All Derek Fenton wanted was to exercise his God-given right to trash somebody else’s God. But he hadn’t planned on making himself a martyr:

The protester who burned pages from the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero has been fired from NJTransit, sources and authorities said Tuesday.

Derek Fenton’s 11-year career at the agency came to an abrupt halt Monday after photographs of him ripping pages from the Muslim holy book and setting them ablaze appeared in newspapers…

“Mr. Fenton’s public actions violated New Jersey Transit’s code of ethics,” an agency statement said.

While a New Jersey “code of ethics” amuses us to no end, and we’re more than pleased to see a jerk get jerked, we’re actually mildly concerned: There’s nothing illegal about torching scripture, and the apparent principle invoked could work both ways.

But Derek’s a big boy — he can always call his local ACLU office, which we’re sure someone like him has always held in the hightest esteem.

Koran burner Derek Fenton booted from his job at NJ Transit [NY Daily News]

Image: Landover Baptist Church

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“ACORN may not exist anymore but 20% of Americans still think (or at least say they think) it will steal the election to keep Democrats in control of Congress this fall. That does represent a decrease from last fall in ACORN’s perceived ability to steal an election. In November we found 26% of people thought the organization had stolen the 2008 Presidential contest for Barack Obama.” [Public Policy Polling]

“Ernest Withers, a revered civil rights photographer, who captured iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night he was shot in Memphis, actually played a different role the day before: FBI informant.” Withers didn’t take the balcony photos, but they were developed in his studio. [Yahoo, Memphis Commercial Appeal]

Having designed a fair amount of publications over the years —books, magazines, tabloids — we know a thing or three about fonts. Not just display fonts — someone once dared us to find a legitimate use for Comic Sans — but much more importantly, text fonts, the stuff you actually read. Especially if you’re reading at length.

It’s not a question of “readability” as such, but of — pardon the pun — character. Set a given piece in twelve different fonts, and it’ll read in twelve different voices. Some fonts resist their material. Some will make you read too fast for the purpose, or too slow. (We recently set a technogeek thriller in Times New Roman, because that was the only font that made sense for a page-turner. Newspaper fonts are designed for skimming, and that book demanded to be skimmed.)

What you’re looking for — especially if you’re setting a book — is a font that becomes “invisible” to the text, a font that lets you read without thinking about reading. It’s a craft, not a science. It takes judgment, and a good eye.

And it’s why a lot of books suck. They weren’t born bad. They were set that way.

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You don’t know him, but Don Unsworth is dead: “In lieu of flowers the family respectfully asks that donations be sent to the American Cancer Society, or to the campaign of anybody who is running against President Barack Obama in 2012.” [WIS-TV]