Flowery New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr is stepping down from that job to become the "curator of olfactory art" at the Museum of Arts and Design. Is this the end of an era of scent-based pretension?

Ralph Lauren's has released a new perfume called "Notorious." And just the name alone has Chandler Burr, the New York Times's resident "scent expert," up in arms. From his latest column:

The holidays turn our thoughts to love and family. But the "m4m" section of Craigslist, usually a venue for anonymous hookups, is a strange place to begin one's soulmate quest. That didn't stop one reporter!

In one of the odder contretemps of our time, New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr has gone off on gossip sheet Page Six over their description of Out magazine as a "gay-lifestyle mag." Says Burr: "'gay lifestyle' is a purely political term with a purely political meaning, and it's simply, factually inaccurate." We're siding with him on this: Out is obviously a "gay lifestyle magazine" but it is not a "gay-lifestyle magazine." We find Burr's understanding of hyphenation and compound adjectives rather unspeakably hot, and now we would very much like him to criticize our perfumes, if you know what we mean, wink wink. But more importantly: Is the "gay lifestyle mag" in trouble? Its ad pages are looking rough.

Times cologne critic Chandler Burr got accused of an ethical blunder. Last week a correspondent going by the name of Ellsworth Toohey sent around the following complaint, asking: "Is it ethical for New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr to charge all comers a fee of $200 a head to have dinner with him — and for Mr. Burr to hand out a "goody bag" of perfumes to each guest — at the end of the evening? That is what Mr. Burr is now doing with a series of "scent dinners" he is holding at various luxurious Rosewood Hotels around the U.S., including recently at the Carlyle Hotel in New York and coming up at properties including the Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas."

This weekend brings another issue of T magazine, the New York Times Magazine ancillary publication that keeps multiplying thematically like a Styles section on steroids. And what have the Sunday brunching citizens of the city to look forward to this weekend?