So, it's a rainy Friday afternoon and we got to thinking (sort of), if Sean Avery can intern at Vogue what's stopping other sports figures from investing in their, uh, feminine sides? What say you? Which manly, zillon-dollar pay check, model-dating, endorsement-signing, sports figure would you most like to see (or more likely hear about) strutting the famed halls of Conde Nast?

Than the outfit Naomi Campbell wore on Ugly Betty? It can be yours here.

There has been plenty of controversy of late over a disclosure in a recent New Yorker profile about toucher-upper Pascal Dangin that implied those Dove ads for "real women" were actually touched up.

Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone's skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.

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According to WWD New York Rangers star Sean Avery has begun his summer internship at Vogue. It left us wondering: why exactly Avery is at Vogue? Hockey is a dying sport, yes, but still. We initially assumed it was for some sort of follow-up cover to the recent Gisele Bundchen, Lebron James turn, but it seems that he many actually be working there: "Observers say he's involved in all sections of the magazine, including features and accessories, and attends edit meetings." No idea. New horizons? A new reality show? Or maybe this is merely the fashion version of "The Cutting Edge?"

Now might seem like a strange time to launch a print magazine, particularly a quarterly aimed at taking the longer view on things, but that hasn't stopped Mort Rosenblum, a former editor at the International Herald Tribune and longtime international correspondent for the AP, from doing just that. The result is dispatches, which launches this month.

When FishbowlNY spoke to Rosenblum by phone it was clear he was enormously enthused about the project. Its main goal, he says, is to provide a place where the stories of the day can be allowed to evolve and "human beings can be writ large."

What's happening it that there is a lot of unfair of lumping together of things and news stories end up missing important points. We decided what's really missing is a very leisurely, but perceptive, take that adds context, and backdrop, and human reality.

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Having survived a year in the McKibbin Dorms (bed bugs free, thank you very much), our view of loft living is a tad skewed. We had a great time, but listening to your neighbors watch Donnie Darko at 4 a.m. every night gets old fast. For this reason LoftLife, a new magazine published out of Atlanta by Metro and Black Book owner Modern Holdings Inc., intrigued us. Call it a desire to see how the other half lives.

Earlier today, we spoke with president and publisher Joseph Resudek about the "explosion" of loft space, the urbanization of America and bringing "Soho to Atlanta."

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Yesterday, we noted (thanks Mixed Media) the shocking similarities between Time's Howard Dean cover from four years ago and The New Republic's recent Barack Obama issue. This all comes on the heels of TNR editors accusing Time of stealing one of their cover ideas, adding much intrigue to the magazine publishing world.

But our sister blog, UnBeige, has a different take. Stephanie Murg thinks Time and TNR both paid homage to Esquire's famous 1967 Richard Hess-drawn LBJ non-cover. A last-minute decision put Jackie Kennedy on the front of the magazine, but Hess' drawing gained notoriety as it was shown at multiple exhibits.

This, folks, is why we have a design blog.

In an email obtained by FishbowlNY, Mike Levy, the longtime publisher of Texas Monthly, announced he's leaving the magazine at the end of August. He's been with the publication since its inception in 1973 and cited the mag's 35th anniversary as one reason for his decision to leave.

Congrats, Mike. Now please don't shoot us in the face for reprinting your missive.

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Steven Kotok, general manager of American version of The Week since August 2007, says his publication is "a beloved thing but not enough people know about," which would explain why we were sitting with him in Bryant Park two hours ago discussing Felix Dennis' lack of accounting skills. "Felix isn't a numbers guy," Kotok told us. "He can't read a balance sheet."

But how's The Week doing? After the jump, Kotok discusses the efforts to break even and why he's not beholden to ad revenue.

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Say you're TV Guide Network, the recently bought, possibly soon-to-be sold, layoff-prone station and publication. What do you do to boost sales and improve staff morale? Jump on the back of another fading franchise, of course.

The network will run 100 hours of content during its Idol Mania week starting on Saturday. This is the same American Idol whose Tuesday audience was the smallest in five years.

Admittedly, the Fox franchise is still America's No. 1 show but Dancing With The Stars is tiptoeing up behind.