If you like solving mazes you’ll want to pick up today’s Wall Street Journal. Joe Wos of Pittsburg has drawn a 35-foot-long, 4-foot-wide maze. He’s going for a world record but there’s just one catch: someone has to be able to solve it first. And Wos says he’s not 100 percent sure there’s a way to do that. If it is possible, Wos thinks it will take anywhere between 30 and 40 hours.

The NHL’s latest lockout began yesterday, after a collective bargaining agreement ran out at midnight.  So what will happen if players can’t play here because of the lockout?  The New York Times says if 2004 is any indication, a lot of them will pack their bags and take jobs in Europe.

A day after the NFL kicked out replacement official Brian Stropolo for being a Saints fan, Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorensen writes: “Saw a guy at Bank of America Stadium, big-time New Orleans guy. He wore the colors of the Saints and Bourbon Street Beads. He ate bread pudding and red beans and rice. He drank Jax beer and Abita. He yelled ‘Who dat?’ I figured he was a side judge.”

Get ready for a diva showdown on “American Idol.”  Nicki Minaj has signed to host the Fox show with Mariah Carey. The New York Post says “the Minaj-Carey matchup follows the proven formula of mixing oil and water—à la former judges Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell—to stir up ratings.” Keith Urban and Randy Jackson will be there too to temper any diva explosions.

Mi Pueblo is a California-based chain of grocery stores catering to Mexican immigrants. It was founded by a illegal immigrant and all the chain’s employees are bilingual with their hometown in Mexico displayed on their name tag. The LA Times says considering all that, its decision to voluntarily participate in the federal government’s e-Verify program, which checks the immigration status of all new hires, has prompted the ire of regulars and immigration reformers.

There’s a new look coming to a bar near you. Heineken is keeping its beer the same but changing up its iconically squat bottle. The Wall Street Journal says the slimmer design is the latest move in an all-out “bottle war” as established breweries try to distinguish themselves from the pack.  Heineken’s new bottle is 1.25 inches taller than the old one, and has a thumb groove, designed to “encourage drinkers to hold the bottle lower down, keeping the beer colder.”

David Carr’s column in the New York Times this morning is excellent. He’s writing about a troubling trend for journalists, namely that more and more interviewees demand the right to approve quotes that appear in an article. It’s a problem that’s spread from the Beltway to Wall Street to big media companies. Carr says the result “isn’t exactly news and isn’t exactly a news release, but contains elements of both.”