"Many years ago an acquaintance of mine applied for a position at the Museum of the City of New York, over which Louis Auchincloss presided. The search committee met in the writer's apartment on Park Avenue. When the candidate was asked to describe what he would do to improve the institution, he replied that too many people were not represented in its galleries, and noted in particular the inadequacy of the museum's portrayal of African Americans. 'What would you have us do,' Auchincloss sneered, 'create a period room with a hovel in it?'" -Leon Wieseltier remembers Louis Auchincloss.

Leon Wieseltier actually gets to the heart of what bugs me about the New York Times magazine and its artsy sections, writing off the mag's editor answering questions over at the Times. (An example of his answers: "More generally, we reflect a place where change is not a threat, where doubt and complexity are more TRUE than certainty, and where most everything non-criminal is tolerated – except a bad haircut." Um, wow-I mean, I like to go uptown too? But Christ.)

Thank heavens: Leon Wieseltier did not lead Maureen Dowd astray. Plagiarism-wise, at least.