Last week Farley Katz took off on the thing: "[I]t will stand nearly half a mile tall and will have only one bathroom—the fewest bathrooms of any skyscraper. Truly incredible. Never before has man conceived of a building while so drunk." The next day Katz compared another Dubai scraper in the works--architect David Fisher's rotating tower--to a game of Jenga.

Matthew Diffee just penned my favorite ding at Dubai, an interview with, well, Dubai. Here's an excerpt:

Dubai: Seriously though, can they really make a car out of diamonds?

Cartoon Lounge: I don’t know, man. Probably.

Dubai: Sweet.

CL: See that’s exactly what I’m saying. Just because you can do something, if you have the money to do it, doesn’t mean you should do it.

Dubai: Uh, what?

CL: Because it makes you look like a shallow moron. Don’t be that guy. Nobody likes that guy.

Dubai: I’ve got tons of friends.

CL: Look, man, I wouldn’t be a real friend to you right now if I didn’t tell you this: You’re surrounded by people that only like you for your money.

Dubai: Yep.

CL: Dude, that’s not a good thing. You should try to actually learn to do something to distinguish yourself that doesn’t involve throwing a lot of cash around. Sure some equally shallow idiots might like you, for a little while, but… See the thing is, money isn’t the best basis to build relationships on.

Dubai: How would you know? You’re idea of a good time is, like, a book.

CL: Uh yeah, touché. You really got me there.

Dubai: Besides, my gross national product is in excess of thirty-seven billion, so screw you.

CL: Yeah, but that’s nearly all oil. What happens when your oil reserves dry up in less than twenty years, which is what everyone’s saying, by the way.

Dubai: Who cares, man. That’s twenty years from now. Anyway, we’ve got tourism too.

CL: Your tourism is based entirely on people coming to gawk at your colossal stacks of glass. What happens when you can’t afford to keep the lights on. I’m just telling you—you want to be known for producing something of real value not just something that’s expensive. I mean if you were a musician, who would you rather be, Dylan or Diddy?

Dubai: Uh, Diddy, obviously. Have you seen his house?

CL: I don’t even know why we’re friends. I really don’t.

Read the full interview.