PX This.

FREELANCE WRITER WANTED

I am searching for a freelance writer to help with some research for my upcoming second book, PX Me – The Sequel to PX This (How I Became a Published Author, Got "Micro-Famous," and Married a Millionaire).
And I gotta tell ya— it’s not exactly been the easiest feat.

I thought I finally found somebody; I’d been following this recent viral/internet-meme whatever story, maybe you’ve heard of it? The one about the Apple Pie Plagiarist (faaascinating). I’d stumbled upon this one writer/blogger, and I was so impressed with how diligently he covered multiple aspects of the account that I was practically elated when I discovered he’s a writer-for-hire as well.
(I mean, if it were me covering that story for example, I probably would have simply reported that alleged plagiarist woman in East Bumheck Wherever "is a total moron" and left it at that.)

In any case, it didn’t work out. And I have neither the time, energy, nor inclination to go through all this rigmarole again an indefinite number of times. So please, read the following e-mail exchange for a precise summary of my requirements.

If, unlike the aforementioned scribe, you do not maintain such puritanical standards as wanting to write only about "recent news," and/or you possess a tad more coherence, feel free to forward your pay requirements to me at: px.this@gmail.com
(Any proposals on how you think you might uniquely tackle this challenge are welcome as well.)

from: px this <px.this@gmail.com>
to: ed@edrants.com
date: Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 12:58 PM
subject: Apple Pie Plagiarism and… hiring you for my wedding?

Just kidding about the wedding.

Hi Edward Champion,

To make a kinda interminable story long, I found you through the whole Apple Pie Plagiarist saga.

FASCINATING.
Okay yah, I’m being a wee bit sarcastic. Although I loved some of the comments your article elicited (as well as your article, obviously). It really rankled my nerves all right.

In any case, I was wondering what you would charge to do some light investigative reporting for me (regarding a somewhat similar situation)? I am currently writing my second book, and intend to use whatever information is discovered therein. I imagine the work would entail, at the very least, a few inquisitive phone calls and/or perhaps e-mails. I would not require a lengthy, exhaustive, profound, and/or florid literary piece, but wholeheartedly welcome your opinions/commentary as well as the answers to my burrrning questions.

Please forgive me for not taking the time to summarize my situation for you personally, but I’m just… really really tired of summarizing my situation.

A general overview of my predicament is here –> http://www.pxthis.com/2010/06/greatest-hits-theforumpx-this-2/

Information about my book is here –> http://www.pxthis.com/thebook/

The answers I’d like for you to try and find are:

1) How did the article in question (see first hyperlink please. sorry!) make it into The New York Times

2) Why exactly did former Gawker managing editor (current The Awl managing editor) Choire Sicha behave in such a manner?

3) How would Gawker (currently) justify their overall treatment of me?

4) How did the article in question come to be included in The Kings of Non-Fiction?

5) Is Coco Henson Scales really as stupid as I think she is?

I’m pretty new at this [writer-hiring stuff], so please try and bear with my bluntness. I would be happy to answer any/all questions you have.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you irrespective of your decision.

Warm regards,
abbe diaz

http://pxthis.com

from: Edward Champion <ed@edrants.com>
to: px this <px.this@gmail.com>
date: Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 1:26 PM
subject: Re: Apple Pie Plagiarism and…hiring you for my wedding?
Abbe:

Thanks for your email. I’ve taken a quick look at this, and I don’t really feel that there’s much here that would warrant an intensive investigation. For one thing, this concerns events that transpired six years ago. I am more interested in recent news. Second, Choire’s Gawker post (http://gawker.com/017472/hotspot-hostess-tells-all) does contain the following proviso: "Of course, we’re a little concerned that Coco is totally without Google results. That’s a little odd, right? Suggestive of a pseudonym?" The update is reported from "a fairly reliable source," but does not necessarily negate Choire’s skepticism. Third, there isn’t any apparent evidence to suggest that the article would be placed within the New York Times due to Frank Bruni’s influence. And the specious connection between some sleazy probing or confirmation into Choire’s private life and whether that would have any bearing on his unwillingness to offer another update (when he presents himself legitimately in the clear by offering the initial skepticism) rings more of sleazy tabloid journalism than anything hard and substantial.

In short, this isn’t my line. But I do wish you the best of luck in your pursuits.

All best,

Ed

from: px this <px.this@gmail.com>
to: Edward Champion <ed@edrants.com>
date: Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 3:05 PM
subject: Re: Apple Pie Plagiarism and…hiring you for my wedding?

Thanks for your prompt response, Edward Champion.

However, I did just want to clarify (if by some chance you might reconsider):

1) Yes, these are events that transpired 6 years ago. However, a portion of my upcoming book is dedicated to the topics of how my diary became published and how I "Got Micro-Famous." So those events as they transpired are a necessary addition to that book.

2) Oh yes, I’m fully aware of Choire Sicha’s "proviso." I’m not questioning why he suggested/exalted the article. I’m questioning why he failed to publicly acknowledge in any way the existence of an entire book (released just weeks prior to that article) addressing the same topic as the story on his "required reading syllabus." Again, his answer is something that needs to be included in my (rather timely, if I dare say) dissertation about Publishing, Marketing, Advertising, and PR in general. (I would also require a definition of his terminology, "The People’s Hero.")
Included therein should also be Gawker’s justification of their refusal to update/retract an erroneous article they wrote about me, despite their hypothesis having been disproved by New York magazine.
(Similarly, I would like an official explanation of Gawker’s banning of my commenting privileges, despite it being contrary to their rules regarding any of their subjects.)

3) I was not asking for you to delve into Sicha’s private life. The information I seek is how, and under what circumstances, the semi-fictional article came to appear in The New York Times as a non-fictional essay and then included in The Kings of Non-Fiction. Period.

4) I would hardly have thought this required "intensive investigation." I sincerely thought it would require 2 or 3 phone calls (and/or e-mails) at best.

Frankly, I don’t see how my perfectly legitimate questions can be mistaken for "sleazy tabloid journalism."

Thank you,
-abbe diaz

p.s. I actually don’t really expect you to change your mind, so you needn’t respond if it doesn’t suit you. Thanks again.

** UPDATED **

I thought I finally found somebody… In any case, it didn’t work out. And I have neither the time, energy, nor inclination to go through all this rigmarole again an indefinite number of times. So please, read the following e-mail exchange for a precise summary of my requirements.

If, unlike the hereunder scribe, you do not possess a bizarrely fickle disposition as to accept an assignment only to be NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN following the response to your simple inquiries, please feel free to forward your solicitation and/or examples of your work to me at: px.this@gmail.com
(Any proposals on how you think you might uniquely tackle this challenge are welcome as well.)

from: Harmon Leon
to: px.this@gmail.com
date: Friday, Nov 12, 2010 at 6:15 PM
subject: Freelance Writer Wanted (NYC)
I’ve written for Esquire, Salon, Wired, Maxim, Gawker, Details, National Geographic, and a host of other fine publications. You can read my columns on the Huffington Post, at the S.F. Chronicle, and on AOL’s Asylum.
I’m also the author of 6 books.
My video/TV producing credits includes Current TV, Strike TV, Fox Family Channel, National Lampoon, FX, and VH1.
I also works with Lotus PR covering the North American/European Poker Tours and promoting PokerStars.com. My specialty is writing/web producing. Your job position sounds great. When can I start?
Best,
Harmon Leon
BLOGS: Huffington Post – huffingtonpost.com/harmon-leon ; AOL Asylum – asylum.com/bloggers/harmon-leon/ ; SF Chronicle – sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hleon/index ; AOL Real Estate – rentedspaces.com/bloggers/harmon-leon

from: px this px.this@gmail.com
to: Harmon Leon
date: Saturday, Nov 13, 2010 at 3:41 PM
subject: Re: Freelance Writer Wanted (NYC)

Monday?

Nice work, Harmon Leon.
PEA SOUP. I have no words…

But, before you start Monday, you might want to consider these things first:

– I’m offering 10 cents per word, 2000 words maximum. Bonus up to DOUBLE for any particularly substantial and/or additional pertinent information discovered.

– How do you think you might handle your inquiries to Gawker? Seeing as I pretty much expect them to: a) hang up on you if you phone, b) refuse to answer your e-mails, c) lie, and deny knowing/remembering anything about me.

– Do you actually think you can elicit information form The New York Times? It’s a serious question. I’ve never tried calling a big scary important newspaper before, do they take inquiries from random strangers off the street?

– How do you think you might handle your inquiries to The Awl managing editor Choire Sicha? Seeing as I pretty much expect him to: a) hang up on you if you phone, b) refuse to answer your e-mails, c) lie, and deny knowing/remembering anything about me.

