wow. after reading these two essays in the modern love section of the nytimes, and then reading these two responses by the people the essays were written about, i don't think i can ever read another modern love essay without a) puking up everywhere and b) wanting to punch the nytimes authors in the face. it's not that exploiting and distorting personal relationships for fame and success is such a novelty; it's just that in these cases it's done with the consent of the fact checkers and editors at one of the world's most popular newspapers. if they treat these people's personal stories with such casual disrespect, what does that say of the rest of their reporting? parts of these stories are borderline slander.

of course, most of this falls on me, for ever thinking that the fashion and style section of the nytimes should be taken seriously. bad catherine, bad.