Petrelis Files

No MoDo Op-Eds in NYT Since Jan. 20

Wednesdays and Sundays are supposed to be days when Maureen Dowd, pictured, has an op-ed column running in the New York Times, but her last column appeared on January 20th. She's missed five dates when she should have had a piece in print and online.

Being of a certain age and a news consumer raised reading papers, I purchased yesterday's Times especially to see which critic reviewed the new Italian film by the master directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, "Caeser Must Die", and what sort of placement the review got in the paper edition. (Manohla Dargis generally liked it and her review appeared on an inside page of the arts section.)

Turning to the opinion pages, another of those "Maureen Dowd is off today" notes vaguely explained her absence. Curious why she's not written anything lately and when she'll turn in a new column, I asked the paper's spokeswoman for an explanation. Eileen Murphy wrote back:

She’s just taking some time off and will be back soon.

OK, we'll just have to wait and see when she returns to the opinion pages of the Times.