– How difficult do you think it will be to find/contact Coco Henson Scales? And if you somehow manage that, how do you expect to determine if she is indeed as stupid as I think she is? Give her a Mensa test? Hand her a bag of M&M’s and tell her to pick out the W’s?

I knooow, it’s a lot to consider. By my calculations, an article consisting of: "They said, ‘No Comment.’" is only going to earn you about 40 cents.

I really really truly welcome any/all brilliantly bright ideas you can muster.
Crossing my fingers you got some and we can work together,
-abbe

p.s. Why do all blogger journo-media whatever dudes sign off all their correspondence with "Best,"? By my personal experience, it’s such a crock of shit.
p.p.s. I have been telling people for decades not to buy into that sunscreen SPF garbage. Those bastards.

from: Harmon Leon harmonleonsf@gmail.com
to: px this <px.this@gmail.com>
date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 11:21 AM
subject: Re: Freelance Writer Wanted (NYC)
Hi Abbe-
Good to hear from you. I’m sure all of the below could be managed. What exactly are you looking
for in terms of content?
Harmon

from: px this px.this@gmail.com
to: Harmon Leon <harmonleonsf@gmail.com>
date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 2:41 PM
subject: Re: Freelance Writer Wanted (NYC)

Do your best to answer my questions, but be yourself. I welcome your opinions and commentary.

What I’d like to see is you describing the process by which you attempt to garner this information, what you’re thinking while you delve into whatever background you decide you need to digest in order to tackle this stuff, your personal account while it’s all happening, and of course, the answers to all my questions as best as you can determine.
If, at any time, you pick up on anything shady [ahahahahaa *snort* ahem sorry, reflex reaction] I want to hear allll about it.

You can definitely feel free to bring the funny. But, seeing as you would be credited in the final novel, try not to be funnier than me.
Just kidding. (Since I’m just going to edit/steal anything anything of yours that’s funnier than mine anyway. Kidding again.)

I sorta anticipate that when you contact Gawker, they will blame everything that occurred on the people directly responsible, namely–

- former managing editor, Choire Sicha (currently with The Awl)

- (next) former managing editor, Gabriel Snyder (currently with Newsweek online?)

- former full-time blogger, Joshua David Stein (freelancer?)

– none of whom are currently employed by Gawker any longer. In which case, I would still like some kind of explanation as to why they think everything transpired in the way it did, as "officially" as they can muster, or whatever their justification is…

but I would also like you try and contact those three people directly.

It’s too bad you’re on the wrong coast. I would have liked to see you try to conduct the inquiries in person, at Gawker HQ, dressed in drag.

There are other things I expect they may all use as excuses for their behavior. They will be lying. So you would need to briefed on all that first, unless you have some kind of insatiable voracity for this subject— in which case, you can feel free to go wading through pages and pages and more pages of my book (I could send you a full PDF), website, and discussion board "forum," to arm yourself against their glaringly unscrupulous bullshit.

Does all this with an early February 2011 deadline sound doable?

Thank you,
-abbe

Yeah, this is the point where I never heard from him again.
And please, don’t even get me started on the third writer I tried to hire, which was a long and arduous teeth-pulling nine-week process of payment negotiations and waiting while he dealt with family issues until I finally just gave up. DON’T DO THAT.

Compensation: $1000.00

All research inquiries during the execution of this job MUST BE VIDEOTAPED.
(Webcam and/or low-def OK; you MAY crop out your head/face if desired.)

ANY SUBMISSIONS ON SPEC ARE AT YOUR OWN RISK. However, I must admit that receiving a complete, exhaustive-yet-concise, well-written, humorous, qualifying essay while still in the midst of poring through an extensive list of potential candidates— wouldn’t be such a bad thing and pretty darned expedient. [i.e., If I like it, I'll pay.]

More information at: pxthis.com

GREATEST HITS: PX This [The Blahg]

Hi! Thank you for your "search"!
This website is currently undergoing changes as it continually progresses, so the entry for which you are seeking has likely been archived within "The Greatest Hits – PX This [The Blahg]". It was removed from its original location in preparation for the upcoming release of PX Me -The Sequel to PX This. If you would like more information and/or further clarification on this particular narrative, please read PX This – The Revised Edition and/or PX Me (coming soon).

And so without further ado— by popular (search engine) demand, we proudly present THE GREATEST HITS of PX This [The Blahg]

[*** warning: Eats, Shoots and Ladders Leaves freaks, please CLICK HERE* and HERE before reading any further. then take that favorite book of yours and stick it up your ass. thank you! ***]

"Nick Denton vs Leigh Haber"

thu 01.18.07: oh my gawd last night is without a doubt going down in my own little personal history as one of the FUNNEST nights i have had (or will have) ever in my whole fucking lifetime

eeheeheheee haha hahaaa check this shit out:

yah so last night was dinner at WaverlyInn. i invited leigh-haber to join me for a nice evening out because i was having a really shitty week and i totally deserved a respite (and i wanted to celebrate leigh-haber’s Modern Times).
anyways
somewhere amidst the bottle of Montagny and the fantastic conversation and the massive pot pies and the jon-bon.jovis and karolina-kurkovas and andre-harrells and graydon-carters and brian-mcnallies and eric-goodes and sante-d’orazios and sean-macphersons and jimmy-mccaffreys etc etc etc i tap leigh-haber on the elbow and declare, "hey look it’s nick-denton."

leigh-haber takes one glimpse at nick-denton and responds, "oh. hmm. should i say something?" and before i even have a chance to completely execute my shrug, leigh-haber is out of her seat and across the room ohmygoodness i was so fucking proud of her she’s like totally my hero.

apparently leigh-haber said to nick-denton [right there in front of his entire dinner party-of-six GO GIRL]: "ya know, last week i was promoted (because i worked my ass off and i’m finally getting some dues) and it should have been a nice day for me, but instead of feeling good about it, i had to feel miserable, because i was both promoted and eviscerated on the very same day, by a bunch of people who have absolutely no inkling who i am."
[or something like that, i admit i'm paraphrasing but i know the word "eviscerate" was definitely in there.]

nick-denton then evidently replied: "i didn’t see the item."

so then leigh-haber retorted something like: "well as the owner of Gawker, i believe you bear a certain level of responsibility."

nick-denton conceded.

and then leigh-haber came back to the table and i was positively BEAMING for her no joke i was totally the [hot. smokin] freaky asian chick GLOWING in the corner.

a little whiles later, as we were strolling out of the restaurant, theWaverly higher-powers decided they wanted to buy us a round of drinks [because i am so fucking fierce like that], they insisssted we sit down again at a front bar table and enjoy a cordial or digestif. so leigh-haber and i accepted, we got nice and cozy in the corner by the fireplace and let them kiss our fucking rings.

so then of course leigh-haber and i were afforded a lovely view of nick-denton leaving after dinner, but pausing for a minute (after a quick glance thrown our way) to tap at his Blackberry(?)Treo(?)Sidekick(?)whatever.
i turn to leigh-haber and i guffaw: "look, maybe nick-denton is texting his editor about you right now aahahahahaahaa"
and then nick-denton was out the door.

so then leigh-haber and i sat for a while and enjoyed our drinks and the sparkling witty banter of The Little Dog Laughed‘s douglas-carter.beane (who just happened to be seated next table over) and right as leigh-haber was lamenting that perhaps being called "the next judith-regan" wasn’t "exactly the best compliment"—
GUESS who walked into the restaurant.

judith fucking regan i SWEAR TO GAWD. ha ha hah hahhahh ahahahhahahaa you think i can make this shit up, i can’t.

so. today i just want to extend a really warm and heartfelt thank you to leigh-haber. for making my evening just the bestest night ever.
and also to say i’m sorry, but i just couldn’t resist.
even though leigh-haber sent me a gracious and lovely e-mail this morning asking me to please not comment on our night out together on my silly little blahggety blahg thingie—
sweetie you’re smoking crack there was NO WAY IN HELLS i was going to keep this one to myself.

ANYHOO
the other thing for which i wanted to thank leigh-haber (and i bet she doesn’t even realize this) is that last night she really opened my eyes and helped me with something of a little internal dilemma.

see, i have been sorta struggling with this here blahg thingie lately. it just so happens i am lucky enough to have been offered a couple of small investments from some very nice (and apparently brilliant, with astoundingly remarkable foresight) peoples who, for some reason, think possibly there is some $$ to be made here somehow (selling ads or some shit). but
i have been ruminating to myself just HOW in gawd’s name will this be possible— i mean
do this EVERY DAY? how could i possibly, i’m not that fucking interesting.

and so lately, my inner turmoil has been:
should i use the mountains and mountains and mountains of nightlife industry "insider" 411
[ahahaa scratch that. 411? bitch please, i got Google all up in this mutherfukker. no joke]
that is fed and spread to me incessantly— the kind of stuffs i think other interweb bloogie thingies would kill for—

[like for example how Morandi is set to open like any millisecond now but already there's a shade of drama in the kitchen, i can't wait to see how that shit plays out... and how BoweryHotel is lookin gooood... and how LafayetteInn is looking even better, and all their "pre-opening" guests are faaabooolous... and how ChinatownBrasserie had better make that dimsum shit work, boy... and how masaharu-morimoto and stephen-starr just might be beefin with each other and maybe they'll get divorced pretty soon... and how alan-yau is making ian-schrager's life a little bit of hell... and how theCoreClub is ummm maybe not exactly impressing their members so so much... and ya know. stuff like that. oh but i digress.]

