New York Observer LP

Not willing to let a bad story die quietly, John Spencer took a swipe at Ben today for quoting him suggesting that Hillary Clinton had plastic surgery.

Referring back to the denial strategy I thought he abandoned, Spencer told The Resident that Ben's article "was a total fabrication and a bold-faced lie."

The best part though, is the name-calling:

Spencer said Smith had previously portrayed him unfairly when he was writing for the New York Observer. "But I didn't say anything about it," he said. "I just read it and said, 'This guy must be a loose cannon or something, I don't know.'"

Yeah. Ben's a loose cannon. -- Azi Paybarah

NOTE: This post, which is about an argument over accuracy in reporting, has been corrected. It originally said that Spencer was quoted saying that Hillary Clinton "needs plastic surgery." It has now been changed to reflect more accurately what Ben reported, which is that Spencer suggested that both Hillary Clinton and Jeanine Pirro had had "work" done to improve their looks. Spencer was not quoted using the words "plastic surgery" or suggesting that Hillary still needs it.  read more »

Today's Page Six says that "Rudy Giuliani has made enemies among a group that should be solidly behind "America's mayor"—the Society of Former Special Agents—after canceling as their keynote speaker."

Howard Rubenstein, who represents the New York Post, also represents the Former Special Agents of the FBI. (He also works with the New York F.B.I. office— Mr. Rubenstein has also been identified in the press as a "Kushner family spokesman." Jared Kushner is the owner of the New York Observer.)

If we’re very lucky, once in a generation an unexpected new musical comes along and changes everyt  read more »

It's an old trick of the trade to release bad news late on a Friday.

How about awkward and embarrassing news like the resignation of someone who had been publicly upbraided by her patrons?

That would be Gretchen Dykstra, who announced her departure from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation just now, after 5 p.m., on the Friday before a long weekend which most people started around 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

This is another good reason why The New York Observer is committed to keeping its employees working until 6 p.m. or later every single Friday of the year. We never want to let anything slip by us!

Download her passive-aggressive resignation letter--"There is general agreement that the multiplicity of authorities makes it difficult for anyone to move expeditiously. Perhaps it would help if there were one less player."--here (PDF).  read more »

-Matthew Schuerman

It's been fun and exhausting quarterbacking the Politicker, and, well, the results are for you to judge.

But the good news for us and for you is that we now have sealed the deal on our new political editor: Josh Benson of The New York Times, formerly of The New York Observer.

You may know him from The New York Times' New Jersey desk, where his first week had him criss-crossing the state in the wake of Jim McGreevey's resignation; he also helped to launch the Times blog Newark '06. Those of you over 25 will also remember him as the Observer's political reporter--along with Greg Sargent--from 1998 to 2004. (How to characterize those years? Late Giuliani? Late Clinton and early Bush? Post-D'Amato? Mid-Nadler?) Among other things, Josh covered a couple of political conventions for us and Hillary R. Clinton's 2000 Senate election.

We won't have him till after Cory Booker's coronation as the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, which he plans to see through at The New York Times.

On that happy day, I'll hang up my Politicker log-on. Expect to see Josh writing here, as well as occasionally in the print newspaper, as well as more from Jason Horowitz and Nicole Brydson; there will be other new names contributing as well, TBA.

- Tom McGeveran

"In any case," wrote Eric Alterman on the Huffington Post yesterday, "I am about as low-level a celebrity as exists anywhere. And yet whenever [sic] see my name on P6, it's always something nasty and often something inaccurate."

Here are Eric Alterman's three Page Six mentions:  read more »

March 28, 2004: Fresh from a bizarre on-air showdown with CNBC talk-show host Dennis Miller, left-wing MSNBC pundit Eric Alterman has accused The New York Observer of doing a second "hatchet job" on him. [...] When we tried to contact Alterman for comment, he e-mailed us back: "I don't have a lot to say. I enjoy PAGE SIX but I don't admire it. I imagine most people feel that way." Mee-ouch!

