I’ve heard a lot of stories of weird, hyper-demanding bosses with very specific rules before. (Hell, I’ve also worked for a boss like that.) But this sweet story from author Joanna Smith Rakoff, while about working for someone with a very specific demand, is also really heartwarming. When Rakoff was starting out as an assistant in the NYC publishing world, she was given a very unusual task: keeping Catcher in the Rye author (and notorious recluse) J.D. Salinger’s home address and phone number a closely guarded secret. You see, she worked for Salinger’s literary agent, and while they had direct contact with the author, people would often call the office under all kinds of pretenses trying to get Salinger’s contact information. Young Joanna was warned never, ever, for ANY reason, to let the information get out. Previous assistants had been fired for not hewing to this rule.
In addition to the boring admin work that is de rigeur for assistants, Joanna also got to have the pretty cool task of answering Salinger’s fan mail. I highly recommend checking out the whole article, which is as much a remembrance of Salinger and a celebration of his work as it is a personal reflection, here. Also, I’m biased, because I worked with Joanna on a couple of pieces for the website where I used to work and found her to be lovely, smart, and a great writer. I wonder who would answer it if I sent her fan mail.
I’ve had several receptionist jobs before, including one in college where I worked the front desk at the campus art museum (it was awesome, actually). But I’m pretty sure my experience was not as great as Cathy Naso’s. Naso got the chance to interview Andy Warhol when she was just a high school student in Brooklyn - that meeting led to her being hired on as one of the receptionists in his Factory after graduation. As a token of appreciation, Warhol gave her one of his paintings, a self-portrait. After holding onto it for more than forty years, Naso finally sold it at a Sotheby’s auction last weekend. The painting, which had been expected to sell in the $1 million range, 
I have to admit, I can’t really stand Entourage. I view it as 
Although Ugly Betty’s new season hasn’t started airing yet, it’s not too soon to congratulate the show’s titular heroine on her recent promotion from assistant to features editor at Mode magazine. STA has been following her journey from the start, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the show changes now that Betty is in a position to have an assistant instead of be one. (As previously reported, former Sopranos star