—but are told to me unwittingly. in casual conversation. by my friends and acquaintances and "colleagues" and other peoples i love and admire and respect.

i don’t want to be frank-bruni or adam-platt or alan-richman or steve-cuozzo with their frikkin (obnoxious) one-star three-star go-here don’t-go-there they’re-worthy/unworthy let’s-shut-this-fucking-place-down bullshit.
i don’t want to go peeking in the cracks of the plywood trying to expose projects that haven’t even fucking started yet.
i don’t want to go sticking my fat obtrusive face in peoples’ businesses just to say mean things about them, because it’s "funny."
and i definitely don’t want to go clamoring for ugly photographs of "celebrities" [hell, everybody takes a bad photo sometimes yes even someone as totally smokin as me] just so i can make them look stupid and then exploit them.

well
last night with leigh-haber i realized i don’t have to. hells, my life is pretty darned amusing sometimes. and no i’m not a "business," i’m an ARTIST goddammit.
(eeheee geezus, i really can take anything in the universe and make it all about me)

thanks leigh-haber. and thanks to you too BigHomey

:)

*** Gawker’s next-day response to this narrative is here –> “Leigh Haber Takes Her Complaints Straight to the Top” ***

* * * * *

**pictured: Nick Denton, former Gawker blogger Emily Gould

pxthis.com archives

This is an abbreviated version of Abbe Diaz’s diary/blog entry on January 18, 2007, for web archival purposes only. A far more detailed, thorough, and incisive account is to be included in Diaz’s upcoming second book, PX Me – The Sequel to PX This (Coming Soon in the Spring of 2011)

* "…The intellectual community, as usual, showed itself to be timid and divided, and even the most unexpected graphologists engaged in controversies regarding their inconsistent analyses of my handwriting. It was they who divided opinions, overheated the polemic, and made nostalgia popular…. Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future." – Gabriel García Márquez

GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this

PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.

[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]

GAWKER.COM (Addressing its Deep-Seated, Misguided, Sad, Twisted Jellussy)

Started: March 29, 2007. 5:33 PM by *Bartender* • Closed: October 27, 2010 4:37PM • Archived at 21,018 Views

PRIMARY SUBJECT : gawker.com

ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Former Managing Editor Gabriel Snyder, Former Gawker blogger Joshua David Stein, Former Gawker blogger Emily Gould, Gawker blogger Hamilton Nolan, Former Gawker blogger Sheila McClear, Top Chef contestant Leah Cohen

GIST OF TOPIC : How most of the former Gawker bloggers (as well as its former Managing Editor) were sooo intimidated by Abbe Diaz, they disparaged her, engaged in blatant breaches of journalistic integrity, and then effectively censored her by banning her from commenting (twice!) without just cause or provocation, in a manner completely contradictory to the rules they themselves set forth for all "future" commentators.

(Not to mention their prior treatment of her under the previous Managing Editor, Choire Sicha— wherein it basically looks like they tried to misappropriate the subject matter in Diaz’s book, PX This, for their own glorification and/or personal gain.)

Yeah! We got some reeeal winners here.

SIGNIFICANCE: Oh, where do we even begin? Seriously, it’s a lot to absorb. So much so as a matter of fact, that Diaz’s second book, PX Me – The Sequel to PX This, is comprised largely of Diaz’s delineation of Gawker’s mind-boggling sordidness.

This long and fascinating discussion, as it unfolded, is (to some extent) its "real-time" counterpart.
Its overall sentiment can perhaps be best summarized thusly, in a comment made on Gawker’s website by PX This contributing-writer/editor *VanillaIce* aka *TrollaiLlama* aka *clue4sale* right before his (and Diaz’s) commenting privileges at Gawker were revoked :

"I suppose this is the part where we’re supposed to smile, and pat you on the head and say, ‘Good little troll. Now, be on your way.’

Was there some part of ‘I’m tired of seeing her being called crazy’ that you didn’t understand?

From what I can tell, Abbe has never directly addressed you (or any other troll here) at all, except to respond to one of your unfoundedly rude, obnoxious comments toward her. And yet you continue to follow her around, in some kind of desperate attempt to gain whatever attention you feel you’re lacking.

You call her batshit, you’ve called her a drunk, you’ve implied she’s of the mental state to commit sucide, you’ve accused her of wanting to ‘fellate’ a man she’s never met, without a single fact to back up your disgusting libelous statements.

Your half-hearted backpedaling doesn’t impress me. It’s as pathetic as Josh Stein’s cowardice, a so-called journalist who persistently wrote pejorative things about Abbe, but interestingly, has never had the balls to face her as she taunts him comment after comment. In contrast, Abbe lives, works and socializes in NY, amongst the veritable titans of their field that she has boldly exposed as the conniving, thieving, manipulative, backstabbing, spoiled cretins they are.

I dare you to back up your claims about Abbe’s craziness. I dare you and Josh Stein both.

I double dog dare you."

To this day, neither Gawker nor Joshua David Stein have ever retracted/updated their erroneous assertions. Former Managing Editor Choire Sicha has failed to explain his iniquitous actions. Former Managing Editor Gabriel Snyder has never justified his injudicious behavior in censoring Abbe Diaz.

RATING: ★★★★★

WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.

The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]

***********************************************

**pictured: Official Gawker Mascot, Julia Allison – gawker.com

** See also:

• Gawker Loses Ignorasshole

• The Hostess Diaries Conspiracy

For more on this subject, read PX Me – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Spring of 2012

GREATEST HITS: PX This [The Blahg / The Forum]

Hi! Thank you for your "search"!
This website is currently undergoing changes as it continually progresses, so the entry for which you are seeking has likely been archived within "The Greatest Hits – PX This [The Blahg]". It was removed from its original location in preparation for the upcoming release of PX This Too (The Sequel to PX This). If you would like more information and/or further clarification on this particular narrative, please read PX This – The Revised Edition and/or PX This Too (coming soon).

And so without further ado— by popular (search engine) demand, we proudly present THE GREATEST HITS of PX This [The Blahg / The Forum]

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2007. 12:40PM

Presenting: THE GRASSHOPPER CHRONICLES (Did Chef Jody Williams try to undermine her former boss by planting a grasshopper in a sandwich wrap?) by *Dick Johnson* – Archived at 59,823 Views

- March 20, 2007 : The saga begins here; Abbe Diaz (author, blogger, Forum launcher, "former maitre d’ to the stars" and girlfriend of Gusto Ristorante/ Centro Vinoteca /Mangia owner Sasha Muniak) comments about her dining experience at the newly opened Morandi. She writes:

"…i’ve pretty much refrained from commenting about Morandi, mostly because maybe it’s like too personal or some shit, but i must say that place works my every last nerve.
the thing i find utterly retarded is
clearly they have opted to keep some of the same things that still currently appear on the Gusto menu. okay fine all well and good. except
if you happen to comment on it (like to the bartender for example) they get all irritated and indignant like it’s APPALLING you would even mention it. i mean for fuck’s sake, if that’s the decision you make, i think you’d better get a fucking sense of humor about it…."

The entire comment remains here. (It’s definitely worth a read!)

- App. 5 hours later, a new Forum registrar logged-in as "Brook" responds, "I worked for hair plug muniak and it is going to be a pleasure to see him fail. Proper question on Gusto is why didn’t the new chef change the menu? Obviously Williams will cook what she learned in the 6 years she spent in Italy (only self taught female Italian chef in America) and just like Giorione and Il Buco, Gusto will not be about the food for long."

- Abbe immediately answers "Brook":

oh YEAAAH that’s what i’m talkin bout. i’m like a proud bricklayer right now– this place was built to keep it "real"

YOUR PUBLICIST CANNOT HELP YOU HERE MISS THING

a: name calling, "Brook" ?? yah that’s mature

b: and thanks for making my point. my point WAS:
who gives a shit what Williams cooks where. but WHY get all pissy if the patrons bring it up ?? did you REALLY think NOBODY was going to comment on the fact the menu is similar. get serious

c: AS IF Morandi is about the FOOD. aha ha ha hahah haaa that’s a good one.

d: sorry but Gusto was never about the fucking FOOD either. at least not to me, it wasn’t. and there was a time i was there at least once or twice a week.
i went first for the location. THEN the bar (it’s actually quite nice). THEN i kept going back so often because of artan.

e: yeah i bet you’d love to "see him fail." it’s called ENVY.
why don’t you do us all a favor and try holding your breath.

