Not Parsing Jesse Oxfeld

It sucks when bad things happen to good people. It really does.

But that's what happened this past week with the unfortunate news that Jesse Oxfeld's contract was not renewed at Gawker.com. When I started writing this, it was a lame attempt to parse Oxfeld's goodbye post, interspersing what may have been his real thoughts behind the words he wrote there-- it was too easy to read between the (imaginary) lines. My attempt was filled with him revealing how he thought he would outlast Bonnie Fuller's reign at AMI, that he has directed the Gawker interns to pee in Denton's tea on numerous occasions (just like a Nastie allegedly once did to Anna Wintour's soup), and how Andrew Krucoff was chortling at the reversal of fortune, one year later.

Here's a sample line, in reply to Oxfeld's comment that he'll miss having excuses to get drunk with the entire Gawker Media team: "Although I liked each of you, I’ll never hang out with you again. Mazel tov, boys and girls. Next time I see you, I'll flip you a quarter, to make up for Denton's payscale."

See? Not particularly funny. But I figured that would just piss off people, so I'll abstain from doing that. But while it's too early to review the new Gawker regime -- it's only been two days since Alex Balk and Chris Mohney arrived, on a sleepy week where they have their work cut out for them -- I'll admit I already miss Oxfeld's wry, subtle humor and great media scoopage. Here's to him landing well, of which I'm sure he will, and to reading more of his scribblings.