Have you ever thought it might be cool to hang out with J. K. Rowling? Because the Harry Potter books shaped your childhood, or your children's childhood, or your parents' childhood (future babies), or because you love hanging out with millionaires, or because you have a fetish for older, soft-spoken white women with…

I'm sure I'm not the first one to point this out, but it must be said: in the July 23 issue of The New Yorker, Jane Kramer has written a "Personal History" story entitled "A Reporter At Odds: Trading the notebook for a guidebook." The intro:

"The Borowitz Report," a satirical news website written by Andy Borowitz, will now be hosted on the website of The New Yorker, the legendary weekly magazine that once published James Thurber and Dorothy Parker. Borowitz, unsurprisingly, has been a long-time contributor to "Shouts and Murmurs"; now, as a flagship…

New Yorker editor David Remnick, who really is a mighty fine journalist in his own right and who has shepherded his magazine through an extended period of excellence, is a man whose opinions on matters journalistic should be paid heed. Except for his opinion about that twee little pastry fetishist Francophile yuppie…

In 2007, the New Yorker published staff writer Raffi Khatchadourian's lengthy and nuanced profile of "American Al Qaeda" Adam Gadahn, the California-born death metal enthusiast who converted to Islam, moved to Pakistan, and rose to the leadership of Al Qaeda. What the magazine has never reported: Gadahn wrote back.

Yesterday we found out that Jonah Lehrer, the Gladwellesque whiz kid who's The New Yorker's newest staff writer, reused his own old writings for every goddamn blog post he's written for The New Yorker so far. A self-plagiarist, he is. Big time. What's the latest? He is an even bigger time plagiarist (self, and…

Jonah Lehrer just landed a job at the New Yorker—one of the most coveted jobs in all of journalism—and already he's fucking up. Lehrer? You're fucking up.

When R. Crumb was commissioned to draw a cover for a June 2009 issue of The New Yorker, he came up with this illustration of a gender-indeterminate couple tying the knot before a city clerk. A sign near them reads, "Gender Inspection," accompanied by a red arrow. The cover, which Crumb had never made public until now,…

In your truculent Tuesday media column: Sam Zell gets a nice ruling, more News of the World P.I. revelations, journalism punditry debated, The New Yorker hires a creative director, and a marriage proposal makes the paper.

In Slate today, Adam Gopnik, the "Adam Gopnik's kids" correspondent for The New Yorker, explains the fine distinctions of New Yorkerania: "compare Mencken and Liebling, often mistaken as twin stylists, and you see the difference between heavy-handed Teutonic mockery and the ideal ironic, stinging, New Yorker tone."

In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.

This morning, Conde Nasties and passersby on 42nd St. were greeted by Scientologists handing out copies of the new issue of their Freedom magazine—which is a spoof of The New Yorker. Stick it to the man, Scientology!

In your era-ending Wednesday media column: Jim Romenesko is semi-retiring, cartooning for The New Yorker is hard, the NYO broadsheet is here, a weather lady is scared of earthquakes, and newspapers have grown.

In your untraceable Monday media column: News Corp's board meeting approaches, Current TV gets a new president, the backlash to The New Yorker's Bin Laden story, the NYT's online beta testing site, and newspapers are stolen.

In your oppressive Monday media column: the Oprah to HuffPo career path, The New Yorker is digitally famous, the 48-hour magazine returns, PBS expands to England, and Peter Lauria goes to Reuters.

In your angry Tuesday media column: burning bridges at the AP, Jann Wenner hates iPads, Mental Floss gets a new editor, the Hearst-Lagardere deal is closing, cussing in The New Yorker, dissected.

Last August, Tad Friend wrote an excellent article in the New Yorker about the spectacularly bizarre life of downtown New York scenester John Lurie, focusing on his weird on-again, off-again friendship with an artist named John Perry, portrayed as a moody and dangerous figure who ended up stalking Lurie and making…

Artist Jorge Colombo draws street scenes in New York using only his finger and the iPhone "Brushes" app. You might have seen his work on the cover of the New Yorker last year. In honor of his upcoming book of images of the Big Apple, here are some of his coolest cityscapes. We only wish our fingers could be so nimble.

Last year, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer wrote a long story on what a bunch of shits (paraphrasing) the conservative cartoonish evil billionaire Koch Brothers are. This led to much protesting from the Kochs' paid minions, and a months-long campaign to try to smear Mayer in the press.

Congratulations to Roger Ebert on being this week's New Yorker cartoon caption contest winner. Truthfully, his winning entry isn't quite as funny as some of his previous efforts, which the magazine's website posted today. Everyone else: Keep trying. [New Yorker]