(**note: Abbe later clarifies, under this very same topic "…need i remind you this entire ‘drama’ was precipitated by a ‘validating member’ named ‘Brook.’ i will not tell you HOW i come to have very strong personal opinions on this matter, but perhaps it would behoove you to inquire, from someone with some technological experience, just how these interweb website forum thingies work exactly," essentially implying she has some behind-the-scenes knowledge regarding the true identity of "Brook.")

- The following day, March 21, 2007 – (the first of several unfavorable Morandi reviews) Steve Cuozzo of The NY Post declares Morandi a dud.

- The very next day, March 22, 2007 – A "dubious" photograph of a grasshopper in a sandwich wrap at Sasha Muniak’s Mangia (on 57th St) appears anonymously in the inbox of eater.com

- The Morandi topic in this Forum progresses, as several commenters begin to imply the grasshopper incident is not a coincidence, having come so closely on the heels of Brook’s pejorative comment.

[**Worth noting: It was eater.com that first "broke the story" of chef Jody Williams leaving Gusto for Morandi establishing at least one prior correspondence between them.]

- Gawker.com "picks up" the item, stressing the similarity in menus between Gusto and Morandi.

- Almost immediately, eater.com attacks Abbe Diaz
The Eater "item" contains several falsehoods and inaccuracies (which are then brilliantly addressed and refuted by a PX This Forum Administrator/"Publicist.")

- The next day, eater.com concedes its misrepresentation–> http://ny.eater.com/archives/2007/03/who_is_abbe_dia.php

- Within the subsequent forum discussions, industry rumors surrounding Morandi, Keith McNally, Jody Williams (and Williams’ apparent friendship with eater.com’s Ben Leventhal) and her former boss, Sasha Muniak, begin to emerge.

It culminates with a Page Six parody, "JUST ASKING….
What tantrum throwing, egomaniacal hotspot chef is so psycho, it’s possible she tried to derail her former boss by resorting to sabotage? One day after the anonymous comment, "…it is going to be a pleasure to see him fail" appeared on an online restaurant industry insider forum, a mysterious, questionable, dubious photograph of an insect in a particular food item sold by said former boss (and current competitor), suddenly showed up at eater.com. What are the odds?"

- The next day, Jody Williams’ live-in girlfriend, Diana, registers for the PX This Forum and replies:
"I can say with 100% certainty that Jody has never been associated with any posting to this site. When Jody was asked by one of her cooks did you put a grasshopper in a Mangia wrap?’ she giggled and asked him what he was talking about. When she decided to leave Gusto, she telephoned Amanda Freitag and asked her if she wanted her job because she respected her as a chef and was friendly with her. In addition, opposed to much of the chatter on this site, she enjoyed working for Sasha Muniak saying on many occasions to me that he was one of the best bosses she ever had (I too like his gentle soul and really had a strong bond with his son Alexei). It appears that a lot of the posts written on this site are from the front of the house staff at Gusto who may have had run-ins with her. Its sad because I know when push comes down to shove she really did like everyone and enjoyed the two years that she spent there. She has been working extremely long hours without a day off in months getting her kitchen up to her standards. I also know that going from a restaurant that does 200 covers a night to close to 400 covers there is a lot of stress in sending out food that meets her standard. Does she yell? What chef doesn’t. Sorry I’m ranting on about this but it really is upsetting to see someone you love and respect be put over the ringer."

- Diaz responds:

hi Diana,
we’ve never met but i have heard of you through our mutual acquaintances, i’ve been told you are kind and sweet and very nice. i understand very much how upsetting it is to see "someone you love and respect" being spoken of in this manner. perhaps maybe now you understand my gut response to the commenter signed in as "Brook." i fully appreciate what you are saying, and am very grateful you took the time, energy, and effort to come here and address this issue.

i hope you appreciate my stance as well, i believe everyone is entitled to their say. i do not know whether this news will be unsettling to you or not, but i can assure you the majority of the commenters in this thread are NOT Gusto FOH staff, as i do happen to know several of the "members" personally, either having met in person, or through extensive correspondence over the last several months (i can’t speak for them ALL, as there are certainly members here whose identities i do not know). you may find this hard to believe, but it’s my experience that it is actually the Gusto staff who is most reluctant to discuss these matters, either here or in person. as i have mentioned, even i no longer dine at Gusto, as i have had personal problems of my own with the FOH staff.

you claim to know with "100% certainty" that chef-williams has no association with any posting here. i respect your conviction, but ask that you extend me the same courtesy when i reply to the contrary– i’m sorry, but it is my belief you are wrong.

as for chef-williams, she is now in the (unfortunate?) situation of being a "celebrity," and i do mean that in the strictest definition of the word. by virtue of her self-imposed foray into the limelight, she is now subject to scrutiny and all the consequences that go along with it. i think everyone that has commented here has been quite fair (unlike eater.com’s initial response), particularly in specifying their opinions are purely speculation and hearsay, and encouraging readers to form their own conclusions. i am VERY PROUD of those who have chosen to comment here, as it is my (vast) personal experience the internet CAN be a daunting and malicious place, often inspiring people to vociferate their worst, secure in their anonymity.

thank you again, and all the best to you and ms. williams.

- Fast forward several months, to a new Forum discussion of the impending opening of Sasha Muniak’s Centro Vinoteca with chef Anne Burrell (located mere blocks from McNally/Williams’ Morandi)

- Again, industry rumors emerge, this time involving Muniak’s offspring, who are, in short, said to be rambunctious, "arrogant", "unappreciative" and far too garrulous, to be good for Centro’s "image" amongst those who are, shall we say, esoterically informed.

- Eater.com jumps all over it, declaring, "Right Under Diaz’s Nose, the Worm Turns on Muniak." (June 28, 2007)

- (Forum Orator Extraordinaire) *Dick Johnson* observes, "LOL. When it comes to us, I think Eater (read: Ben Leventhal) would put a ‘negative spin’ on it, if we all got together and cured cancer."

- July 10, 2007- Eater.com "unveils" Centro Vinoteca

Within the comments section, a reader posts a disdainful remark about Muniak’s family, and signs it "Dick Johnson." A second commenter responds by attacking the PX This Forum, claiming "hating" and "drama" are "predictable" here.

- Immediately, the real *Dick Johnson* of PX This emphatically denies posting that comment. He writes:

"OK, I’m pissed.

I did not write that comment, and I think whoever did, is a ball-less cocksucker.

First of all, I have never hated on Centro or Gusto- I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Abbe’s boyfriend (whatever his name is).

And if I had to guess, I would say a certain jealous, shit-eating chef, had everything to do with signing my "name" to that comment. Why don’t you go feed your fucking pet grasshoppers, you bitch."

- Abbe Diaz forwards that denial to eater.com, but is then accused of being an Abbe Diaz imposter.

- After a slight tumultuous anti-Centro wave descends on the PX This Forum, the rally behind Muniak begins to re-shape after a (cute and happy) member named *Ferret-n-Chicken!* reminds and suggests, "just think about how everybody says Sasha is a really nice guy, and also I know I’m definitely curious to see what that Iron chef chick can do!!!"

- Less than 2 hours later, William’s girlfriend reappears and comments,

"You guys are really a bunch of assholes. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Jody doesn’t read reviews, go on blogs etc. I don’t know why I care but I do. People tell me consider the source with this site but I don’t listen to them. Jody quit Gusto and gave unlimited notice. Jody replaced herself in the kitchen. It took three people to replace her…the chef at gusto, sarah at Mangia and Anne at Centro. (thanks to Mark Latner because he wasn’t interested so he referred Sasha to her). Sorry guys but Morandi is not a failure, Jody could cook when Sasha asked her to stay and she can cook now. Morandi’s front of the house is run better than any establishment that Jody has worked in NYC. And for the last time, Jody is way too busy at Morandi to go online with some bullshit fake name and verbally abuse Gusto/Mangia/Centro. Perhaps Craig was right when he said that the only way that Abbe Diaz can get attention on this blog is to stir up fake controversy. Every f’n subject seems to mention Jody. Seriously, are you insane?
Good thing that Giorgio didn’t get one of his lackies to attack Jody when Sasha lured her away from him.
Simply Unbelievable.

