Evans signed on as a consulting editor Dec. 5 to lend his editorial acumen while Sun editor-in-chief Seth Lipsky is away on vacation.

"Seth's an old friend of mine," Evans said by phone. "He thought a fresh eye might see things around here."

As of this evening, Evans was still adjusting to his new assignment. "I've not even found the way to the men's room," he said.

In his two days at the three-year-old daily, Evans has been reading copy and making front-page recommendations. He suggested a story on rent-controlled tenants buying second homes in Florida for Monday's front page, and a story on fake IDs for Tuesday's.

Evans said he's a loyal Sun customer. "I read it every day," he said. "The thing is, some people find the Sun's opinions strong... My attitude is that a newspaper shouldn't have opinions I would write myself. I want to read about different ideas."

Lipsky was proud of his latest hire. "If he were a violinist, we'd talk about him [in] the hushed tones with which other violinists speak of Zino Francescotti," he wrote in an e-mail.

But Evans played down his editing duties, and said he won't be staying on at the Sun once the consultancy is up on Friday.

"It's only a week. It won't make any noticeable impact," he said.

Soon, though Evans rang off.

"I gotta go. I have to go read copy."

--Gabriel Sherman