March 12, 2003: The Week magazine held a forum on media bias featuring Janeane Garofalo, Arianna Huffington, Eric Alterman and William McGowan." [...] Jeff Jarvis: "hey, if you're going to get dissed by someone, it's much better to be dissed by Brown than Alterman."

August 6, 1999: We hear... That journalist/gadfly Philip Nobile overheard two clerks at the Strand bookstore complaining about Nation columnist Eric Alterman. 'He's a whiner,' said one. 'Yeah,' said the other. 'The first time I met him I almost punched him.'

So my old employer, The New York Sun, has stolen away Politicker contributor and former New York Press reporter Azi Paybarah.

My only consolation is that I've obtained a copy of the memo from Sun managing editor Ira Stoll:

From: Ira Stoll

Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 2:30 PM

Subject: New employee

I'm pleased to announce that Azi Paybarah will join the Sun starting Wednesday morning as a staff blogger and news reporter focusing on New York city and state politics. You may be familiar with his contributions to Ben Smith's Politicker blog at the New York Observer Web site. He is one of the editorial team who left the New York Press when Harry Siegel resigned; at the time Azi was the Press's City Hall bureau man. Please join me in welcoming him to the Sun.

Aargh. Um, I mean, "Good luck, Azi."

The New York Observer's First Annual Community Benefits Agreement Tourney just wrapped up. What are those, you say, wrinkling your nose? Well, C.B.A.'s are ways for the community and developer to come together and create win-win situations for everybody! Those are words that everybody but The New York Sun editorial board likes to hear: together, community, win-win. The idea is that a neighborhood consents to being turned into a construction zone so long as it gets some jobs or housing out of the deal. The questions is, how real are those jobs and housing? We compare the C.B.A. by Forest City (Bruce) Ratner for Atlantic Yards and the one by The Related Companies for a shopping mall in the Bronx. Who won? Turn to the jump.  read more »

Message to New York Observer: Get Ben Smith his own laptop. Thanks.

In honor of Salon's new women's blog, The Broadsheet, The Transom is pleased to present yet another excerpt from the New York Observer's men-only blog, The Cockpit.

How Many R's Are In "Marry"? Dude, did you see what Kenny Chesney said about his she-had-me-at-goodbye "marriage" to Renee Zellweger? "It was like opening the door to your house and having someone come in and take your big-screen TV off the wall during the big game, and there's nothing you can do about it." Hoo, boy! "The big game." Which big game would that be, sweetlips? The Clovers versus the Toros? C'mon, bro, you can get butcher than that? How about "It was like having a cheerleader suck your knob at the tractor pull while you clean your Smith & Wesson"? Or, you know, "It was like you just tapped the keg and it already floated." Here's the No. 1 Google Image search result for Kenny. It's like Jeff Gannon at the rodeo. Hey, speaking of sports? How is Kenny Chesney like Reggie Miller at the free-throw line? SWISH! --posted by Tom "BEEEEER RUUUUNNNNNN!" Scocca at 5:25 p.m.

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In honor of Salon's new women's blog, The Broadsheet, The Transom is pleased to present excerpts from the New York Observer's men-only blog, The Cockpit.

You Know What's Awesome? Cowboy movies! Dude, why don't they make cowboy movies hardly anymore? John Wayne is like really old or something, I guess. Or dead? But back in the day, man, half of the movies were like romance, and the other half were all westerns! What happened to America? Now it's all In Her Sister's Traveling Pants with Romy And Michele's Joy Luck Club and shit.

So, anyway, I was really stoked when I heard there was a new western coming out with Jake whats-its and Heath Ledger. (Dude, Michelle Williams is SMOKING HOT, I would totally inseminate her too.) So I'm totally stoked -- we should all get together after work, go buy some cowboy hats, and go see Brokeback Mountain without the chicks from the office. BOO-YAH!  read more »

Wow, it totally smells like pancakes with syrup in my office. Weird. --posted by Choire "BROS BEFORE HOS" Sicha at 10:25 p.m.

