The memories. It seems like only yesterday, sniff, that a young editor, awww, named Jodi Kantor, applause, was hired by the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times. Her mandate--yes, it was a mandate, and she followed it--was, "less Peking Opera and more Britney Spears" for The Gray Lady. Since then, within the "building," as they say at Times HQ, Kantor has become the recipient of the affectionate moniker "Heather." That’s "Heather," as in the mean-croquet-playing-chick-clique from the movie of the same name.
When Heather, er, I mean, Kantor is not playing mean croquet, she’s the object of attention in a little thing we call the "Jodi Kantor watch."
Let’s take a walk down blog lane, shall we?
"Jodi Kantor watch" ("What has been Kantor’s answer to high culture: the brit-angst-pop band Radiohead, which appeared on the A&L cover soon after her arrival...")
"Jodi Kantor and the Boss" ("Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium may be big news to many people, but is it truly ’one of the biggest stories in open-air entertainment since the Christians and the lions’?")
"J.K.W., cont." ("The Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times features a few stories that demonstrates (a) the emotional maturity of one of America’s most favored cinematic enfant terribles and (b) the general incompetence of current New York Times culture editors.")
"Jodi Kantor red alert" ("What is a Times reader to make of this approving look at a delirious non-music, music without "anything in particular to say," music fueled by codeine-infused cough syrup?")
"J.K.W: The Case of the Trendy Tranny" (" The Gray Lady is now The Gray ’Lady.’")
"Our dessert’s better" ("’We did one of the first big pieces on Usher!’")
"Student council for grown ups" ("What might Jodi Kantor’s "global and regional strategy" be? She and Bono are hard at work on the answer.")
Well, the times are a changin at the Times. "Jodi Kantor watch" fans, take note: According to Romenesko and Gawker, Kantor will be hanging up her croquet mallet at A&L and practicing her swing elsewhere, as a reporter on the "Way We Live" team. What that means, precisely, we haven’t a clue. But it indicates we may be seeing much more of Jodi "outside the building."
Not everyone has been as thrilled as we have been with the Kantorkampf. Notice Michael Massing in the Columbia Journalism Review. But we’ll follow Sam Sifton’s lead and "raise a glass to a woman who can’t drink these days, but to whom so many of us owe thanks and to whom we’ll offer a standing ovation for a job well done."
Thank you, Jodi, for making our job at "Jodi Kantor watch" so easy these past two years.
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