- Diaz responds:

sigh

hi diana
nice to see you again

and again, i will say as well, i welcome your input as i do all others.

i appreciate your anger, as i’m sure i would react strongly (in probably a similar manner), given the circumstances.

but
everyone here is entitled to their opinion too. and if you’ll notice (as i did) not one person has used jody’s name in this thread. i believe that is an act of sincere consideration that proceeded completely unprompted, even by me.

as for my alleged attempts to "get attention" by stirring up "fake controversy"

well. need i remind you this entire "drama" was precipitated by a "validating member" named "Brook." i will not tell you HOW i come to have very strong personal opinions on this matter, but perhaps it would behoove you to inquire, from someone with some technological experience, just how these interweb website forum thingies work exactly.

i am going to leave it at that, because BELIEVE IT OR NOT, this particular subject is starting to become rather tiresome to me as well.

all the best to you and ms.williams

if you have any further questions and/or comments, i am happy to accommodate them.

all i ask is you please refrain as best you can from calling my members "assholes." although i’m sure their skins are rather thick and can withstand whatever animosity you can muster.

oh and by the way

personally, as a rather knowledgeable and vastly experienced former member of the F&B industry, i would have to say i think most of your above assertations are a bunch of bullshit.

but whatever

OH
one other last thing

you can tell craig i said: "wait til i see that mutherfukker"

cuz he wrote me an e-mail recently telling me he sweats me. seriously

so if he is going around talking hypocritical shit about me behind my back

i will totally punch him in the fucking shoulder. HARD.

CAN SOMEBODY PASS THE FUCKING POPCORN OVER HERE NOW geezus christ

- Within minutes, eater.com declares Abbe Diaz is having a "meltdown."

- Fast forward several months to December, 2007. Sasha Muniak receives an e-mail from Jody Williams insisting he "rein in" his girlfriend or suffer the consequences.

- Abbe Diaz is livid. However, she concedes:

… i admit i am making an assumption. is there a possibility that comment COULD have been posted by someone else? of course. there’s always a possibility.

so here is my suggestion, and maybe this will appease everybody involved:

- SOMEONE posted that comment. all the speculations raised by the members here regarding that comment are primarily based on the IP address. well, if i was accused of posting a comment i did not write (that was supossedly written by one of my FANS), i can tell you i would be hell-bent on finding the person who is ruining my reputation by writing that awful snide comment.

- i would take the IP address. i would call the company to which the address is registered. if i happened to discover LO AND BEHOLD that IP address happens to come from the VERY SAME COMPANY in which i work (or used to work maybe? whatever) — ??

- i would find my "colleague," make him/her reveal his/her identity (or i would do it myself) and then i’d probably shake the shit out of that "fan" of mine. then i’d make that colleague publicly apologize to all involved for creating such a goddamned ruckus. i’d probably even call my good pals over at Eater and ask them to help spread the word farther and wider: "I AM INNOCENT."
(hells, i would even bet all the members here would apologize for all their speculations, if proven wrong. quite frankly, i would MAKE THEM APOLOGIZE.)

that’s what i would do.

i got the IP address if anybody wants it. just ask for it.

- To this day, neither Jody Williams nor Diana nor eater.com has made any attempt to acquire the aforementioned IP address, belonging to "Brook." Isn’t that funny?

We still have it, if anybody wants it. Feel free to e-mail us — or wait until the release of PX Me – The Sequel to PX This if you just wanna read about it — coming in the Spring of 2012!

- As predicted by the members of PX This months prior, in August of 2007, Jody Williams signs on as chef/partner of Gottino, (located within the several blocks between Gusto and Morandi).

- As predicted by the members of PX This months prior, in May of 2008, Chef Jody William is unceremoniously dismissed from Morandi.

- The LATEST: As "scooped" by PX This, in September of 2009, Jody Williams is sued by Gottino partner Michael Bull and is subsequently ousted from Gottino in May of 2010.

Grasshopper murder suspect "Brook" remains at large…

**See also (earlier): "[ Jody Willams ] @ Morandi"

*********************************************************************
pxthis.com archives

This is an abbreviated version of the PX This blog entry on July 14, 2007, for archival purposes only. A far more detailed, thorough, and incisive account is to be included in Diaz’s upcoming second book, PX Me – The Sequel to PX This) – Coming Soon in the Spring of 2012

"…The intellectual community, as usual, showed itself to be timid and divided, and even the most unexpected graphologists engaged in controversies regarding their inconsistent analyses of my handwriting. It was they who divided opinions, overheated the polemic, and made nostalgia popular…. Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future." – Gabriel García Márquez

GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this

PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.

[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]

[Jody Williams @] Morandi

Started: March 16, 2007. 4:37 PM by ) *Dick Johnson* • Closed: September 30, 2010 12:45PM • Archived at 70,294 Views

PRIMARY SUBJECT : Chef Jody Williams‘s defection from Sasha Muniak‘s Gusto Ristorante to Keith McNally‘s Morandi (located several blocks from Gusto).

ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Sasha Muniak, Keith McNally, eater.com’s Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal, former New York Times critic Frank Bruni, New York magazine’s critic Adam Platt, New York Post critic Steve Cuozzo

GIST OF TOPIC : Chef Jody Williams’s brief tenure as Head Chef of Morandi

SIGNIFICANCE: This fascinating discussion thread sets the background for PX This’s famous "The Grasshopper Chronicles" (ohhh, you don’t want to miss that one)! Marvel as the (insightful, sagacious, vastly-experienced-within-the-F&B-industry) members of PX This are denigrated and derided time and again by various NYC food/restaurant journalists/bloggers— only to eventually be proven 100% correct in all their declarations and assertions.

The blatant bias, misconduct, and lack of integrity within the "Food Media" will astound you. The rest of it will have you LOLROTF! Really, we promise.

RATING: ★★★★★

WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.

The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]

***********************************************

** [UPDATED] See also: The Grasshopper Chronicles (Did Chef Jody Williams try to undermine her former boss by planting a grasshopper in a sandwich wrap?)

For more on this subject, read PX Me – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Spring of 2011

GREATEST HITS: PX This [The Blahg]

Hi! Thank you for your "search"!
This website is currently undergoing changes as it continually progresses, so the entry for which you are seeking has likely been archived within "The Greatest Hits – PX This [The Blahg]". It was removed from its original location in preparation for the upcoming release of PX This Too (The Sequel to PX This). If you would like more information and/or further clarification on this particular narrative, please read PX This – The Revised Edition and/or PX This Too (coming soon).

And so without further ado— by popular (search engine) demand, we proudly present THE GREATEST HITS of PX This [The Blahg]

[*** warning: Eats, Shoots and Ladders Leaves freaks, please CLICK HERE* and HERE before reading any further. then take that favorite book of yours and stick it up your ass. thank you! ***]

"What’s the deal with New York Magazine / GrubStreet’s "Two for Eight"? Is it all just bullshit or what?"

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2009. 11:18AM

okay so
this is the THIRD time i’ve caught a discrepancy in their uhhh "reporting."

as you may or may not recall, i previously posted about the other two times in the [private, password-protected, soon-to-be-defunct] "members’ only forum"–

specifically, i said this:

May 29, 2009, 11:18 AM

… last night was dinner at CentroVinoteca. and the place was slammed.

and that made me think "huh." cuz the day before, i had called the restaurant to try and make a reservation for friends of mine (who had tried themselves, but couldn’t get a table). and even though the hostess was very sweet saying they could accommodate me, i could tell it was going to be a bit of a nightmare for them so i told them never mind. and then i made arrangements with my friend to dine together with them another time instead, and so that made everybody happy and satisfied.

lo and behold i look yesterday morning and i see on grubstreet: "Tables Available at Centro Vinoteca" for two at 8pm.

and i was all: — but then i brushed it off thinking i guess it’s possssible (?) they had a cancellation? but didn’t call me? hmm. okay.

and so last night i mentioned this to one of the managers in charge of the reservationists. and he personally told me: "it’s IMPOSSIBLE. there was no way grubstreet was offered an 8pm table at 4pm. WE WERE BOOKED."

i also happpen to know there was also another time grubstreet had the same "Centro… Tables Available…" title but when you clicked on the link, it stated there was in fact "no" table available.
but when i pointed the discrepancy out in the comments section, they merely crossed out their previous entry and changed it to suit their title.

now

yesterday i happen to look and AGAIN i see: "Tables Available at Centro Vinoteca and Trestle on Tenth; Allen & Delancey Mostly Booked"

and i think to myself: "really? REALLY?! if Allen&Delancey is AGAIN ‘mostly booked’ with a ‘nearest availability at 6:45pm’ on a MONDAY night with RAIN in the forecast, then that is pretty incredible. as a matter of fact, it’s so incredible, i would like to see this for myself. obviously they are doing something right, and perhaps i should go and see it with my own eyes and then i can LEARN something about what they are doing so right."

mmhmp. yah– oh i learned something all right.

