In preparation for the newspaper's move to the new building, the New York Times has been auctioning off stuff from the old building on West 43rd Street. But not everyone left happy! Our spy reports:
[H]aving a part-time house can be a full-time commitment, in the same way that owning a sailboat is commonly described as "standing in a shower and ripping up hundred-dollar bills." These second, but never secondary, houses can be exhausting, their owners admit, a litany of bills and guilt and traffic — and meals to cook for guests who arrive with only one wish: to be entertained.
As you probs recall but wish you didn't, the Times animal sex beat has recently encompassed horse sex, duck dicks, frog humping, and tortoise happy ending massage. Today's addition to the litany is about a pair of sexually frustrated chickens. Why are they frustrated? Because someone thought it would be a good idea to raise them inside of her Manhattan co-op. (Co-op coop!) Actually, maybe this is also another instance of "rich people now living like poor people" reportage, too! It's a lot of things. But mostly, it's about the bad kind of anthropomorphism.
As the staff of the New York Times bids a sad farewell to the edifice at 229 West 43rd Street, let's take a fun and educational look back at the origins of the building. Here's a clip from River of Steel, a 1994 documentary about the construction of the subway system. It's a little odd to think of newspapers being distributed more quickly via mass transit, but we're sure the move westward will allow the Times to hasten the pace of delivery via their new proximity to... Port Authority?
Each year, one of our only fave aspects of the upfronts—those fancy endless presentations where network executives and the occasional star prostrate themselves in front of advertisers and announce next season's schedule—is Virginia Heffernan's liveblogging of the events for the Times.
"I am naturally drawn to conflict, " Allan Ripp admits, alluding to his fantasies of "stepping into a fray... mostly as a test of my wits and physical fitness." But despite his daily "350 push ups" and "hours on the Lifecycle," his happy violent fantasies were not good preparation when he confronted the n'er-do-wells whose "jostling and loitering"—not to mention spitting!—again disturbed the peace near his Columbus Circle office.
"Although The Devil's Teeth sold just 36,000 copies in hardcover, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of book sales, it was a New York Times nonfiction hardcover best seller," Times book reporter Motoko Rich wrote last week in a weird article that had book editors around town scratching their heads. "Although"? "Just"? Many Times bestsellers have similar and, sometimes, lower Bookscan numbers. Is it possible that the Times, arbiter of the most influential bestseller list in the country, doesn't really have a set or sensical definition of what constitutes a "best seller"? An article in yesterday's Business section reveals: yes, that is possible. Likely, even!
Poor New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead. Her new book, One Perfect Day, is a takedown of America's overblown wedding culture, but it keeps getting reviewed by ladies who either just had or are planning an overblown American wedding. The latest is the Times former Arts 'n' Leisure chief Jodi Kantor, who takes issue in the Book Review with Rebecca's characterization of "registering—for water glasses, an ice-cream maker, the usual tchotchkes" as "an exercise in 'licensed covetousness.'"
TRIP GABRIEL's DEPUTY: You know what's super hot right now? Disabilities! Amputations, C.P., mental problems... you can't turn on a TV without seeing some handicapped hero. Whaddya say we do 1500 words on it. Show how people with disabilities no longer feel the need to hide it. They're proud, they're strong, etc. You know, something really uplifting, celebrating the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.
MIREYA NAVARRO: I'm on it. And let's go unexpected, and do it from L.A.!
TRIP GABRIEL'S DEPUTY: [To photographer STEPHANIE DIANI] We want it to be cutting-edge, but it should still say Styles. So see if you can find one of the hot amputees and get an upskirt shot. Let's shift the paradigm here, people!
We're starting to understand why Sewell Chan voluntarily gave up his reporter position on the metro desk at the Times: Collecting bylines just wasn't enough. The man needs to be heard. How else to explain today's Empire Zone blog post on possibly one of the boringest topics in the universe, a blogger gathering? In Brooklyn? Snore! But Chan wrote over 1600 words (that's one thousand, six hundred) on the meeting. Of course, that's nothing compared to his 2400-word epistolary on the Hitchens-Sharpton debate at the New York Public Library. Is he trying to kill us here?—Doree
The parenthesis in 20th century poetry has a long and heralded past from Yeats and Browning to cummings and Bishop. But perhaps no one has mastered the use of the lunulae as well as Times reporter and UrbanEye e-letter scribe Melena Ryzik. Perusing her articles one is struck by the epigrammatic parenthetical asides that glitter like diamonds in the rough crazy of her prose.
Josh Quittner is the editor of Business 2.0. Michelle Slatalla is responsible for the New York Times' inexplicable "Online Shopper" column, a collection of hyperlinks well-gussied up with advice on how to Google things that for some reason appears in that paper's print edition on Thursdays. In it, you can learn how to buy English muffins that cost five dollars. Five dollars. Michelle and Josh are married to each other! Boy, are they ever.
With the move to the new building, New York Times reporters are also preparing for all the exciting accoutrements that come with said move. Like new business cards! But reporters shouldn't get too excited about getting new stationery (click image to enlarge), according to an informative Times memo-thing:
As any lady who wears clothing or shops in stores has probably noticed by now, "tent" and "trapeze" and "bubble" dresses are the new hotness, and while these puffy, loose, maternity-looking tops may seem forgiving to those of us with less than rail-thin figures, the Times would like to remind you that really, the focus has only shifted to a new indicator of skinnyosity. "Sharply outlined collarbones say 'Don't let this tent dress fool you: Underneath it all, this girl can fit into a sample size.'" Even more alarming: "It is also an area whose prominence is unlikely to be enhanced surgically (at least for now)." Stay tuned, Styles readers, for the inevitable follow-up story—'Is Clavicle-Whittling The New Labioplasty'?
The Newseum, a gallery dedicated to the profession of journalism, is almost ready for visitors! Soon-to-be-former Times media reporter Kit Seelye takes a look at the monument to press freedom, decidedly one of the most expensive museums under construction.