—The Transom

In honor of Salon's new women-only blog, The Broadsheet, where the ladies of Salon are speed-posting Rita Dove poems, meditations about Kotex advertisements, and a shocking new theory that the White House's smear of Joseph Wilson was intended to be emasculating, the New York Observer was also thinking of getting its very own women's blog! (After all, we have lots of funky office estrogen to vent too!)

But, as usual, the gals around the office couldn't get it together to even settle on a name for their new blog. Apparently, a vicious (yes) cat-fight broke out over the first proposal, "The Litterbox." Then, "ObservHer" didn't pick up much traction, and, at the end of that conversation, senior editor Suzy Hansen got shot with a stapler over suggesting that variant proposal "Catbox" just be shortened to "Box." (Yeah, that didn't go over big with the feminist majority.)  read more »

In the end, we just decided to launch a men's blog instead, since, you know, men actually get things done instead of just jawing about them all day long. (Oh, don't look at us like that, gals!) So, without further ado, welcome to... The Cockpit!

WTF, Stemware You guys, last night after we closed the paper, when we totally went out for dude-food at 1 a.m., and had to go to that stupid French place on Park Avenue, and I ordered that beer? And they brought the beer to me in a red wine glass? What the fuck was that, yo? 'Kay, IM me later, I'll be in my office or something. Or out getting a beer... in A GLASS, MAN. Sheesh. --posted by Tom "El Beisbol" Scocca at 12:14 p.m. I'll Take Fruity Writers For $100, Alex Ha ha, dudes. Check it out. Say "Jonathan Lethem" ten times. Doethn't it thound lithpy? Ha ha ha. Lethem! Lethem! Lethem! LEETTHEMMMM! Ah, shit, hang on, I gotta go get a Dr. Pepper.

Oh yeah, did u see? Thcooter Libbey is on crutches today. Heh. What a fag! --posted by Choire "Hot Dog, Homey!" Sicha at 12:39 p.m. Top Ten Lies Sold To Us By Lesbians 10. Farmer's markets. 9. Tempeh. (See also: seitan.) 8. Moving in. 7. Barter 6. Anne Heche. (Heh. Anne He-she.) 5. Indonesian rice salad. 4. Processing. 3. Collective action. (See also: the WNBA.) 2. Ani DiFranco. 1. Ecuadorian sweaters. --posted by Tom "Rockin' Out, Man!" McGeveran at 12:52 p.m.

—The Transom

Presented as an irregular public service by the Transom: a discussion with the New York Observer's Off The Record columnist Tom Scocca regarding the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times.

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Just a little snippet of last night's CNN transcript, in which the New York Observer's features editor Alexandra Jacobs, who was aboard Jet Blue last night for an emergency landing, apologizes to Anderson Cooper for watching a rival network on-board and proves that a critic is still a critic in an airplane malfunction.

JACOBS: We were watching TV. Everyone was watching their different programs and I happened to see a gentleman, a couple of rows in front of me... was tuned to, actually I'm sorry -- a rival network, MSNBC. I don't know if CNN is available on JetBlue, on Direct TV.

But anyway, he was watching it and I think that's when the panic sort of began to accumulate. Because people realized it was a national event or it was being treated as a national event on, you know, the same as the Rita storm, which I think made us scared.

COOPER: Yes, no one wants to be part of a national event.

JACOBS: Exactly right.

[...]

JACOBS: Yes. We couldn't believe the irony that we might be watching our own demise on television. That seemed a little bit post- post modern, if you will.

COOPER: You're spoken like a true New Yorker. And a true reporter, post-modern. I'm thinking you were the only one on the aircraft who was remarking on the post-modernist of it all.  read more »

JACOBS: Well.

