Does Hiller sing like Nero fiddled?

I'm happy for Times Publisher David Hiller that on June 5 he'll live his dream and sing the national anthem before the Cubs game at Dodger Stadium. (Back in February he hoped to be asked.) But it's hard not to be struck by the symbolism. There's so much anxiety in his building about rumors of deep newsroom layoffs in June that a private lunch the other day between top editors and a select group of young (under 30) reporters set off paranoia about whether the cuts would unfairly target veterans. The lunch was to hear ideas about how to attract younger readers, but I hear the reporters there were told by Editor Russ Stanton that a tough couple of months looms but they don't have anything to worry about. So now the middle-aged, the old and the young staffers who weren't invited aren't feeling too chipper. The newsroom betting is that this round of cuts will go after editors, since a recent inventory concluded there are more editors than there ought to be based on the Tribune's formulas.

By the way: Hiller's game is also Takashi Saito bobblehead night.