From Rush & Molloy comes word that the Times' Boldface Names columnist Joyce Wadler will be throwing in her quirky towel. Wadler — who was the closest thing the Times had to a gossip columnist — will take her patented space-cadet screenplays and Columbia J-School lessons to the Home section, where perhaps she might be better understood. She'll be replaced by Campbell Robertson, who, we assume, is twice as sane but half as endearing.

Jeff Koyen is this week's Gridskipper guest editor. You may remember Koyen from the time he singlehandedly destroyed the legacy of New York's leading free newspaper by printing something mean.

Man, it sucks to be Howell Raines. The former New York Times executive editor's reputation continues to drown, yet people keep gleefully tossing water on 'im.

Above, left: Rebecca Eckler's author photo from Knocked Up; right, illustration by David Chelsea from Eckler's Times 'Modern Love' column, "Two Men, Baby on the Way and Me."

In this weekend's New York Times 'Style' section, LA Weekly's 'Deadline Hollywood' columnist Nikki Finke looks back the Plaza hotel, the Peach Pit for a previous generation of Preppies. (Or should we say "U.H.B."s in deference to Whit Stillman's Metropolitan?) It's the sort of old sepia-toned old New York nostalgia piece that makes non-native New Yorkers swoon:

Today's Times points to the latest gaming trend, in which players can "take drugs" during gameplay. The vice works itself easily into a game's storyline if it, say, revolves around a narcotics officer:

Maureen Dowd isn't just an observant columnist and pundit: she's a keen interpreter of body language. As her New York Times column about the Gridiron Dinner demonstrates:

In this week's New York Observer, Tom Scocca talks to Frank Rich about his move from 'Arts & Leisure' back to 'Op-Ed' and uses, perhaps, the best metaphor we've encountered in a while:

Today in the Metro section, a report on the return of sex shops to the area surrounding Times Square:

You know how it is when you run a family newspaper. Sometimes you can't publish the name of a bar you're writing about if there's a chance it could offend people.

An article last Sunday described Mary-Kate Olsen's fashion influence on young women, who are copying her slouchy "ashcan chic" style of dress. The article concluded with a quotation from Marina Albright, a college senior who was shopping at Barneys New York for clothes like Ms. Olsen's. The article should have disclosed that Ms. Albright's mother is a friend of the writer.

In his column Saturday, David Brooks took a break from his usual lawn-chair sociology (armchairs are way too solidly constructed and comfortable to enclose Brooks' particular brand of wisdom) to play a new role: eunuch at Plato's Retreat.

In a memo reproduced on Jim Romenesko's site, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and editorial page editor Gail Collins announce that Frank Rich will be moving his culture and politics roundelay from the 'Arts & Leisure' section to the 'Op-Ed' page. The best part of the memo is Bill and Gail's endearing, mutually backscratchy tone:

From today's New York Times 'Corrections: For the Record':

Not sure what the article accompanying this illustration in today's New York Times is about. Something about a Jesuit college student expelled for an essay advocating corporal punishment or something. We're just a little distracted by it.

While you were home sitting out the blizzard, Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis was in Washington, DC for The Week Magazine's Opinion Awards. He even live blogged part of it the panel discussion (featuring our sister), bringing us a quote from our favorite New York Times op-ed writer-turned-infomercial pitchman:

Frank Bruni ruminates on the New York dining experience, in which menus have lately taken a turn towards the absurd (yeah, Megu, we're talking to you):

From today's New York Times' Corrections: For the Record:

In this week's New York Observer, Tom Scocca reports on yesterday's 'State of The Times' New York Times management pep rally at the Disney Theater, in which publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. "sans necktie, in a navy suit and blue shirt delivered a cheerful (if not sunshiny) account of the company s condition."

Perhaps offering an update on George W.S. Trow's Tina Brown-era New Yorker essay, "Folding the New York Times" (also reproduced in My Pilgrim's Progress: Media Studies, 1950-1998), Apple offers a how-to guide for how to read the paper without, you know, the paper.