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We were reading the New Yorker the other night, trying our damnedest to get through the Talk of the Town (we're of the firm belief that so long as one reads at least that much of the magazine every week, one shant be doomed to literary hell), when we got to an item on an effort that managed to belittle an arrogant lawyer and raise money for Katrina victims at the very same time. It wasn't the story itself that caught our attention, however. It was the fact that one of the story's subjects is a woman who writes for Fox's heavenly cracktard drama The O.C.

Whoa, we thought. An O.C. reference in the New Yorker? It wasn't even a detail essential to the story, but seeing the show's title included in the publication's venerable prose threw us for a loop. Was it just us, or was this indeed a rarity?

A cursory line-dance with Nexis reveals that in the past 25 months, the New Yorker has made mention of The O.C. a mere six times (this week's edition included). Admirable restraint, considering the show has articulated the pop culture zeitgeist so well for so many outlets, especially those with a teen audience. Like the New York Times, which has dropped the O.C. bomb 10 times in the past month.