- firstly i phoned Allen&Delancey myself at 6pm. and SOMEHOW i managed to score a reservation for two at a time much MUCH closer to an 8PM time slot than the reported "earliest availability" at "6:45." i was even told "it would be a pleasure" to accommodate me (twice even). and in case you were wondering whether it was my totally awesome PXness that got me the table— no. sorry. i booked it under a pseudonym.

- i (and my guest) then arrived at Allen&Delancey a tad early– at 7pm.
there was ONE couple at the bar and two deuces in the dining room.

- i promptly phoned CentroVinoteca and inquired "heyyyy… just curious… how many people are at your bar right now (at 7PM)…?"
i was told: "18 people at the bar. and 4 deuces in the dining room."

- so then i asked: "and are you booked at 8pm by any chance?"
the answer: why yes! they are! (imagine that!) but they have an availability later in the evening if i’d like, but sorrrrry– not quite at 8pm.

hmm. really. well that’s interesting.

by the time 8:05pm rolled around, Allen&Delancey had seated one 8-top, and two more deuces. plus one other couple at the bar (totaling 6 covers in the front bar area, and 16 in the dining room).
does that sound like "mostly booked" to you?
(by the way– A&D, much like Centro, has approximately 12 seats at the bar and about 70 seats in the dining room.)

ya know
it’s no secret i have disagreed with Eater many times in the past. but AT LEAST their resy-whateverthefuck thing they run (which grubstreet, arguably, did bite off Eater) has the number of ring-a-dings, and the exact response given, and sometimes even the name of the person who answered the phone and whatnot.
i must admit– it DOES add a bit of plausibility (not to mention entertainment value) to the whole sordid exercise.

which brings me to my point:

- what IS the point, do you think, of this whole "two for eight" bit, hmm?

i mean– OSTENSIBLY, they are trying to do the restaurants and patrons some kind of favor or something, yes?

but, having inquired over and over again– it seems there is, in fact, no value in this for the restaurant OR patrons, as CentroVinoteca (for example– look ! "all grub street posts tagged ‘Centro Vinoteca + two for eight’ **– all 50 times — a good 2 to 3 times MORE than any other restaurant on that list!) has confirmed that NEVER since its inception has ANY customer EVER expressed their last-minute reservation and/or arrival was due to the awesome efficiency and convenience of grubstreet’s "Two for Eight."
[in contrast however, "Top Chef" is invoked innumerable times, as are leah-cohen's recent appearances on the cover of the NY Times City section and CBS's weekend Morning Show.]

yah so— incidentally, my dining companion while all this was happening last night, just happens to be a restaurateur.

his take on the matter (?):

"i don’t get it. what’s the point of this? it doesn’t make me happy to hear other restaurants aren’t doing so well."

mmhmmm. well

maybe it doesn’t make HIM happy

but i guess it makes SOMEONE happy.

doesn’t it?

at the very least, as an avid and devoted reader (and fan!) of grubstreet, i would kinda looove to hear them explain what’s going on here.

but hey, maybe that’s just me.

** UPDATE: Well, lookee here— the hyperlink provided no longer allows viewers to see how many times a particular restaurant has been featured in Gribstreet’s "Two for Eight." Imagine that! Good thing we’ve got a screen capture!

Click to enlarge —>

*********************************************************

pxthis.com archives

This is an abbreviated version of Abbe Diaz’s diary/blog entry on June 9, 2009, for archival purposes only. A far more detailed, thorough, and incisive account is to be included in Diaz’s upcoming second book, PX This Too (The Sequel to PX This) – Coming in the Autumn of 2010

* "…The intellectual community, as usual, showed itself to be timid and divided, and even the most unexpected graphologists engaged in controversies regarding their inconsistent analyses of my handwriting. It was they who divided opinions, overheated the polemic, and made nostalgia popular…. Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future." – Gabriel García Márquez

NOTE: Unless otherwise dated, the comments listed below reflect the discussion that occurred in the Forum @ PX This subsequently, at the time of the original entry. They have been re-created here. If you require an un-edited copy of the original discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com

Greatest Hits: PX This [The Blahg]

Hi! Thank you for your "search"!
This website is currently undergoing changes as it continually progresses, so the entry for which you are seeking has likely been archived within "The Greatest Hits – PX This [The Blahg]". It was removed from its original location in preparation for the upcoming release of PX This Too (The Sequel to PX This). If you would like more information and/or further clarification on this particular narrative, please read PX This – The Revised Edition and/or PX This Too (coming soon).

And so without further ado— by popular (search engine) demand, we proudly present THE GREATEST HITS of PX This [The Blahg]

[*** warning: Eats, Shoots and Ladders Leaves freaks, please CLICK HERE* and HERE before reading any further. then take that favorite book of yours and stick it up your ass. thank you! ***]

"PX This Mercer Lobby Screaming"

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2005. 11:38AM

omygawd i got thrown out of theMercerHotel yesterday!
aha hah hahaa aah

oh okay that’s not ENTIRELY true. actually i left quietly of my own accord— because i am more than sufficiently aware lois-freedman (director of operations for jean-georges restaurants) doesn’t even HAVE the fucking authority to kick me out of theMercerHotel.

yah so anyways it was a real scene oh you should have been there— the best part was when lois-freedman started screaming at marc-bagutta at the top of her lungs "GET YOUR GIRLFRIEND OOOUT OF HEEERE! I’LL CALL THE COPPPS! IF JEAN-GEORGES WAS HERE, HE WOULD THROW HER OUTTT PERSSSONALLY!" i swear i thought her head was going to start spinning all around like that demonically possessed chick in that spooky exorcist movie.
and there were lots of other peoples (like dean-winters for example) sitting in the hotel lobby too trying to quietly enjoy their wine and tea and whatnot so they got some free entertainment. oh! i am sooo BUMMED i didn’t have any pxthis business cards on me to pass around like "thank yooou, we’ll be here all week."

by the way if you’re wondering why in the world lois-freedman would suddenly just bust out with her bestest impersonation of large-marge the lady truckdriver in Peewee Herman’s Big Adventure— alls i can say is: hmm. beats me!

so then anyways today we called ABhotels corporate office trying to understand why we are supposedly "NOT WELCOME EVVVERRR!"
they were very surprised to hear the news and so sweet saying this is not the case at all since we are such good and frequent patrons of theRaleigh in miami (and plus cuz we’re so faboolous) we are welcome "ANYTIME… ANYWHERE…" they even offered to send me a written apology.
yay!
[they also said something along the lines of "lois who..?" but oh never mind.]

anyhoo. oh yah so that same day after we’d left MercerHotel my pal "bunny"kim (who also used to work for jean-georges) and i went over to CiprianiDowntown to have some bellinis, because the poor thing needed a drink since she was so suddenly and unexpectedly subjected to lois-freedman’s freaky ballistic apeshit episode—
and hee eheee it was great, when we recounted to everybody what just occurred in theMercerHotel lobby, they were so amused and felt so sorry for us they comped our drinks and sent an entire meal from the kitchen too.

then afterward since we were in the area, we decided to pop into Kittichai around the corner.
and it was great, it just so happens dwayne-collins who also used to work with us for jean-georges is now the general manager of Kittichai. so when we recounted to everybody what just occurred in theMercerHotel lobby, they were so amused and felt so sorry for us they comped our drinks and sent an entire meal from the kitchen too.

and right then chef cedric-tovar happened to walk in, and it was great, when we recounted to him what just occurred in theMercerHotel lobby, he was so amused and felt so sorry for us he invited us over to Django (so he could comp our drinks and send an entire meal from the kitchen too).
geezus if we had kept going, we probably could have eaten for free all week long all over downtown NYC! ha ahaah

… but we were totally stuffed and couldn’t handle any more food so instead we decided to head over to Butter to check out the new monday night party thingie by richie-akiva & scott-sartiano & ronnie-madra.
it was really bunny-kim who wanted to go, so i was kinda totally prepared to despise every last minute of the experience. but actually, it wasn’t bad!
and i saw liev-schreiber & drea-dematteo & andre-harrell & sean-lennon & vincent-gallo & (of course) the olsen-twins. and that was just in the mere 40 minutes we stayed, a whole mess of other faboolous peoples were pouring in just as we were trying to get the fuck out. maybe i’m just too old fer that shit…

pxthis.com archives

This is an abbreviated version of Abbe Diaz’s diary/blog entry on February 22, 2005, for archival purposes only. A far more detailed, thorough, and incisive account is to be included in Diaz’s upcoming second book, PX This Too (The Sequel to PX This) – Coming in the Autumn of 2010

* "…The intellectual community, as usual, showed itself to be timid and divided, and even the most unexpected graphologists engaged in controversies regarding their inconsistent analyses of my handwriting. It was they who divided opinions, overheated the polemic, and made nostalgia popular…. Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future." – Gabriel García Márquez

Uh oh:

"A former cook at celeb chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten‘s JoJo Restaurant said she had to endure heaping helpings of sexual harassment… Arlene Keith says she went to work as a meat cook… and was subjected to vile, sexually explicit remarks and advances by another cook… When the alleged victim complained to her boss, he began being abusive to her as well, the lawsuit says…
Vongerichten, named as a defendant but not accused of any harassment, called the suit ‘frivolous.’" [The NY Post]

Hmm.
Well, the last time the Jean Georges organization faced a "frivolous" (or whatever) lawsuit, it cost them $1.75M. (We’re just sayin’.)

