I'm Glad Other People Have Days Like This

In the Dec. 19, New Yorker, we find this description of a publisher's luncheon attended by Condoleeza Rice and some of the editors and reporters of the New York Times this past September 12th.

Such events are common in the life of the Times and other major newspapers, but this one had an odd start. A security dog that had earlier been sniffing for bombs got sick on the carpet of the room where the lunch was to be held. The mess was cleaned up, but the stench was still noticeable when Rice and her party arrived. The air-conditioning was turned up high to diminish the smell, but it was difficult to hear above the noise.

As it happened I read this passage the day after the family van was decorated with a similar odor and I felt a kinship with the Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of the Times, that I had never felt before. In situations like his I tend to babble like an idiot. It would seem that he suffers from a similar afflication:

"...Just so everyone knows, he said, "it's pretty loud in this room, so my apologies. The bomb-sniffing dog threw up in here." Everyone laughed, but Sulzberger continued to apologise, and, as some of the reporters present cringed, Rice finally said, "Thank you for sharing that."

Perhaps Mr. Sulzberger and I were separated at birth. I wonder if he is sitting in his den tonight, having baked brownies two nights in a row for school parties, and having just enough for the students, the teacher, and one or two left over for attending parents, has had to deny himself the fruits of his labor. Perhaps, like me, there is one telltale bit of chocolate brownie dough on his bottom lip.

(Citation: Auletta, Ken. "The Inheritance: Can Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., save the Times -- and himself?," New Yorker, December 19, 2005, pp. 66-77; quotes in this entry from p. 68)