To the Editor:In my few years in publishing, I’ve observed that it may be more agreeable—and muc  read more »

Some of the New York Observer office has returned from vacation, although Tom Scocca, our Off The Record columnist, remains abroad. Yet even across the oceans, it seems, the New York Times spreads its Thursday Styles section magic. As a public service, The Transom ventured via IM across time zones to check in with Mr. Scocca. The Transom: So, guess what NEWSPAPER'S THURSDAY SECTION I am holding in my dirty, ugly, unworthy hands? Because it's THURSDAY MORNING HERE. Media Tom: It's Thursday night here. The Transom: Omg, it is? I thought it was like Saturday there. Media Tom: In some sense, it is. But I tried to read Thursday Styles online and I got confused. Do they have different rules for the Web, or is this exactly the same as last week's? The Transom: Hmm... Well, yes, and no. Online, actually, looks much the same as the print edition--both this week's paper and last week's! Because there's a big article on buying things? And one about a funky hairstyle? And then something about firing therapists. And, then, inside? Did they block this for the morals of the fair country in which you currently reside? The PUBIC HAIR LASER REMOVAL.FEATURE? Media Tom: That's not the same as the Mohawks-are-in piece? The Transom: It is not, though it makes a nice feature package with it. The Mohawk has become cute -- except near your vagina. Media Tom: "Most guys I have dated prefer the totally bare look, and I hardly have any girlfriends who have any hair down there, either." How does she know? Media Tom: There's much more of a story here than Thursday Styles is delivering. The Transom: Oh, Tom, this is something women and gay men have not talked about in mixed company for years. You should know that we all share daily private ladyflower inspections. Media Tom: And now Thursday Styles is spilling the secret. The Transom: And? they set themselves up for a story this winter at the end! Pubic hair transplants! I really don't relish reading that story. Media Tom: Also: "Shanacy Kashani, 27, an airline scheduler who is one of Dr. Shamban's patients, said that she and her boyfriend are enjoying sex more now that she's had the treatment, which was a gift from her boyfriend." Media Tom: That sentence ran in The New York Times. Media Tom: Complete with age! Because it's a newspaper story! The Transom: lkjlj;kdsfasdf Media Tom: They did not, however, get comment from her boyfriend to confirm the claim that he too is enjoying the sex more. Media Tom: Hello, Standards Editor? The Transom: God I hope they run a correction next week. "Last week, the Times incorrectly described the sexual pleasure of an unnamed gentleman. He is Bob Jones, 33, who works at Bear Stearns. In fact, his appreciation of his partner's punani has not significantly increased since her removal of pubic hair via laser surgery." Media Tom: "Once when I was at a pool party with friends, we all dyed our pubic hair pink," Ms. Kashani said. Media Tom: See, once when I was at a pool party with friends, we played Marco Polo. The Transom: I believe Ms. Kashani is what we might commonly refer to as a "fun-loving party slag." And now everyone she works with -- at, apparently, THE AIRPORT -- knows it too. Media Tom: Newspaper of Record! Media Tom: I thought het men were supposed to be the ones who always had pussy on their minds. Media Tom: But clearly, Ms. Kashani spends more time thinking about vaginas than I did at, say, age 16. Media Tom: Or at least she's much more effective at collecting information about them. The Transom: Right. Well, first, you were at the WRONG pool parties. Media Tom: God, the airport. "So, Shanacy--all clear on Runway One?" The Transom: Wow, she's having a long day at work right now. I can't believe she doesn't have a blog. We should buy her askmeaboutmybaldvagina.com. Media Tom: Ask Alex Kuczynski to chip in to buy it. She's got cash to spend, it seems. Here's another thing you can do when you're Alex K.: defenestrate cash! 'I thought the sequined ribbon belts were overpriced at $58, but I bought one anyway.' The Transom: Some day there will be a store which features overpriced sequin belts and pudendal laser surgery. If only one could shop whilst getting permanently shaved bald down there. The Transom: Alex doesn't reveal much this week; Didn't we already know she plays golf and has bizarre, culturally fetishistic tastes in clothing? The Transom: Also, $138 sweaters are now listed as "Relatively inexpensive," which is a fantastically loose phrase. Relative to what, exactly? To the Thunderdome that is Prada? Media Tom: Relative to a secluded mountain retreat for a zillionaire? Media Tom: Relative to a light-lifting writing contract at the New York Times? The Transom: Seriously, I'm having relativity problems. To what shall I compare thee? Thou art more expensive than Marc Jacobs mules. The Transom: But you know what really makes me lose sleep at night? Thursday Styles is the standards and practices revolutionary vanguard of the Times. But for what? Just because Al Siegal is throwing up in a waste basket under his desk right now doesn't mean that any actual social progress has been furthered. Sure, hooray, a long feature on cooter baldness was sneaked into the NY Times. The Transom: Hooray! And for what? The Transom: Rome burns, yadda yadda. —Choire Sicha  read more »

