Maureen Dowd Wishes Everyone a Merry Xmas, and Totally Phones It In

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Doree Shafrir

12/26/06 12:50PM

Filed to: Maureen Dowd

This image was lost some time after publication.

On Christmas weekend, what's a Times Op-Ed columnist to do? You can write about poverty, like Paul Krugman, or about the ongoing misery in New Orleans, like Bob Herbert. Or you could go the Maureen Dowd route, and just call up Donald Trump and ask him what he thinks about a whole bunch of shit:

Winding up 2006, I asked the celebrity arbiter of who-can-stay and who-must-go about redemption.
In the case of Hollywood's overexposed and underdressed young ladies of the night, Mr. Trump judiciously notes that in some cases, carousing is good for your career. His rule is, the more talented you are, the less you should mindlessly party. But if mindlessly partying is your talent, go for it.
"Britney," he says, "doesn't carry it off as well as Paris."

There's also some stuff in there about Katie Couric, the Bush twins, and ... sorry, we fell asleep. But you're probably reconsidering your decision not to buy that Times Select membership, aren't you?

Trump Fired Up [NYT]

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jaggedlittlehelper Doree Shafrir 12/26/06 09:25PM

The funniest thing about MoDo is that she has found an imitator at the New Yorker... None other than Rick Hertzberg, who seems to want to mimic her quips about 'Poppy' and 'Rummy' and her unique style of verbal eye rolling.

The Times had been taking a queue from beer advertising when puffing up its columnists for a long time with ads reading "Genuine Bob Herbert" or "Unadulterated Paul Krugman"...

Finally the ads stopped working so Times Select was devised as a way to extract revenue from the paper's most loyal devotees while politely shielding the rest of us from MoDo, Herbert, and Krugman.

Of course MoDo phones in her work. I am sure that actually helps it.

Sadly I used to love her writing during the Clinton era. I felt that it was aggressive yet restrained. With Bush in office she just started repeating herself and making up silly names for administration officials. It was stale by his 3rd week in office.

pigfoot Doree Shafrir 12/26/06 03:35PM

The One- are you sure that's something you want to know about? I think a little ignorance here is golden. What if you never get the image out of your head?

Or maybe that's what all those TimesSelect subscribers are paying extra for. "Dear Editor- I'm a freshman at a small Midwestern college. I never believed the stories in your columns were real, until one day..."

sailor Doree Shafrir 12/26/06 01:26PM

spending any time on the phone with trump is hard work, especially when you're biting your tongue. of course the result wasn't exactly unexpected.

he is still and always the ass for our times, which is saying something these days.

The One Doree Shafrir 12/26/06 04:15PM

It's not something I want to know in detail, other than a vague "yes" or "no." And even that may be too much for the mind to handle.

Frankly, Times select is great! I haven't read a single one of her bitter spinster articles since she disappeared behind the Times Select curtain. Yea!