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By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5/02 12:19pm

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Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. (Photo via NYC.gov).

How Much Did It Cost the Times to Make Henry Alford a Hipster?

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Dolly Parton famously said. Well, nowhere is that more true than in Hipster Brooklyn, a magical land that The New York Times seemingly “discovers” once every five weeks. In today’s Style section, the Times sent intrepid middle-aged Manhattanite reporter Henry Alford to Williamsburg to live like the locals do (which, coincidentally, is also the way one would live if one were living one’s life according to trend stories in the Times Style section).

So how much did Mr. Alford’s long weekend of living the artisanal life actually cost the newspaper, which confirmed that it covered Mr. Alford’s expenses but, citing policy, declined to share costs? Read More

By Drew Grant 4/19 1:23pm

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Babies without diapers. (Getty Images)

The Best Reader Reactions to Times Trend Story on Diaperless Babies

The New York Times has a very good, very important story today about parents who don’t diaper their children and let them urinate/defecate wherever they want because of the environment, but also because it allows one to be in touch their child’s “elimination communications.” We’re trying to refrain from judgement, but shouldn’t parents be doing the communicating about where its appropriate to go pee-pee, since they know language and don’t have a soft spot on their skull?

This item was full of gems, most notably the ending:

Still, even the most ardent practitioners observe some limits. “I don’t think you can walk down Fifth Avenue and just let your baby poop on the sidewalk,” [some lady] said.

This essay has caused a veritable–excuse our punnery–shitstorm on the web that the Times‘ commenting section alone is worth the read. Here are just a choice few of our favorites. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 11/21/12 9:20am

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@NYTOnIt Twitter Feed Has a New, Non-Trademark Infringing Avatar [Updated]

Yesterday, we woke up to the news that, at the request of The New York Times, Twitter had suspended @NYTOnIt, a parody account that lawyer Benjamin Kabak started to mock the most obvious trend stories in the paper of record. The Times’s request was not due to a lack of humor on the part of style section staffers. On the contrary, Times sources tell us that many in the newsroom enjoyed the Twitter feed and were (usually) flattered to find their own stories included for gentle mockery.

But the Twitter feed’s avatar was The New York Times’s ‘T’–in the paper’s signature font. And that, Twitter and the Times agreed, was trademark infringement. Twitter reinstated the account later yesterday, but only on the condition that Mr. Kabak change his avatar. Read More

By Drew Grant 11/19/12 9:20am

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Trending Twinkie (Hostess, Twitter)

How a New York Times Trend Story Is Made: A Tale of Twinkies, Desperation and VJs

Friday night, former MTV VJ Dave Holmes posted a story on his Tumblr to mourn the liquidation of Hostess Brand Inc. Although we now know that Twinkies will probably survive after the dissolution of parent company Hostess (as well as the upcoming apocalypse), you have to remember that on Friday, we were all uncertain about the fate of our favorite artificial-ingredient-based cake product.

Mr. Holmes’s little vignette was about his friend/fellow air jockey Jancee Dunn, who in 2001 was trying to pitch her first story to The New York Times Style section. And while we’ve always assumed that most trend pieces are born more out of temerity than truth, apparently they are sometimes also created from a throwaway comment your friend makes about Twinkies before your pitch meeting. Read More