An hideously horribly overly long edition of Thursday Styles with Tom Scocca, a weekly recording of an IM conversation with Tom Scocca, the New York Observer's Off the Record columnist. Brought to you as a public service by your trusty Transom editor.

MediaTom: Well, have you read your Thursday Styles yet? TheTransom: You know, I've been really busy thinking, as a man, manly thoughts about what men want. MediaTom: Do tell. It seems to me, on first look, that men want George Clooney. TheTransom: Well, I think, yes. I like a man who earns over 100,000 a year, looks like George Clooney, and "is already living the life he wants rather than merely chasing it." Which, of course, is why I get aroused when I pass those RETARDED OFFENSIVE CITIBANK ADS on PHONE BOOTHS. So, as far as gay lifestyle porn goes?? i'm IN. MediaTom: Are those the Citibank ads that are like, hey, bank with us, we don't care about money? Like: McDonald's: You're Just Going To Shit It Out Eventually, Anyway? Yeah. It's like handing your checking account over to a fortune-cookie-writing company. TheTransom: YES. UGH. Goddam Citibank. But yes, really: Who is on the arm of Vogue readers? They're called HOMOS. We used to call them 'walkers.' But I digress. MediaTom: OK, the thing about Vogue for Men is this: the principal attractions that regular Vogue offers to the het male reader are (1) nipple photos, (2) the daft letters page, and (3) Jeffrey Steingarten. The Transom: Barbeque and hooters? That makes it sound like... Maxim, just much shorter! MediaTom: Surprisingly manly fare! Maxim with higher production values. Actually Maxim never contains nipple shots. Word to the wise, fellas! But Men's Vogue.. TheTransom: ...Has no women. Hence... no nipples? MediaTom: But they do have Jeffrey Steingarten. TheTransom: I know nothing about him. But I hear he's a right bastard. MediaTom: He's got a lovable writerly persona, though. Except the part of the persona that hangs out with Amanda Hesser's persona. TheTransom: That sounds like a horrible persona entanglement. So wait. I need to, need to, talk about Alex Kuzsnipski. Like, I might need to get my therapist in here too. MediaTom: "Call me the neurotic consumer." Neurotic? Can we call you the some other kind of consumer? TheTransom: She. Bought. A. Thank. You. Gift. For. A. Friend. That. Cost. 975. Dollars. HOW CRITICAL CAN THAT SHOPPING BE??? MediaTom: Hey, she put a hold on the $2,500 dress. Rather than buying it outright. The Transom: The problem is, I guess, I don't know, maybe I have Stockholm Syndrome with Alex Kuczwhatski because I start to admire her shopping by the end of the column. Wait, hold the phone. Suzy and I have to roam the streets for food. MediaTom: Thanks for the invitation. Bitch. Have fun, guys! TheTransom: YOU"RE INVITED! JESUS CHRIST. Were you a YOUNGEST CHILD? DON'T MAKE ME COME IN THERE AND BEAT YOU. MediaTom: I was 2nd of 2. Technically that makes me "younger."

