– DIANE CLEHANE

The sweltering heat (wasn’t it just snowing last week?) didn’t keep the regulars away from Michael’s today. The dining room was jam packed with authors, agents and media mavens all deep in conversation about who knows what. From the looks of things, the power lunch crowd here is gearing up for a busy season of neworking that has to be crammed into a four-day work week now that those summer cottages are open.  Oh, the pressure!

I was thrilled to join Vi Huse and Kira Semler for lunch today. I met them almost five years ago when I first started covering the scene at Michael’s and was fascinated by these two attractive, fun loving gals who always seemed to have a grand old time at their monthly champagne lunch (and always ate dessert!). Turns out these two good friends have been keeping their Michael’s lunch date with each other for over ten years! “This is only the second time we’ve sat in the dining room,” Vi told me.  “We always sit at the bar and it’s just become our spot.”

Today, the three of us sat with the big kids in the dining room to celebrate Vi’s 23 years as owner of Kerygma, a gallery in Ridgewood, New Jersey specializing in contemporary American art. Vi just retired yesterday but tells me she will continue to work with artists like Peter Fiore, Gerald Doudera, David Lee and Jane Owen online. Kira, a jewelry aficionado and freelance bookeeper, was one of Vi’s first clients and the gals have been fast friends ever since. Cheers!

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Mary Higgins Clark, Carolyn Reidy and a table full of pals. The indefatigable 83-year-old author was the subject of a glowing profile in The Wall Street Journal last month which chronicled her success: she’s sold 100 million books in the U.S. alone, and all 42 of her novels have been best-sellers. With I’ll Walk Alone, released in April, she’s keeping her winning streak going. We’re in awe.

2. Michael Holtzman (Peter Brown’s VP and right hand man, so we’re told.)

3. Joan Tisch, Candace Leeds and Marcia Stein

4. The always distinguished Stan Shuman

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Are there more cuts coming at the NYT? NBC’s Mark Whitaker seemed to think so on this weekend’s Chris Matthews Show. Says Whitaker:

Look, it’s a — it’s a real problem. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer couldn’t survive with a newsroom of 165 people. It’s going down to a Web staff of 20. The New York Times still has over 1,000, The Washington Post has almost 800. Those are going to have to go down. So if investigative journalism is going to survive, it’s because institutions, those newspapers, their owners decide that if they only have a limited number of people left, they’re still going to keep those people on investigative reporting.

As Michael Calderone points out despite the Times well-documented financial troubles, the paper has yet to suffer severe layoffs. And at this stage it’s not hard to imagine the Times opting for some sort of paid content before allowing such widespread cuts to take place.

FBNY took the long way to the CNN Grill today, through the Riverside Center which is doubling as the Press Tent, except unlike Denver this one has actual bathrooms and a steady Internet connection (all the media types have been raving about their work digs here). Along the way we passed Tom Brokaw having a curbside chat with David Gregory and Norah O’Donnell and Mark Whitaker discussing their NYC departure times. This is day 14 of conventioning for a lot of people and folks are getting antsy to get home.

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