Welcome to The Faster Times update. In today's edition, we bring you Gingrich fallout, how to dispose of a dead whale, Lebron James in a golf cart, Justin Taylor's Hong Kong travels, wine, a second recession and one woman's Weiner reaction. Enjoy!

Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s senior campaign staff has resigned en masse. According to Politico, at least six major Republican staffers, including Gingrich’s campaign manager, left the embattled nominee today. What led him to this point? Where can he go from here?

On Wednesday morning, a dead finback whale washed up in front of The Sands Beach Club in Atlantic Beach. An article in the Long Island Press stated that the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, “will arrange for the whale’s disposal.” So how exactly might one dispose of a 40-foot long whale?

We’ve all seen NBA players heckled by fans and followed by cameras when they leave the stadium after games. We watch these videos and uncover certain aspects of a player’s personality that’s not available during the game. For instance, we notice that Dirk Nowitzki usually dresses well but not in a gaudy way. While he keeps his clothes neat with a button-up tucked into khakis, his hair stays shaggy. It’s a look that suggests simultaneous class and grit. He’s perfectly put together in a way that demands respect. Lebron James and Dwyane Wade, however, seem literally tailored to create an opposite impression.

I make most of my living as an adjunct professor. A few years ago, I started spending one month out of my cyclical unemployment (read: summer break) with my cousin Caryn and her family in Hong Kong. Even after several extended visits, there are still new sights to see, foods to try, trails to hike, etc., but I find myself less and less inclined to play the tourist. Most days, I’d rather leave the camera and guidebooks in my suitcase and experience this city the way I experience my own, New York: as another anonymous urbanite making his way.

If wine matters—if it can be said to matter at all—then what we’re looking for is an antidote to oblivion. A bottle’s imposition on memory, its ability to make us think and reflect, is the function that distinguishes it from daily sustenance, from what we call, prosaically, “a drink.” For the most part, the wines I remember vividly haven’t been the best-made or the most expensive. In his delightfully unstuffy Making Sense of Wine, Matt Kramer defines a serious imbiber as someone “who can distinguish between what he or she likes, and what is good.” Oddly, the difficult part of that equation tends to be the former. With a few keystrokes in Google, hundreds of commentators and even genuine experts will inform you whether a bottle is “good,” probably because it isn’t all that difficult—despite protestations of modesty, most of us can tell an excellent wine from a bland one. More perplexing is figuring out what about it matters to us, and why.

Early yesterday, the Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims report for the week ending June 4. It shows an increase from the previous week. The figures came as a surprise to many economists who expected the claims to decrease. Several states cite layoffs in the construction and manufacturing sectors as a cause of their higher unemployment numbers. Those assertions may fuel predictions that the economy is heading into a double-dip recession.

As a woman, I know that I am probably supposed to be outraged. How could he do such a thing to his poor wife? And yet, as a wife myself, I have to say that if I found out my husband was sending crotch and/or chest shots to women he had never met online, I am pretty sure I would laugh and laugh and laugh.