Mr. Hoberman, a 19-year veteran of the alternative weekly (24-year if you count his days as a freelancer), had this to say to Joe Coscarelli at Daily Intel [who, like the writer of this post, is also a former Village Voice staff writer.]:

I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs there in the last five years," said Hoberman, referring to the period after the legendary publication was sold to the newspaper chain New Times (now Village Voice Media). "I would be disingenuous to say I hadn't considered the possibility that this would happen to me eventually," he added. "I was shocked, but not surprised."

Notably, Mr. Hoberman was one of the chief stewards during the Village Voice writers' union contract negotiations last summer, which almost resulted in a strike, eventually averted at the eleventh hour.

Other Voice staffers past and present are making their displeasure very publicly known.

• Village Voice staff writer Camille Dodero: "send help."
• Village Voice staff writer Steven Thrasher: "Was I ever more professionally inspired then when #Hoberman was rallying the troops for our union fight?"
• Village Voice film editor Allison Benedikt: "Every layoff at the Voice hurts, but this one by far hurts the most, professionally and personally."
• Former Village Voice nightlife columnist Tricia Romano: "why call it the village voice anymore?"
• Former Voice web editor Francesca Stabile (who left the paper not a month ago): "Respect to Jim Hoberman, and may a much better publication earn the right to print his wonderful work."

Others on the periphery—whose comments are being seconded through a series of retweets by Voice staffers—are taking much more insidery shots at the paper: "If only Hobes had written more about Scientology" noted The L Magazine film section's Twitter, in a direct shot across the bow to Voice editor-in-chief Tony Ortega's extensive posting on the religion for the paper's website. For his part, Mr. Ortega has issued the same statement to both Daily Intel and Capital New York, who initially reported the news, emailing:

"The Voice is committed to providing comprehensive film coverage, and will continue to publish our many fine film writers, both in print and online."

What he neglected to note here is that J. Hoberman—the widely acclaimed critic and Voice union shop labor leader who helped establish the Voice's reputation for excellent film criticism—just won't be one of them anymore. Ms. Benedikt may have articulated the sentiment best, concluding: "OK going to drink alcohol now. #hoberman"

That said, former Village Voice intern, staff writer, editor, and Hoberman protege Zach Baron (now reviewing film for The Daily) may have summed up the state of the once-storied alternative weekly's legacy best, in the form of the bylines of Voice legacy writers, all of whom have been laid off since Village Voice Media took over the paper.

Around that time, New York profiled the heads of Village Voice Media with a November, 2005 piece entitled "The Voice From Beyond The Grave" asking if the paper—a "former shell of itself"—could find new life.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

The Tweet—which was sent from Michelin's authorized Twitter account for New York City—read like this:

The mean reportorial skills of Bloomberg food writer-critic Ryan Sutton took contention with that:

Maybe Eric Ripert's much-beloved fish eatery opened up for one night, and their "famously anonymous" inspector dined there in sheer coincidence, though. So we called up Le Bernardin's reservation department and asked them: Were they open last night?

They weren't. Which leaves two conclusions: Either the Tweet is wrong, or an exception was made for a Michelin reviewer. If the former is the case: Why lie about eating at Le Bernardin? And if the later is the case, then a "famously anonymous" Michelin inspector was given preferential treatment, thus making him or her far less "famously anonymous."

After dialing multiple numbers at Michelin's guide distributors, we finally reached one Tate Hoxworth, a spokesman for the Michelin Guides. "I don't know the answer to that," Mr. Hoxworth confessed, when asked about the Tweet's validity.

He had one theory, which was that sometimes the Tweets, which are sent in from contributors, can be delayed. So who's running a Twitter account that lets presumably month-old Tweets vouch for Michelin's credibility? He knew—it's the editor of Michelin's North American guides—but couldn't give us a name. He explained that he'd look into it. An email requesting comment from a formal representative of Le Bernardin was not immediately returned.

The Michelin Guides only found their way to New York City's restaurants in 2006, when their first edition for this city was released. As The Observer then reported, they were not received warmly, and in their arrival, were considered invasive, rude, and betraying of their reportedly steadfast critical standards.

In 2009, Michelin—in need of better press among American restaurant-guide buying set/the Zagat guides' market share—took the unprecedented step of allowing The New Yorker access to one of their reviewers in 2009 for a profile.

Meanwhile, for naysayers of the doughy-tire-man-shilled-guides, another moment of validation: their Twitter account is either lying, corrupting their anonymity, or wrong by an error margin of thirty days. Unless they've got a better explanation.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek