Thursday, December 30, 2004

Jennifer 8. Lee

Well, could the Times' Jennifer 8. Lee be any lazier? Or maybe she just has a very short memory.
Yesterday in this article on the ongoing saga of Pale Male and Lola, she quotes one Amanda Tree:
"It was like a belated Christmas gift," said Amanda Tree, a Brooklyn actress and singer-songwriter who had waited, bundled up with wool hat and rainbow scarf, since 9 a.m. to see the hawks. "You couldn't imagine receiving anything nicer. It makes me happier than my first Barbie doll."

Today, in "New York is So Crowded, Everybody's Deserted It" she again quotes Ms. Tree:
"But Amanda Tree, an actress who walks dogs to earn extra money, has found herself cutting corners this week as her dog-walking and modeling jobs have dried up. The five or six dogs she walks regularly have all left New York on vacation.
"You scrimp," she said, shrugging. Holding up a brown paper bag, she said, "I'm making a bowl of soup do for the day and I have an apple in my bag and half a banana that I had to share with my cocker spaniel."


Apparently New York really is deserted, as Amanda Tree seems to be the only person left for Jennifer 8. Lee to interview.


15 Comments:

At Thursday, December 30, 2004 10:19:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amanada Tree - Brooklyn? This is all too funny and kind of reminds me of, "Mister Richard Feyler of Fort Lee New Jersey writes, Dear Rosanne Rosannadanna..."

- Aaron

 
At Friday, December 31, 2004 1:08:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could we get a headshot of Amanda Tree? Or maybe just here dog walking rates?

 
At Friday, December 31, 2004 2:57:00 PM, Blogger Backblog said...

I'm working on it.

 
At Sunday, January 02, 2005 6:39:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! Looking at the pics of Ms Lee brings up a couple of thoughts. In my book, she's no "8". Guess her parents were pretty optimistic. I'd say like a "3", make that 3X. And she must be so into these birds as she looks quite hungry.

Anyhoo, looks like she's on the downward Times spiral. Seems just months ago, a D.C. rag or two (and maybe the NYO) were calling her the "hot, young Washington hostess" or some shite. Now, it's bird poo. Ha, ha! Shame she's not at least good-looking. I see substance abuse in someone's future...and maybe some fabrication...yeah!

 
At Sunday, January 02, 2005 6:39:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! Looking at the pics of Ms Lee brings up a couple of thoughts. In my book, she's no "8". Guess her parents were pretty optimistic. I'd say like a "3", make that 3X. And she must be so into these birds as she looks quite hungry.

Anyhoo, looks like she's on the downward Times spiral. Seems just months ago, a D.C. rag or two (and maybe the NYO) were calling her the "hot, young Washington hostess" or some shite. Now, it's bird poo. Ha, ha! Shame she's not at least good-looking. I see substance abuse in someone's future...and maybe some fabrication...yeah!

 
At Sunday, January 02, 2005 7:16:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's pronounced "ate."

 
At Monday, January 03, 2005 12:21:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From an article about Jen8 in The New York Sun:

“I always call her ‘Lucky Jenny.’ She’s like a little rabbit’s foot”...
...in the mouth?

 
At Monday, January 03, 2005 11:16:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's another annoying request for information that the Katherine 8. Graham (I mean Jenny Lee) has posted on a Harvard Yahoo Group list. Look for the article soon!:

From: "Jennifer 8. Lee"
Date: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:31 am
Subject: what happens when xmas/new years fall on saturday?


I'm looking for interesting observations about what happens when Christmas/New Years fall on a Saturday. For example, on Wall Street, the New Years holiday simply evaporates since the stock markets are open on
both Friday and Monday. Some small businesses that serve Wall Street may lose the day off too. I'm trying to find a company or an employee who is experiencing this.

Movies opening days are being shifted to Wednesdays and Saturdays since no one wants to open on Christmas Eve (one of the least busy movie nights of the year). NYC Chinese restaurants, which typically have their busiest
day of the year on Christmas (thanks to influx of Jewish patrons), have said they are disappointed that they lose a weekday where they usually see a spike
in business.

NYC public schools are only off 6 days, as opposed to a more typical 7 or 8.

People who have Saturday shifts when most people in their industry work Monday-Friday may find themselves getting the Friday off (the "official observed holiday") but then having to work on the actual day (Christmas and New Years). I'm trying to find anyone who is experiencing this or anything else odd.

Any observations, anecdotes, examples, welcome.

Jenny


....................
jennifer 8. lee
the new york times
metropolitan desk
229 west 43rd street
new york, ny 10036
212.556.5237

 
At Monday, January 03, 2005 11:16:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's another annoying request for information that the Katherine 8. Graham (I mean Jenny Lee) has posted on a Harvard Yahoo Group list. Look for the article soon!:

From: "Jennifer 8. Lee"
Date: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:31 am
Subject: what happens when xmas/new years fall on saturday?


I'm looking for interesting observations about what happens when Christmas/New Years fall on a Saturday. For example, on Wall Street, the New Years holiday simply evaporates since the stock markets are open on
both Friday and Monday. Some small businesses that serve Wall Street may lose the day off too. I'm trying to find a company or an employee who is experiencing this.

Movies opening days are being shifted to Wednesdays and Saturdays since no one wants to open on Christmas Eve (one of the least busy movie nights of the year). NYC Chinese restaurants, which typically have their busiest
day of the year on Christmas (thanks to influx of Jewish patrons), have said they are disappointed that they lose a weekday where they usually see a spike
in business.

NYC public schools are only off 6 days, as opposed to a more typical 7 or 8.

People who have Saturday shifts when most people in their industry work Monday-Friday may find themselves getting the Friday off (the "official observed holiday") but then having to work on the actual day (Christmas and New Years). I'm trying to find anyone who is experiencing this or anything else odd.

Any observations, anecdotes, examples, welcome.

Jenny


....................
jennifer 8. lee
the new york times
metropolitan desk
229 west 43rd street
new york, ny 10036
212.556.5237

 
At Monday, January 03, 2005 4:10:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The person sounds as fake as the author's name. For those that don't know, Jennifer "8" Lee's real middle name is not 8. She made it up, as reporters at the NTY seem to have a habit of doing. Now she passes it off as truth along with a bogus story about it being a lucky chinese number her parents gave her.

As anyone that went to high school with her.

 
At Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:32:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jennifer 8 Lee didn't make up her middle name; Harvard assigned it to her. As you can imagine, there are are lots of Lees at Harvard, as it's a rather common name. Her assigned fas.harvard.edu username was something like lee8 and she embraced the 8. So she didn't quite make it up -- but close. She's been using it since she wrote for the Crimson.

-- Anonymous Harvard '01

 
At Tuesday, January 04, 2005 6:34:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're wrong about Harvard assigning Jenny her 8.

I went to high school with her in the early '90s and she adopted it then, so she could have a middle initial for her byline in the high school paper.

Coincidentally, it was about that time that "Jennifer 8" came out in theaters. The fact that 8's a lucky number in Chinese culture probably didn't hurt, either.

 
At Wednesday, January 05, 2005 12:26:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ms. lee explained her middle name in an aug. 8, 1996 article in the boston globe, where she was an intern:I am not named after the Uma Thurman movie ("Jennifer 8"), nor am I the eighth child in my family. To quench the curiosity I've so often encountered, I'll explain the origins of my numerical middle initial. It comes from Chinese numerology, where the number 8 is highly revered as a symbol of good fortune.

My wacky middle initial arose from the generic quality of the rest of my name. In their great wisdom, my parents decided to pair Lee, the second most common Chinese surname, with the most popular name for newborn girls in 1976, Jennifer.

Jennifer Lee (like David Kim and Michael Chang), is one of the John Smiths of Asian-American names. Of the 18,000 applicants to Harvard's class of 2000, 12 were Jennifer Lees - more than any other single name.

The mix-ups in mail, e-mail and college applications are things I've grown used to. But when my family realized I was one of about 10,000 Jennifer Lees in the United States (at least 70 in New York City, where I'm from) the adoption of a middle initial seemed to be in order. And appealing to Chinese superstition, we arrived at a natural choice: the number 8. My identity has not been confused since.

...The number 8 has a near-mystical following in Chinese society. License plates with 8s are auctioned off for astronomical prices (which almost always contain an 8) in Hong Kong. In Taiwan, phone numbers with an excessive number of 8s can be purchased from the phone company. Chinese-American businesses are bouncing in glee at the toll-free 888 numbers that were recently introduced.

 
At Wednesday, January 05, 2005 1:33:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The mix-ups in mail, e-mail and college applications are things I've grown used to.The story doesn't check out at all. How did she grow used to mix-ups in e-mail because of her generic name when she changed her name before anyone used email? How do you have a mix-up in mail, were there two Jennifer Lee's living in her house? How would she know of a mix-up in a college application?

 
At Wednesday, January 05, 2005 5:57:00 PM, Blogger Backblog said...

"Sara," if that is your name (clicking on it brings up a blocked profile, so your comment is pretty much anonymous as well)I couldn't agree more that the comments here have gotten terribly ad hominem, and I'm not sure why. I started this as a way to hopefully call attention to the sloppy reporting of J8 in particular and at the Times in general. I'm goin g to see if I can disable comments for this post.

 

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