I mean, sure, $1.75M may seem like a lot of money to you, but that’s just like spare change or ‘tip money’ to them. Thanks for all your concern sending this news to us and everything, but fret not— apparently, they can afford it!

P.S. Oh yeah, see the "UPDATE" in the title up there? Well, that’s how you do an update, you fucking scumbags.

**See also (earlier):
• Jean Georges Enterprises – Shit, meet Fan. Fan, meet Shit. [Part 1 and Part 2]
• “Mercer… Lobby… Screaming” starring Lois Freedman

For more on this story, read PX This – The Revised Edition [and PX This Too (Coming Soon in the Autumn of 2010)]

For want of a better title to depict today’s issue, I’ve decided to start a new PX This feature, wherein we address all the overemphasized, overembellished, over-hyped drivel we’re totally sick of.

Why, you ask? As in— if we’re sick of it, why are even discussing it? Well, that’s a very good point. However, I’ve spent some time lately familiarizing myself with the search engine keywords guiding our fair visitors (in an effort to be a more informative "blah-grrr"), and I’ve deduced there are indeed a whole lot of people out there in need of our unique and keenly knowledgeable insight, particularly to assist in weeding through all that misleading overemphasized, overembellished, over-hyped drivel out there.
Yes, it’s a rough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
You’re welcome!

Are We Sick of Josh Ozersky Yet?

The answer is naturally: Yes, of course we are. We’re sick to death of him.

But, we still couldn’t help but be eye-rollingly amused by tools-of-a-feather, circle-jerk-brethren, ethics-lacking "journalist" Joshua David Stein‘s hare-brained defense of his pal, Josh Ozersky— titled (or rather, mis-titled), "Why People are Really Pissed at Josh Ozersky."
In it, Stein unleashes a staggering god-knows-how-many words in some kind of spurious attempt to elucidate the reader with an answer to his superfluous question. And yet somehow still fails to surmise the obvious:

People Are Really Pissed at Josh Ozersky Because He is a Glaringly Clueless, Over-Bloated, Publicist-Indentured, Sycophantic, Unethical, Freeloading Tool.

Luckily! — The comments section of said article provide ample (hilarious) enlightenment.

To wit:

"Pretty good but a major reason (probably THE major reason) for people dogpiling on Ozersly is that he just isn’t that great at what he does (his fact-checking is horrific, which suggests that his depth of knowledge of his subject matter is shallow), but he’s a cocky bastard. He’s also an utterly shameless self-promoter. And he goes way beyond a free meal or a free bottle of booze here and there. The guy has elevated, or dropped pay-for-press to a new level. The La Frieda and Hanson stuff is especially egregious. He makes himself extremely easy to hate and all of this is his own fault."
http://eater.com/archives/2010/07/02/why-people-are-really-pissed-at-josh-ozersky.php#comment-605684

"Most internet food writing (blogging, whatever) is just the regurgitation of press releases. That’s why they’re always talking about the same things at the same time and why so many of them publish the same error-riddled stories. It’s basically block-save "writing" (don’t call it journalism, because it isn’t) by callow people who know very lttle about their subject. The worst cases, like Ozersky, actually believe that they are expert in their field. And they’re easily bought off, usually for cheap. Ozersky just upped the ante in the low-rent, freeloading game with this $50,000 or so boondoggle. He’s the shit king of turd mountain now."
http://eater.com/archives/2010/07/02/why-people-are-really-pissed-at-josh-ozersky.php#comment-605786

Yeah, of the 32 or so comments attached (not to mention the pretentious, verbose article) that essentially pretty much sums up the solution to the conundrum right there. And we didn’t even have to write it! (Neither, apparently, should have Stein.)

We’re just sayin’ elaboratin’.

**********************************************************

** See also (earlier):
• Grubstreet (& Gridskipper): Ignorant (& Stupid)
• NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is Unethical
• Gawker Loses “Ignorasshole”
• NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is a Dweeb
• Abbe Diaz vs Gawker

*** For more on this subject, read PX This Too – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Autmn of 2010 ***

GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this

PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.

[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]

New York Magazine’s GRUBSTREET and Gawker’s GRIDSKIPPER
(Addressing Their Remarkable Ignorance and Outright Stupidity):
Started: February 21, 2008. 11:44AM by *Dick Johnson* • Closed: June 28, 2010 11:17AM • Archived at 84,619 Views

PRIMARY SUBJECT : GrubStreet’s Former Managing Editor, Josh Ozersky

ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Former GridSkipper Blogger, Chris-Mohney. Chef/Restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

GIST OF TOPIC : Josh Ozersky is a biased, unethical, sycophantic tool. (This discussion thread essentially proves it. Lots of quotes, hyperlinks, etc. contained within.)

SIGNIFICANCE: In February of 2008, Abbe Diaz was asked to leave the bar at Jean Georges restaurant’s Nougatine before she could even finish her drink. That story itself is pretty entertaining.
However, it gets downright hysterical after GrubStreet’s Josh Ozersky chooses to recount the anecdote thusly:

Ungrammatical Forum Poster Tossed From Jean Georges, Gets Revenge in Ungrammatical Forum Post
We’re always leery of the strange, strange world of Abbe Diaz and her online forum, PX This, but a media alert titled Blogger Tossed From Jean Georges was difficult to resist. As you might expect, Diaz a former maitre d’ at Jean Georges who wrote a dishy book about her experiences in the business was in fact the blogger tossed, a cringe-inducing event publicized by the pilloried herself. (All of Diaz’s entries on PX This read like interminable text messages tapped out by the jittery, manicured thumbnails of an ex-model at Rose Bar at 4 a.m.) We include it here entirely for purposes of education: Remember, if you dog someone you worked for in a book, don’t go to his restaurant unless you know he won’t be around.

Abbe Diaz promptly responds in the comments section of that item:

How flattering! I would much rather sound like an ex-model at Rose Bar than a sycophantic journalist who gets all his information from press releases, any day of the week.
Here’s another "educational" tip for you: Don’t mistreat your staff members (or people in general, for that matter), because there’s such a thing in the universe called "karma," and its faces are plentiful and powerful.
Cheers,
abbe diaz
PX This.
p.s. Dear "Bookseller": Grub Street gives me a link, because right now I happen to be the most prominent voice of "the little people."
Y’know, the ones without whom the Industry to which Grub Street pays soooo much attention, wouldn’t even exist. *

*Note: For unknown reasons, Abbe Diaz’s comment in rebuttal to Josh Ozersky has since been removed from New York magazine’s website.

Good thing we saved it here! (And a whole lotta other fun stuff, too!)
Anyway— luckily, the Daily News also chooses to write their own account of the incident in a far more objective manner, and seeing as lots and lots and lots more people read the Daily News than Grubstreet, that was oodles of fun and cause for much celebration amongst Diaz’s "strange, strange world."

The discussion thread progresses over several months until it is eventually revealed that New York magazine will not renew Josh Ozersky’s contract as Managing Editor, and he is leaving GrubStreet to become Blog Editor for CitySearch. This, of course, would have been of little or no relevance to us (the NYC Food & Beverage industry professionals) had Josh Ozersky not made such a glaring jackass of his ignorant self prior. As it turns out, it was instead utterly priceless.

A few more weeks progress, and then it is revealed Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his restaurant group have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by employees of eight of his eateries for the misappropriation of tip wages earned by staff— to the tune of $1.75 million.
Again, this revelation would likely have been satisfying at best, but thanks to Josh Ozersky’s misplaced sycophantic contretemps, it ends up knee-slappingly uproarious to us, the "strange, strange world" of NYC’s Food & Beverage industry professionals.

The discussion finally culminates several months later, with the announcement of Josh Ozersky’s departure from CitySearch and the demise of his own personal unsuccessful "Feedbag" blog, created after his egress from GrubStreet.

Fascinating.

RATING: ★★★★★

WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.

