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Julie Bosman Investigates Oxford American Firings for New York Times

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Posted on August 9th, 2012 at 7:56 pm

Slouched in a living-room chair, gesturing wildly and sprinkling his sentences with quotations from Shakespeare, Mr. Smirnoff gave a detailed account of the July 4 party on Petit Jean Mountain, a short drive west of Conway.

It was there that things got a little out of hand. Mr. Smirnoff said the staff was playing a drinking game, loudly, and ignored his request to stop. (He stopped drinking a decade ago, he said.)

The next morning he berated the female intern in front of the other staff members when she refused to help clean up a mess in the kitchen. Then, after insisting that the intern ride back to Conway with him, he asked her if she wanted to hold hands. She declined, he said, saying she’d rather “hold hands with a dead dog.” Still, he told her he wanted to take her to his favorite make-out spot.

Read all of Bosman’s findings at New York Times

UPDATE: Saucy round up of reportage and commentary on OA firings from Joe Coscarelli at New York Magazine.