NY Mag has just released its "Where to Eat" issue, and it looks like red meat and home cooking are the themes for 2003. The Cult of Atkins is probably responsible for most of it, but it may also be a function of the Southern culture that seems to be quietly infiltrating New York.

If you're thinking of living in: it's the real estate column in the New York Times which describes, lovingly, distant neighborhoods so unfamiliar that the reporter could well be making them up. A possibility explored in the latest New Yorker.

New Yorkers may think they're work machines but these Christmas holidays, in their length, have been positively French.
When Christmas Is a Wednesday, 2 Workweeks Can Evaporate [NYT]

The NYT examines a series of fashion novels that appear to have some basis in reality:
· Gini Alhadeff's new book, Diary of a Djinn, revolves around a protagonist that bears a striking resemblance to Giorgio Armani.
· The Devil Wears Prada, due out in June, was written by Anna Wintour's former assistant, Lauren Weisberger.
· Caroline Hwang's In Full Bloom is the story of a young Korean-American woman climbing the designer corporate ladder in the fashion mag world.
· Ex-Vanity Fair editor, Laura Jacobs, chronicles the social-climbing exploits of two New Yorkers in the design and media industries in her book, Women About the Town.
· Plum Sykes' book, Bergdorf Blondes, sounds suspiciously autobiographical.
A tyrant from Milan leads a parade of fashion novels [NYT]

The NYT's Bill Carter profiles HBO Chairman, Chris Albrecht. Albrecht is largely responsible for series hits like "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," all of which have helped to make HBO tremendously profitable. "Sopranos" creator, David Chase, refers to Albrecht as "the Harry Cohn of today" (but much nicer, Carter says) and peers say only Les Moonves has as much power over a network.

The NYT profiles two apartment buildings, both on Park Avenue, but separated by two and half miles. At 565 Park, the lobby "smells like old money." At 1565 Park, the lobby "just smells old." One resident of 565 observes that "any two places in New York separated by two miles are likely to be vastly different in socioeconomic terms."
A digit and a world apart [NYT]

Diana Vreeland is So Over, declares the NYT's Cathy Horyn. If today's fashion designers want to escape cliché, she argues, they must be willing to respond to the current political and cultural environment. (Models catwalking down the runway with squeegees?)
Designers, forget Vreeland. Look at your own world. [NYT]

If Crunch won't let the lab onto the treadmill, there may soon be an alternative. New York Animal is seeking space for a 60,000 square foot center with with climbing walls (for cats) and agility courses with tents, tunnels and see-saw ramps (for dogs). Which sounds like much more fun than human gyms.

The NYT reports that the Upper West Side is now popular with fine diners. Makes sense. There are several excellent restaurants in that area. In fact, we'd love the Upper West Sideif it weren't on the Upper West Side.
A table for two? We can seat you at 5:30 or 10:00. [NYT]

The NYT's Bob Morris confronts the awkward situation that arises when you've met someone, and upon a second introduction, they fail to remember your nameor vice versa. What to do? Morris suggests swallowing pride and a not-insignificant amount of alcohol. Gawker, however, recommends that you deal with these little contretemps by feigning ignorance. "Pardon? Your name, again? Graydon, you said? Ohhhh, right! You run that little magazine that's so popular with Maryland women in minimum security prisons! The Dominick Dunne columns are a riot! Looooove the Dominick Dunne columns! And the perfume strips! But especially the Dominick Dunne columns!"
Nice to meet you...again. [NYT]

The NYT issues a correction reporting that "the young man prominently shown holding a glass and leaning across several people" in this picture [right] "was not European. He was Robert Denning of Greenwich, Conn."

NYT writer Joyce Purnick says it's the season for making apologies, and points out a few people that notably haven'tKissinger, for a rather convincing and long-running impersonation of the Prince of Darkness; the head of the MTA, for telling the mayor to "shut up,"introducing the "kindergarten sandbox" phase of the negotiations; and Mayor Mike for buying a $600 bike most New Yorkers can't afford. (She may have been grasping for straws on the last one. If he'd have bought a discount bike, someone would have complained that he was shortchanging local businesses more money, but we digress...)

Some kids in Brooklyn named their band after NYT science writer Gina Kolata, because they "liked the sound of [the name.]" Kolata finds it amusing but has no interest in actually hearing the band. We were thinking of changing "Gawker" to "Lachlan Murdoch." Yes? No? Needs work?
If you like Gina Kolata... [NY Magazine]

· NYT columnist Thomas Friedman has to "work hard to be smart" [Star Tribune of Minneapolis]
· Columnist says melodrama over NYT spiked columns is overblown [Toronto star]
· New York Daily News building sold [Newsday]
[via Romenesko]

From the tempest-in-a-petty-little-teapot department: the NYT finally decides to run the "spiked" columns. Rivals respond with gleeful Nyah Nyah Nyahs.
2 rejected sports columns to be printed by the Times [NYT]
New York Times relents, will run golf columns [Washington Post]
N.Y. Times may take a mulligan [L.A. Times]
After furor, N.Y. Times prints rejected columns on Augusta [L.A. Times]
Not fit to print? [Washington Post]

In response to recent allegations that NYT promotes freedom of the pressjust not inside the officeGerald Boyd issues a moving memo to the NYT staff emphasizing the need to avoid "intramural quarrelling." Admonitions that everyone-should-all-get-along and come-together-as-one don't seem to be having the desired effect. Then again, neither does Howell's so-called activism on the Augusta issue.
Gerald Boyd's Memo re: Augusta [Romanesko]

Max Power points out that an NYT writer recently expensed approximately $5,000 for a Travel Section article on "luxury in New York." "A $322 dinner at Lespinasse merited a whole sentence, a $102 afternoon tea half a sentence, but the $150 worth of massages at the St. Regis got edited out."
Our next query letter: "Dear Howell, We all suspect that the real fuctional differences between the Gulfstream V and Lear 25 are miniscule but are they really? Gawker proposes a 2,500 word article in which we take the G5 for brunch in Monaco and the Lear for early-evening dancing in Rio de Janiero."
A buffet of luxury in New York [NYT]
The Perqs of Writing for the NYTimes [Max Power]

Mayor Mike schedules a 7:30 AM meeting, and The New York Times insinuates that this unconscionable act is indicative of a fundamental disrespect for "ordinary New Yorkers." The New York Times seems to have overlooked/dismissed the fact that many "ordinary New Yorkers" have, well, jobs, and can only attend early meetings because their employers require them to be, well, at work, between the hours of 9:00AM and 5:00PM. But that would screw up the whole story, wouldn't it?
Taxation without caffeination [NYT]

I've put aside the New York Times, and spent most of the morning browsing Glenn Reynolds from this time last...

The New York Times — pulling together architects such as Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid — comes up with a...