The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]

***********************************************

*Pictured: Anton Ego, food writer, Ratatouille

** See also :
• NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is Unethical (and/or "Dumb")
• NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is a Dweeb

For more on this subject, read PX This Too – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Autumn of 2010

NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is Unethical (and/or “Dumb”)

When we last visited the subject of Josh Ozersky, he was deservedly being ridiculed on national television. Well, it would appear his latest shameless attempt at self-aggrandizement has backfired as well. Some people never learn.

Ozersky, known in and amongst the industry as a "clueless, over-bloated, publicist-indentured sycophant" and "notorious freeloader," apparently penned a "self-centered and egomaniacal" editorial for Time magazine about his own recent wedding, wherein he "extolled the virtues of using restaurant chefs instead of caterers," "prais[ed] the food to the skies," and then failed to disclose all the goods and services he received for said wedding were completely gratis.
For all you non-Latin-speaking folks at home, that means Josh Ozersky engaged in a blatant breach of journalistic integrity.

LOL!
I know, I know, you’re arching your brow right now and wondering, "Sooo— where’s the newsflash, Dick? I may not speak Latin, but this here folk at home knows allll about this tool already. Isn’t this what PX This has been saying all along? I mean like, duh!"

Hey, I was being sarcastic in that title up there, OK? Plus, there is another point I wanted to make:

See all this pertinent new information in here I wanted to add to a previous story?

Well, that’s how you do an update, you fucking scumbags.

** See also:

• “NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is a Dweeb”

• “…had Josh Ozersky not made such a glaring jackass of his ignorant self prior….”

GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this

PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.

[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]

THE HOSTESS DIARIES CONSPIRACY

Started: May 27, 2008. 12:47 PM by (Forum Administrator) *jo* • Closed: June 22, 2010 11:56PM • Archived at 15,935 Views

PRIMARY SUBJECT : New York Times article "My Year at a Hotspot" by Coco Henson Scales, July 11, 2004

ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Former gawker.com Managing Editor Choire Sicha, Former New York Times food critic Frank Bruni, Former Hue hostess Coco Henson Scales (and friend, William Diggs)

GIST OF TOPIC : Did Choire Sicha and/or Coco Scales (along with Frank Bruni) "conspire" to misappropriate the subject matter in PX This for their own glorification and/or personal gain?

SIGNIFICANCE: In June of 2004, Abbe Diaz purchases a short-running advertising spot within gawker.com to help publicize her book, PX This (Diary of the "Maitre d’ to the Stars"). Within several weeks of that advertisement, the aforementioned article in question, “My Year at a Hotspot,” appears in The New York Times, ostensibly written by former (prominent PX This "character" Karim Amatullah‘s) Hue hostess, Coco Henson Scales.

Gawker Editor Choire Sicha declares the article the "best celebrity venality exposé ever!" and goes on to exhort, "if Gawker had a required reading syllabus, it would consist entirely of this article." He then further exalts the article by declaring Coco Scales "The People’s Hero" on his personal blog as well, choiresicha.com (now semi-defunct).

Within hours, "fans" of PX This ("anywhere from 15 to 35 people") send e-mails to Sicha drawing attention to Diaz’s book, with at least one pointing out Diaz’s status as a former Gawker advertiser. Diaz herself forwards a mention of her book in the Daily News to Sicha. Sicha responds via e-mail to Diaz (and at least one "enthusiast") but, despite referring to himself as a “big fan,” fails to publicly acknowledge the existence of Diaz’s book in any way.

It is later discovered the climax of Scales’s riveting narrative is completely fictional.

Upon speculation as to how a fictional essay (by a previously unknown/unpublished writer) could possibly appear in the New York Times as a non-fictional feature in the first place, it is discovered Choire Sicha "dated Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni for a few months."

Scales has written nothing since.

RATING: ★★★★

WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.

The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]

* * * * *

*Pictured (from boston.com): Choire Sicha, Former Gawker blogger, Emily Gould

** See also:
• GAWKER.COM
• Gawker Loses "Ignorasshole"
• Nick Denton vs Leigh Haber

• Freelance Writer Wanted (for investigative piece on The Hostess Diaries Conspiracy)

For more on this subject, read PX Me – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Spring of 2012

GREATEST HITS: theForum@px.this

PX This hereby presents The Forum’s Greatest Hits, a thread-by-thread archive of the most fascinating discussions from "theForum@px.this" — our online F&B oriented community IP.Board (founded in 2007) made virtually obsolete by the re-launch of theBlahg, pxthis.com, on August 31, 2009.

[theForum@px.this will be fully and permanently dismantled upon the definitive completion of its archive.]

GAWKER LOSES "IGNORASSHOLE"

Started: Nov 21 2007, 01:58 PM by *what’s anorexia?* • Closed: February 17, 2010 12:10PM • Archived at 44,539 Views

PRIMARY SUBJECT : Former gawker.com blogger Joshua David Stein aka "the ignorasshole"

ADJUNCT SUBJECTS : Former gawker.com blogger Emily Gould. Gawker owner/publisher Nick Denton. Former NY Post journalist and gawker.com blogger Ian Spiegelman. Former Gawker managing editor Gabriel Snyder. Former Grubstreet blogger Josh Ozersky. Brian Grazer.

GIST OF TOPIC : Joshua David Stein is an ignorant asshole. Also, a hypocrite. And apparently, a bit of a horntoad who slept with his co-worker. Lots of links and quotes and whatnot provided. Some jabs at gawker.com too, because "they suck" in general.
And then everyone at Gawker who was ever a jerkface suddenly quits or gets fired. Riveting.

SIGNIFICANCE: Abbe Diaz and Joshua David Stein have serious beef from way back (Sept 2007). The guy is a tool; this thread pretty much proves it.
Also, *abbe* randomly drops a comment in a Gawker item, and houses owner Nick Denton’s ass. Fun times.
Gawker bans Abbe Diaz from commenting at Gawker [weak sauce!] because they’re immensely intimidated by her. Twice.

RATING: ★★★★

WHAT THE STARS MEAN: Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the discussion’s entertainment value, from amusing to hilarious, with edification taken into consideration. Hyperlinks contained within are subject to change.

The archives of theForum@px.this have been edited for the sake of clarity, brevity, and squeakiness. [If you require an original unedited copy of the discussion, please e-mail px.this@gmail.com]

***********************************************

For more on this subject, read PX This Too – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Autumn of 2010

We’ve always been leery of the boring, idiotic world of Josh Ozersky (and the numerous incarnations of his online bullshit), but a video segment from The Soup was difficult to resist. As you might expect, Ozersky— a "clueless, overbloated, publicist-indentured, sycophant[ic]" blogger— was in fact pilloried by No Reservations (and subsequently, The Soup), a cringe-inducing event publicized by Ozersky’s food blogger peers and former colleagues. (All of Ozersky’s blog entries read like interminable clueless, overbloated, publicist-indentured, sycophantic pontifications tapped out by the jittery, chubby fingers of a man who can’t wait to get his hands on his next donut-bacon-cheeseburger). We include it here entirely for purposes of education: Remember, if you’re a trite, pathetic, snooze-inducing dweebshit, don’t go on national television.

** See also:

• NEWSFLASH: Josh Ozersky is Unethical (and/or "Dumb")

• “…had Josh Ozersky not made such a glaring jackass of his ignorant self prior….”

*********************************************

For more on this subject, read PX This Too – The Sequel to PX This – Coming Soon in the Autumn of 2010

"eew, that’s gabriel-snyder" [UPDATE]

Right now, most of you are likely asking, "Who the hell is Gabriel Snyder?" Well, let me remind you!

Gabriel Snyder is the former managing editor of a website called Gawker. As you may or may not realize, PX This has a long, long, sordid history with Gawker. Well, to make a lengthy story short: Our founder, Abbe Diaz, was once a fan of Gawker. She was an early advertiser with them, a longtime avid, insightful "commenter" and even the subject of several of Gawker’s blog posts. Then one day, Gabriel Snyder effectively censored Abbe Diaz’s opinion by "banning" her without just cause or valid explanation, in a manner contrary and hypocritical to Gawker’s ostensible comment/discussion system.

This just in: Gabriel Snyder has been replaced as managing editor of Gawker.

I know what you’re thinking – "That’s so amazing, Dick Johnson! You’re so awesome!" [Thank you!]

But, you’re also thinking, "Really, though, who gives a shit about that dweeb? We actually don’t really care."

Yes, I know, I see your point. But, there is another point I wanted to make:

See the "[UPDATE]" in the title of this post up top?

Well, that’s how you do an update, you fucking scumbags.

For more on this story, please read PX Me – Coming soon in the Spring of 2012

Here is Adam Wiercinski aka Adam Jamroz. He was employed as a part-time delivery person for over 20 years at Mangia corporation, where he recently attempted to defraud the company by twice filing fallacious lawsuits. The strategy for his attempted multi-million dollar extortion Read more…