"Those rewrite men—some of them were so drunk!" So begins Gay Talese's entertaining reminiscence on just how drunk the New York Times was, in his day. Mad Men? "Hell. The drinking that went on in journalism was beyond that."

• Is Time Warner planning to shed its Time Inc. magazine division? [Crain's]
• Condé Nast is hunkering down for a big round of budget cuts, as you've probably heard. One Condé title that happens to be doing quite well: Vanity Fair's Italian edition, which having its best year ever, apparently.
• Saturday Night Live's Jenny Slate won't be punished for cursing on the air. But it's looking like Darrell Hammond may have been dropped from the show.
• Tina Brown's Daily Beast is planning to get into book publishing. [NYT]
• Former Times film critic (and Turner Classic Movies host) Elvis Mitchell is in financial trouble again: He reportedly owes $500,000 in back taxes. [P6]
• How much the cast of The Hills makes might make you nauseous. [TDB]
• Can Twitter ever earn enough in advertising revenue to justify its recent valuation of $1 billion? It's highly unlikely, say some observers. [AdAge]
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was No. 1 again this weekend. [LAT]

In your wispy Monday media column: the New York Times performs unnecessary duties, Wesleyan spends unnecessary money, a hockey team gets a pet reporter, and people like to read about gangsters.

Lots of people who thought they were marrying into money: screwed. People like Phyllis Nefler, who will marry into awesomeness: better off. In this week's NYT's Weddings & Celebrations, a few people actually do that. But remember: Harvard. Always. Wins.

The New York Times is reporting in a breaking news alert that its former columnist, Nixon speechwriter and vocabulary czar William Safire has died at age 79 of pancreatic cancer.

Will Roman Polanski be extradited? Is he a misunderstood artist, or a rapist who should rot? Questions! But none as interesting as how the AP's notes for the story landed on the pages of Forbes and the New York Times.

The Jane Hotel's crotchety neighbors were about to get a big ol' story about just how noisy downtown's latest celebrity hangout is, but then the Jane Hotel's owners stepped in and killed it. At least that's what the writer says.

Is this proof that we finally won? New York Times media business reporter Tim Arango is going to report from Iraq for a while!

Sarah Palin gave a speech in Hong Kong. Despite what you may read in "news" "articles," the content of the speech was unimportant. No one thinks she knows anything about economics or China. What matters is how it played!

His nickname was literally "The Hammer." He was a thuggish, corrupt former exterminator who ran the House of Representatives like it was an organized crime family.. He loved wars and tax cutting and gerrymandering and fucking over opponents. He is Maureen Dowd's dream man.

Michael Bloomberg is an imperious, irritable oligarch who has purchased the mayoralty of New York City for life. And the New York Times has something to say about him: He puts salt on his pizza.

"Mustache Day at the New York Times' media pod." We've done a little digging and we're now prepared to say that some of these "mustaches" are, in fact, fakes. Clark Hoyt will get to the bottom of this. [David Carr]

David Pogue's taken fire from all sides: Both bloggers and the New York Times columnist's own public editor challenged the tech reviewer over his conflicts of interests. He's finally unloaded with both barrels, at friend and foe alike.

The New York Times, which six months ago forced staffers to take a 5% paycut, has been overpaying its publisher and CEO for nearly two years in violation of its own compensation rules. We're supposed to bail these people out?

And he's known it all along, or so says the New York Times. They got ahold of a leaked book proposal by Andrew Young, the Edwards aide who once claimed paternity of Rielle Hunter's child. This...is juicy stuff.

Today, the New York Times asks: what's the difference between rappers and talk radio? David Segal—who admits being a huge fan of "gangsta rap"—compares Lil' Wayne to Michael Savage, Ludacris to Glenn Beck, and Jay-Z to Limbaugh.

Phyllis Nefler eats lots of cake, emotionally and otherwise. She's yet to meet her dream cake—which probably comes from B.C. and rhymes with "shmooberry sush"—but it's out there. NYT's Weddings & Celebrations, help us find it.

The New York Times just sent out an internal memo announcing that Jonathan Landman—currently the deputy managing editor and head of the paper's digital operations—will succeed Sam Sifton as the paper's culture editor. Full memo below.

It's going to take more than six months medical leave to reform Steve Jobs. On his very first day back before the media, the Apple CEO apparently told a whopper to the New York Times.

The NYT Business section did a nice little Where Are They Now on some fallen banker komrades from Lehman Brothers. Are they destitute? Are they happier? Are they better than they were before? And: should we feel bad for them?