Here’s a little quicky about the Columbia Publishing Course from the New York Observer. In the words of my classmate Dena, “Scathing, my dear, scathing.” They ain’t seen nothing yet.

Meanwhile, a bit further uptown, it’s a party at publishing heir Christopher Cerf’s swell Upper East Side digs for the spunky graduates of the 2001 Columbia Publishing Course (previously the Radcliffe Publishing Course)—pay a few thousand bucks and schmooze and wiggle your way right into a cushy internship at Field & Stream! (Advice to the more ambitious of you young ladies: skip the bra at tonight’s fête and you’ll be a pert New Yorker centerfold with a six-figure book deal in no time.)

We called course director L.H. to find out how summer in big bad New York went for her young charges. “It was wonderful,” she said. “For one thing, we went to Condé Nast for sherry hour! Steve Florio gave a wonderful welcoming party where he invited the whole class to the room near the cafeteria. Every editor and publisher of every magazine was there—Graydon Carter, David Remnick. It was so wonderful, and it sent such a wonderful message to the students that they were welcomed by Condé Nast.” Oh, if they only knew.

Class projects included inventing a celebrity magazine called Bill (as in Clinton). “We’re trying to get him to come down and see it,” said Ms. Hess. Considering that the course is more than 80 percent female, she should have no problem. In closing, please consider this naughty excerpt from New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser’s most recent column: “He sampled my firm, sweet … beets.”