Some Time Passes.

MediaTom: So anyway. Alex "Evita" Kuczynski declares "I hated 'Lost in Translation,' an admission that no doubt guarantees my exile from hipster America forever." Technically, to be in "exile" from a place, don't you have to have been there before? TheTransom: Well, we can't hold her good taste in husbands against her. BUT. This time I disagree with her shopping. The first daughter of Peru, set loose in Marc Jacobs, should at least come home with the servants bowed and stooped under her acquisitions. MediaTom: I was impressed when she denigrated a Marc Jacobs dress by imagining the smart-alecky comment that Us Weekly would get from a fashion panelist if a celebrity were ever to be photographed wearing it. TheTransom: See? Who says she's un-reflective?? MediaTom:"Don't blame me if this line isn't funny! I didn't say it! An imaginary person in a hypothetical scenario said it!" Maybe all her imaginary friends chipped in to buy the $975 satchel. TheTransom: No one ever bought me a thousand-dollar handbag to say "thank you." MediaTom: And Alex Kucznyski offends you EVERY THURSDAY! Where's your apology handbag? TheTransom: RIGHT? WHERE'S MY GODDAM APOLOGY HANDBAG, ALEX? More Time Passes.  read more »

MediaTom: Okay, I'm back. What about, "9/11: Light a Candle Or Party On?" Let me draw your attention to the "Or" in that headline in particular. Welcome to the down-to-earth world of reporters, Jodi Kantor! TheTransom: It's her first story on her new job! Of course she's being hazed by the headline writers. MediaTom: The best part is "But Dr. Eviatar Zerubavel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers, argues that as the years pass, the 9/11 commemoration will grow stronger." Because nothing makes a convincing take-the-temperature-of-society piece like a titled expert WILDLY SPECULATING ABOUT SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNKNOWABLE. The Transom: Oh, I liked the story. But you may be surprised to know that Dr. Zerubavel is the author of "The Seven-Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week." Which must be RIVETING. (Oh, God, actually? It probably is.) MediaTom: Jodi's Dr. Zerubavel (whom I nearly just abbreviated to "Dr. Z," which would have been a gross insult to the world's greatest football writer, Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman)--then goes on to point out that "it wasn't until 15 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that his birthday became a holiday." Which would be a very clear precedent for future Sept. 11 commemorations--if we were CELEBRATING THE DAY DR. KING GOT SHOT. TheTransom: Well, there's the answer! We should celebrate the birthday of the World Trade Center! MediaTom: Exactly! Thank heavens we have degreed academic experts to explain to us how our society works. TheTransom: April 4, by the way. 1973. The World Trade Center ribbon-cutting ceremony. MediaTom: Wait . . . that's the date King got shot. April 4. The Transom: AGH MediaTom: Now I am very disturbed. TheTransom: Eeek. 1968. You're right. MediaTom: Huh. TheTransom: Herrm. MediaTom: Well. TheTransom: Anyway! MediaTom: Yes! But, you should join the Way We live Now staff! Man, they're like the Navy SEALs. A quick, mobile strike force. Ready to write a piece anywhere in the Times! TheTransom: Do they get to walk into people's offices and commando the front page of sections? I hope so. Do I get to do that too? MediaTom: Don't you? TheTransom: I dunno! I've never tried! Hold on, I'm going to march into the managing editor's office and seize some column inches. AHOY! THIS IS THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, BITCH! In fact, I'm anointing myself as the entire Way We Live Now elite cadre of the New York Observer. I'm going to get some olive-drab outfits! And a small handgun! MediaTom: Jumpsuits. Must have jumpsuits. TheTransom: Watch out, motherfucker. I'll seize your column, too. MediaTom: Be careful what you wish for. TheTransom: Why? Was Jodi Kantor careful what she wished for? Was Alex Kuzcrciplsky? WAS ANNA WINTOUR CAREFUL WHAT SHE WISHED FOR? MediaTom: Jodi tells us that at the U.S. Open on Sept. 11, "before the men's tennis final James Taylor will sing 'America the Beautiful.'" TheTransom: See? THAT'S THE WAY WE LIVE NOW! MediaTom: Can I ask you something? Who hasn't seen (1) fire and (2) rain? TheTransom: Well, until this winter, my 10-year-old cat had never seen fire. And only rain through a window. So maybe the song is about HOW CATS LIVE NOW. MediaTom: James Taylor: more profoundly experienced than a cat.

