Times Staffers, Everyone Else, Passing Off Press Badges

There's a strict caste system for press passes in Denver. There's the perimeter pass, which gets you inside the general media area, which takes up a large portion of the parking lot to the Pepsi Center; a hall pass which gets you inside the Pepsi Center, but only throughout the concourse; and then there's the super pass, the Floor pass, which gets you in the inside of the arena, where you'd find Michelle Obama giving a speech.

Many media outlets--including us!--only have a handful of the Floor passes, so reporters have to trade off so the Floor Pass and the Hall Pass can circulate around. According to Rick Berke, assistant managing editor of the Times, who was wearing a perimeter pass, that's exactly what the paper of record is doiing. And Gail Collins, with her perimeter pass in hand, was wondering aloud who she could do a trade-off with.