Are you cool and underemployed? If so, the UrbanBaby set might want you to be a "special guest star" in their childrearing show. Meredith Berkman, who covers the mommy beat for the Sun, writes about her quest to find the perfect non-babysitter to babysit her children. "A former flirtation expert, I am legendary in my circle for picking up baby sitters in unexpected places: at the Jewish Museum shop (an Israeli rock singer); in a swimming pool (a developmental psychology graduate student), and at Wollman Rink (a skating coach who is also a student)."

From today's New York Sun:

So. You are a disgraced New York Times reporter whose bid at martyrdom failed after everyone realized that, actually, you might have led the U.S. into war. Oops!

At the conclusion of a column where she calls out Andrea Peyser for using the president of "an abortion mill" as an example of a good adoptive parent (contra Madonna) and offers thanks that the illegal masses teeming through our borders are it least Christians, resident Sun crank Alicia Colon finally cuts through the thicket of ethical issues surrounding abortion and adoption. Her proclamation?

An old person writes:

In a particularly strange twist, the prickly Pranay Gupte, formerly the writer of numerous "Lunch at the Four Seasons" puff pieces for the New York Sun, has picked up stakes and taken on the business editorship at Dubai's Khaleej Times. From his announcement:

As September 11 nears its inevitable reappearance on our calendar, Sara Berman at the New York Sun wonders how we'll tell the children. A private school counselor gives her some advice:

We're not proud of a lot of the things we do on Gawker but we're fucking beaming about this:

• Jennifer Leuzzi cannot get enough of Jo l Robuchon. It'd be nice if she let Sun readers know that they're BFF. [TGC]
• Newspaper industry believes newspapers should be more expensive. Newspaper industry also plugging ears with fingers and chanting "We can't hear you." [Independent]
• Fox, on the other hand, understands the value of its product. [TV.com]
• Simon Dumenco brings us a chilling vision of the future, where Gawker merges with Hallmark. Get ready for those "Darling, please accept my apology for being such a douchebag" cards any day now. [AdAge]

Remember the plot to murder Sun columnist Alicia Colon? You don't? Well, it happened a couple years ago, but, as the target, she hasn't forgotten. In the course of her essay today, Colon remarks upon what she sees as the reluctance of Muslims, specifically Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, to condemn terrorist attacks. She notes that:

Pranay Gupte announced today that he would no longer be writing his "Lunch at the Four Seasons" column for the Sun; his official reasoning was that he could no long work for free and the paper was unable to pay him, but we received an email in which Gupte referred to "digusting notes" being sent to him.

New York Sun columnist Pranay Gupte has informed Mediabistro's Revolving Door department that he will no longer be writing his "Lunch at the Four Seasons" column, leaving many a high-profile individual crushed with the knowledge that they may never be the subject of Gupte's signature sycophantism. In the third person, Gupte tells the 'bistro that he could no longer work pro bono and the Sun still could not afford to pay him (though comping his $38 crab cakes really should be payment enough), but there may be a little something more there. According to an email Gupte sent out last week, there may be some subcontinental tension souring the Sun:

We got an e-mail earlier this afternoon from a disgruntled employee of The New York Sun, a periodical whose policy of sending unsolicited subscriptions to any city resident who applies for a driver's license has made it one of New York's most recycled newspapers, claiming that the organization had disbanded its classified department. Sun mouthpiece Maggie Shnayerson confirmed the substance of the rumor, but noted that legal, real estate, and employment ads would still be part of the paper, albeit as a segment of the business section. While Shnayerson asserted that the move put the paper "ahead of the curve" in terms of advertising strategies in the industry, we're not sure how eliminating an obvious source of revenue gets the Sun any closer to profitability. On the other hand, these are the guys who thought our invasion of Iraq was a good idea; we're sure they know what they're doing.

This picture appeared on page 5 of today's Sun, with the caption "X-RAY CHALLENGE A boy takes a breather after a morning exercise session at New Image Weight Loss Camp at Camp Pocono Trails on July, 19 in Reeders, PA."

In a tossed-off little piece yesterday, Editor & Publisher noted that Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel portrayed newspapers as a "symbol of integrity." In the movie's final scenes, Anne Hathaway interviews for a position at a newspaper:

From: Gupte, Pranay
To: New York Sun Editor
Sent: Tuesday, June 13 2006
Subject: Potential profile?

We were mildly interested in the Sun's article on the new BBC morning-news show designed for U.S. viewers, even though we were also confused about why any of the paper's readers would care about it. (The show, according to the article, will be carried not on Time Warner Cable but on Cablevision, which serves only the Bronx and eastern Brooklyn, and neither known for their large populations of stinking rich neocon Likudniks.) But we were also stopped short by the piece's lead, which focused on the broadcast's London-based anchor:

So, extremely expensive promotional mints, you've just been stolen from the mailroom at The New York Sun, prompting a frantic these-were-in-no-way-meant-for-staffers email from PR manager Maggie Shnayerson. Where are you going?

From a particularly nutty Alicia Colon column, published today in New York's second-favorite right-wing daily:

As if things aren't already tough enough for the Sun, New York's little right-wing paper that sometimes can, now it's facing a vicious attack from within. This email from publicity chief Maggie Shnayerson was circulated to the staff earlier this afternoon: