RADICAL! (Playtex)

Staffer 1: Did you see this thing about Andrew W.K.?

Staffer 2: You mean the Brony thing?

Staffer 1: The Brony thing?

Staffer 2: The time he went and talked to adults who love My Little Pony.

Staffer 1: Oh, no. He's now a spokesperson Playtex.

Staffer 2: Tampons?

Staffer 1: Not tampons. Playtex's Fresh + Sexy Wipes.

Staffer 2: Oh! (Staffer 3), weren't we just talking about how great those wipes were?

Staffer 3: Maybe?

Staffer 2: I think it's really great that he's destroying the stigma that only women with bacterial infections need to use wipes. Sometimes they are just nice to have. Like at the gym.

Staffer 1: Are we sure he's actually working with Playtex, or is this like the time he said he was going as a cultural ambassador to Bahrain without actually getting permission? And then he wasn't allowed to go, remember?

Staffer 2: It would be weird to send out a press release for a product that's not paying you, though.

Staffer 1: Just check to see if there are any official quotes.

Staffer 2: Yeah, here it is. "This exciting new product required the help of someone who could embody the brand's playful yet bold campaign; someone who could party hard, but still be clean when it counted. Andrew W.K. is that someone and we are thrilled to have him on board with us for Fresh + Sexy Wipes.” Oh! And he's holding a party at SXSW to celebrate it.

Staffer 1: He's just so weird.

Staffer 2: I love his quote. "Whether you just finished rocking a packed club or have an intimate encounter after a busy day, this product will make couples feel brand new. Fresh + Sexy Wipes were specially designed to help couples feel confidently clean, before and after they engage in sexual activity!”  Haha, I bet your junk would get pretty gross if you spent all day sweating like Andrew W.K.

Staffer 1: What is he doing these days? Anything interesting?

Staffer 2: I think he's kind of like the brand ambassador version of James Franco. They should collaborate on something. Like jumping into a volcano.

Staffer 1: I wonder what the people at My Little Pony think about Bronies...

(Previously: The Observer Reacts to news about Girls's 3rd Season Renewal)

Andrew W.K. and his alter-ego, Pinkie Pie (Getty Images, Hasbro)

Here's something to make your Thursday a little more uncomfortable: performer Andrew W. K., no stranger to stunts, has declared himself an official Brony and will be speaking at a panel in September called "What Would Pinkie Pie Do?"

What are we talking about? We wish we didn't know...

Bronies are male fans (or "bros") of the Hasbro toys and TV show spin-off, My Little Pony. Once upon a time, The New York Times wrote an article on Bronies and then was forced to issue a correction.  We assumed most Bronies would be heading out to San Diego's Comic-Con, which takes place in mid-July, but apparently there are some Ohio holdouts who will be holding their own My Little Pony Convention later in the year.

Mr. W.K., who loves to party, will be exploring how his own persona mirrors that of Pinkie Pie, one of the stars of the My Little Pony show who works at the Sugarcube Corner as a baker, is bright pink, and also loves to party. (Imagine Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but as an anthropomorphic pink female pony instead of an anthropomorphic green male turtle.)

We're sure there will be no mistaking the Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle fans in the audience this time around

Twilight Sparkle, left, and Fluttershy, right.

While the New York Times Guild battles company chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. over frozen pensions, Times reporters are putting their copy where their mouths are, producing conversation-starting stories despite tighter resources.

Sure, there’s the occasional first-person cat training memoir, but there are also blockbusters like Amy Harmon’s “Navigating Love and Autism,” an intimate portrait of Jack and Kirsten, two college students on the Autism spectrum in love.

“This piece is an important example of why big journalistic institutions like The New York Times are such a vital part of our society,” media reporter Seth Mnookin wrote on his science media blog.

In the comments section, Jack’s father, John Elder Robison (the author of a bestselling Asperger's memoir), praised Ms. Harmon’s reporting as well as the work of staff photographers and videographers.

“Their dedication is most impressive,” he wrote, “and it makes clear why the Times remains The paper of record.”

The Times is so committed to its watertight reporting, in fact, that it did not allow a slip-up about a character on the cartoon series “My Little Ponies: Friendship Is Magic" to mar her otherwise flawless 5,000-word piece.

Describing the therapy Kirsten undergoes in hopes of making her relationship with Jack more stable, Ms. Harmon wrote:

“When she found herself in a bad-mood rut, she had agreed with her therapist, she would visualize Fluttershy, the nerdy intellectual character in the animated children’s show 'My Little Pony' — of which her knowledge bordered on encyclopedic and whose goofiness made her laugh.”

But, as any self-respecting Brony will tell you, Fluttershy is the kind, animal-loving Pegasus pony character. It’s actually Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville librarian and Apprentice of Princess Celestia, who’s the brainy one.

“As an adolescent with Asperger’s myself, all I can say about this article is they got the pony wrong,” joked Times commenter Ganondox, from Brazil.

It appears the Times’ new commenting system (trusted readers only) is paying for itself already. Today the following correction was appended:

“A previous version of this article misidentified the “My Little Pony” character that Kirsten Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, not Fluttershy.”

“I hate to get anything wrong, but I confess to some enjoyment in finding the right way to phrase this one,” Ms. Harmon wrote The Observer in an e-mail.

“I heard from one My Little Pony fan by email who praised the story but wanted me to know this for my own edification,” she continued, “and at least one other called the Times and spoke, I gather at some length, with an editor who handles calls from readers.”