This ad was conveniently located in the Times' Washington section.
You know what? We're not even going to "snark" on this one. Instead, we're going to earnestly ask what the fuck is going on? Have we awoken this morning only to find ourselves in the 8th dimension, where the venerable New York Times has finally donned its Bonnie Fuller costume and is currently rushing Janice Min's sorority?
• The American Society of Journalists and Authors doesn't love Judy Miller as much as it thought it did. [E&P]
• Nor should they, if Joe Conason has anything to do with it. [NYO]
• Things ain't OK at OK! America. [NYP]
• Fraternal foodies Matt and Ted Lee to pen Martha Stewart Living's first ever wine column. [WWD (second item)]
Just a quick reminder that there's only an hour left to nominate your favorite finalists for Men of the Times voting, which kicks off tomorrow morning.
The Romenesko headline seemed so exciting: "Young NYT Staffers Told to Be Rebellious in Their Writing."
There's an old warning, never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel. You'd think the Internet-age applications of that maxim would be clear, but apparently not. So let's be explicit: When attempting to game a contest run by a notoriously bitchy blog, don't send a mass email announcing your intention. It's bound to get forwarded around and end up someplace where it will embarrass you. Like, say, here:
This week's coverage of the Times Book Review is a day late, but hardly a dollar short. Intern Alexis got so wrapped up in the wild world of John Irving's penis and Julianne Moore's vaginal endorsements, she barely had the wherewithal to tackle a sidelined Christopher Hitchens and the shape of gay literature. So, to recap, after the jump you've got genitalia, Hitch, and The Gays. If that's not the best book review ever, we don't know what is.
A quick reminder, folks, that we'll be accepting nominations for Men of the Times till noon tomorrow.
Because stickers on fruits and vegetables can irritate consumers, produce companies are now starting to tattoo UPC codes and countries of origin directly onto the food's skin, reports the Times.
It's summer, and it's hot, and it's sticky, and it's sultry, and our thoughts, like everyone else's in this pulsating, pervy sexy, are turning to sex. And because we're unusually unusual, when our thoughts turn to sex they turn to a very specific kink: media sex. We don't care about lawyer love, broker boinks, or finance guys fucking; we're just interested in writhing writers, canoodling columnists, fondling photogs.
• Mediabistro scores a Mo Rocca humor piece. No, it's not so funny, but you try doing 1,000 words on Judy Miller and Lil' Kim. [MB]
• Now on eBay, an original first issue of The New Yorker. Only $200. [emdashes]
• Inspired by Rob Haskell's Katie Holmes profile, Simon Dumenco pines for some Scott McClellan/Karl Rove slash fiction. [Ad Age]
• "What I Told the Grand Jury." By Matt Cooper. [Time]
• American Media, Schwarzenegger make deal, then terminate it. [NYT]
Even on the most-emailed list, the rich end up on top. Unsurprising.
It's been just over a week since Times reporter Judith Miller was handcuffed and dragged off to Alexandria Detention Center, serving time for her refusal to disclose her source in the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Times editor-in-chief Bill Keller went to visit Miller and reports on her conditions:
By popular demand, we're doing our best to focus for more than 2 minutes and direct our attention to this weekend's Modern Love column in the Times. We wanted desperately to take the side of the nanny, who was fired after her employers had enough of reading about her not-unusual exploits on her blog — but that would've been too easy, to simply side with the little guy, maligned by rich, nanny-employing overlords. Instead, Helaine Olen's essay about reading her nanny's website had us thinking a few things:
And apparently it's quite popular.
A query from the Times on today's e-mail blast from ProfNet, the PR Newswire service to help journalists find sources:
It's a tad overdue, but Times restaurant fetishist Frank Bruni has finally stopped by Bungalow 8 doyenne Amy Sacco's latest venture, her new restaurant Bette. But what does Frankypants think of the fare at the new London Terrace hotspot? We've no idea, actually. The numbers for his article speak for themselves:
If you've ever stolen a bathrobe from a resort, salt and pepper shakers from a restaurant, soap from a motel, or one of those Mont Blancs from Ducasse, the Times is on to you. Today's (discomfitingly hetero) Thursday Styles looks at otherwise law-abiding people who swipe stuff from public places — restaurants, hotels, wineries, airlines. And, natch, it finds a professor who studies such things to weigh in:
To save you 1,600 words in the Times House & Home section: Nuvo is a new Japanese robot. It costs $6,000. It plays New Age music. It takes pictures. And it makes little whirs and clicks and flashes that are supposed to feel companionable. But it doesn't clean, it doesn't cook, and, while it will apparently sleep with you, it won't, you know, sleep with you.
"Paris may be the world's fashion capital," the NPRily calm and measured voice of a Times photog tells us at the opening of the latest "Tribes of New York" installment, "but New York has the world's most interesting women. One group that will never bore you are [sic] the girls of goth." We're not going to say it's the most groundbreaking reporting you've ever seen in the Times — "I guess goth is an alternative lifestyle that people pick," one girl insighfully explained — but, still, the whole multimedia package is wonderfully wacky.
From our Easter basket of correctional joy, today's Times:
