Well, Bill Keller—pictured here with A Nameless Employee at the Balenciaga show in Paris this week—has only been the executive editor of the New York Times since 2003. But still, doesn't everyone know how passionately interested he's always been in Nicolas Ghesqui re's multiethnic fabric references?
This week in "Ahead of the Times," the high school newspaper-style New York Times internal fun-sheet, we learn that packing up for the new headquarters has begun. Also, the new cafeteria—opening in April with an espresso cafe!—will be WiFi-rific but cash-free. It's the future! No money allowed! So Bill Keller is personally going around injecting debit chips in everybody's necks.
Delta Zeta national president Debbie Raziano wants you to know that that Times article—the one that implied that her sorority's DePauw branch had kicked out everyone but skinny white girls—was "inaccurate and grossly mischaracterizes the situation." Raziano maintains that the evicted DZs (like former DZ secretary Rachel Pappas, pictured) were booted because they "no longer wanted to engage in day-to-day recruiting," though at least one ex-DZ told the Times that many of the evicted women "declared their willingness to recruit diligently." But Raziano is still sorry about one thing: the way the news got broken. "We misjudged how these communications would be received. Delta Zeta deeply regrets that." We're sure they do!
It's always fun to read a personal essay in the Times written by someone who seems to never have read any part of that newspaper. We unearthed this bitter gem (it was hidden in the Sunday paper!) by Abigail A. Frankfurt, who has recently decamped to a $450 apartment somewhere in the Midwest. Abigail gives us to understand that Manhattan has become an untenably expensive place to rent an apartment! And there's more bad news: Brooklyn is pricey too, and—especially in a place called 'Williamsburg'—full of trust-funded hipsters. To top it all off, this 'Williamsburg' place is full of unsuitable romantic prospects: "Each guy I dated was a toymaker. Then there was the fellow who makes his own sneakers—sounds intriguing, yet familiar, no? Oh, right, I remember: seventh-grade girls with glitter and glue sticks beat him to the punch." Oooh, sn... ap? Well, whatever. Abigail, we wish you the best in toymaker-free Duluth.
The New York Times listed in-house two openings for the Baghdad bureau yesterday, in expectation of the return of "many" reporters this spring, according to the posting from foreign editor Susan Chira. Back in April, 2006, the paper similarly advertised two openings in Baghdad; five applicants applied. (Think they'll get that many this time?) That summer, Paul von Zielbauer, Damien Cave and Marc Santora shipped off to Iraq; Zielbauer returned to the U.S. a few months later, while the other two remain. Reporters live together in a compound and work closely—so maybe Mary-Kate should bring Ashley! The listing follows.
Hey, j-schooled kiddies scrivening away at the Podunk Times-Picayune in the hopes of one day making it into the Gray Lady's bosom? Check this out!
As noted philosopher Carrie Bradshaw once put it, the New York Times wedding announcements are "the straight woman's sports pages." Altarcations is all about scoring the game. Every week, we will evaluate the latest newlyweds, based on an elaborate rating system, described below.
When the national office of the Delta Zeta sorority kicked out 23 members of DePauw University's chapter, they said it was because those sorority sisters were "insufficiently committed" to "recruitment." And, well, judge for yourself. Don't these women look insufficiently committed? Especially that one in the upper right hand corner. You can tell just from looking at her that she's not on board with the national office's goal of "enrichment of student life at DePauw." It's something about her expression, or the look in her eyes. Or maybe some other intangible quality. Just kind of a vibe we're getting.
Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias [NYT]
[Photo: Andrew Hancock]
The story of Jersey pole-dancing housewives from this weekend's Times is already rocketing up the most-emailed list. The slideshow is much creepier than Inland Empire. To be honest, it made us think of our moms, and how we wouldn't want them enshrined in the paper of record as crazy menopausal raccoons. Why were these women set up by a reporter to be the victims of media exposure? But a more extensive investigation revealed that the truth might not be what we first assumed.
Deborah Solomon, the New York Times mag's front-of-book "Questions" columnist, has the reputation of a lioness. Her interviews, a staple of the Magazine since 2003, are often described as harsh, acerbic and passive-aggressive to aggressive-aggressive. "Most of the people in the world are pretty irritating, and I think it's important to call them on it," she recently told the New York Review of Magazines. "That's probably what sets me apart from other interviewers. I'm easily incensed." But something's changing. Is Deborah Solomon going soft?
In a talk at Harvard on Tuesday, Barry Gewen, an editor at the New York Times Book Review since the early 90's, revealed a steaming heap of heretofore unknown and as-of-yet unreported details about the Book Review's inner workings. The reason for his trip, he said, was to correct some misconceptions among the largely academic audience about how the Review is assembled. "We're thought to have agendas, we're thought to be out to get people," he said. "I hope by the end of this talk I'll have persuaded you that none of that is the case."
Saturday's front pages are where we discover what a thin line indeed there is between the Quirky and Ambitious Story that Elucidates the Zeitgeist and the Quirky and Ambitious Story that Elucidates the Quirk and Ambition of the Guy Who Thought it Up. Happily, the nation's more august dailies have the perfect way to thank writers of less successful think-features for giving it the old college (or J-school) try: a handy slot on Saturday's Page One.
You know the way the cover of the New York Times magazine always arrives just a bit floppy, little white tears already reaching out from the spine, taunting you like crow's feet. The way they spread, causing the cover not so much to rip off—that might be more humane—but rather to slide out of alignment, slowly shifting up and down, up and down, until it's too late. Dig out the most recent issues if you don't believe us. Why does the New York Times spend their cash on super-stylized comic-book art and super-cute doggie pictorials if they're unwilling to spring for half-decent saddle-stitching?
So y'all read UrbanEye, right? You know, UrbanEye, the Times' hip new e-letter that keeps dazzling young urbanites like yourselves in touch with what's going on in your world? Dude, what do you mean you haven't subscribed? How are you gonna know about the Pulse Contemporary Art Fair at the Armory? Your friends? I don't think so! Thrillist? That shit is wack! Plus, UrbanEye speaks your language! Look, they make yo' mama jokes—just like Wilmer Valderamma, the TV star you and your homies are so into! This ain't your grandad's New York Times, bro. It speaks to you, not at you. UrbanEye. It's chill and down. Just like you.
The New York Times, for the first time since 1994, will not participate in "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" this April. It's not just because they hate children, though! They'll be mid-move, according to a memo just sent by publisher Arthur Sulzberger, to their delicious new building. The childless media heathens of 43rd Street—as in, the vast majority of the staff— can rejoice in an unbroken 365-day streak without the cooing of Brooklyn toddlers and the sullen poutings of pimpled Jersey teens spewing from the soon-to-be-forgotten cubicle farms.
It's generally understood among people who generally understand this sort of thing that the only reason award-show-going actresses wear designs from upstart UK fashion duo Marchesa is that the brunette Georgina Chapman half of the company is banging Harvey Weinstein. Today, the Times saddles up the elephant in the room and rides it around the petting zoo, getting plenty of fashion insiders to subtly imply that Marchesa would be nothing without the Miramax heavyweight's fiscal support and strong-army influence. But what does Harvey make of the haters? "The people who say things like that are just jealous. It takes away from the talent that Marchesa has exemplified." Talent for what, though, he didn't say.
Today in the Times, Jennifer Steinhauer analyzed the success and appeal of the newly-arrived yogurt chain whose product you've been telling us tastes "like sour milk." Jennifer prefers to think of it as "the leg warmer of food trends." (Nice!) And the consumers of LA-area Pinkberry share the enthusiasm—one calls the 'Berry's stuff "like crack" in its addictiveness. Maybe there's something different or better about West Coast Pinkberry? Or maybe Los Angeles sucks a big sack of froyo?