Back on an otherwise quiet day in the otherwise quiet 1990’s, Candace  read more »

The days when the New York Observer's Joe Hagan owned the Gore-TV story are past, sadly, and so are all illusions that the former Vice President is going to create a liberal version of Fox. It's more, it seems, that he wants to be a liberal Bob Vila.

That's what we gather from this email to the Brownstoner, a Brooklyn real estate blog:  read more »

"I am producing a piece for Al Gore's new cable channel Current TV on the present real estate boom and the consequences for folks 18- 34. I'm looking to profile a young couple looking to buy their first home in Brooklyn...."

...with our suggestion in this week's Observer that the "Stop Hillary" movement amounts to much, much less than meets the eye.

"According to the New York Observer last week, these sites aren't getting much traffic—yet. But they will," the Clinton chronicler writes in Time.  read more »

Then Klein comes out as a member of the Stop Hillary movement, joining an extremely large number of insiderish Democrats, most of whom aren't willing to say it quite this bluntly:

"[A] Clinton presidential candidacy in 2008 would be a disaster on many levels," he writes. "Bill Clinton was a good President. Hillary Clinton is a good Senator. But enough already. (And that goes for you too, Jeb.)"

So apparently, they read the New York Observer in South Carolina.

The Note reported this morning that S.C. State Rep. Tracy Edge pronounced himself "shocked and disappointed to learn that Mayor Giuliani charged our state hospital association $100,000 to speak at an event to benefit tsunami victims."

ABC News just put up some more detail in an interview with Edge, a Republican who was referring to our story this week.

The Observer's Joseph Tuzzo stopped by Rudy's press conference this afternoon, and Rudy was asked about Edge's call.

GIULIANI: I asked [the South Carolina Hospital Association] how much should be donated. I doubled that. And if they feel more should be donated, I'd be happy to do it. I will talk to them and find out, but the discussion should be with the Hospital Association. They understand the economics of their event, and we will do anything that they want, like we did in the past....

Q: Do you think on your own, because of all that's been brought to your attention that you do want to return the $80,000?  read more »

GIULIANI: Not until I talk to them. I'd like to see what they feel is the right thing to do because they know the economics of their event and we'll make sure we do what they feel is the right thing to do.

Vito Fossella can run but he can't hide from the long arm of the New York Observer. I swear I'm not just picking on Vito because his press secretary, Craig Donner, ignored six (six!) calls...  read more »

While the New York Observer is not a family newspaper, this is a family blog. So expect circumlocutions. This afternoon, Room 9 is all atitter over a pile of envelopes, left discreetly near the door. The contents were copies of a short, handwritten love letter apparently from a former City Hall bigwig, whom there's no reason to name, to a woman who was also among the 300,000, as we think of the City payroll.

"Eat you later" was the valediction.  read more »

Now, I'm hoping nobody other than me writes about this. And I'm doing it only, of course, to make this high-minded point: This is Kenneth Starr's fault. And blame Allan Jennings too.

For 17 years, since The New York Observer entered city life in 1987, it has existed within a red bri  read more »

I was brought up to believe that exchanging piss with a skunk is generally unproductive, but I find  read more »

New York is lobbying hard to host the Republican convention in 2000.  read more »

I took a glance in the mirror the other day and noticed that the old bicuspids and molars are a grea  read more »

I was sold at auction recently, and it happened like this.The New York Observer , which you adore, h  read more »