SNP’s word of the day: Mole
Word: Mole
Usage: “Mole! Bloody mole! We’re not supposed to talk about the bloody mole, but there’s a bloody mole winking me in the face!” —Austin Powers
Meaning: A spy who works from inside the organization he or she’s spying on; a double agent.
You should know it because: @CondeElevator, duh. Some perspicacious Condé Nastie turned spy last Saturday, tweeting the cattiest/most clueless bits of elevator talk from the “dudeitors” and “Teen Vogue-ers” (and even, once, A. Wintour) of America’s glossy empire. In a place where “mole” generally means beauty mark, it now refers to some not-so-pretty secrets. And, naturally, everyone’s listening in. Even FASHION’s own online editor and former Teen Voguette Randi Bergman was talking all things Condé on the CBC’s Connect with Mark Kelly last night. Unlike the mystery tweeter, she would not divulge the details, despite admitting to witnessing at least one vertical meltdown.
Yesterday, having passed 60,000 followers and garnered investigative attention from The Daily Beast, Gawker, and dozens more, the @CondeElevator tweeter pressed the emergency button. “This got really crazy,” s/he said. “Love my job. Better stop. #sorry.”
According to the internets, the prime suspect is John Januzzi, an editor at Lucky and beloved Tumblr star. As Bryanboy pointed out, Januzzi worked at Starworks, a major New York PR firm, while @NoBtotheS (a smart, snarky, fashion-y PR-insider feed) was going strong. Could he be a double agent twice over? What, does he have, like, two pairs of balls? Cause that’s bold.
Of course, gated communities—high fashion, high society, old media—have always had their resident spies, and nowhere more so than in New York. Truman Capote didn’t spill all those plummy ’60s secrets out of his own head, and today’s Gossip Girl, with its lightning-fingered titular mole, is fiction based on stranger truths. There was the 2007 blog Socialite Rank, which made and shattered the reputations of Manhattan’s social x-rays—and turned out to be written by a couple of unknown Russian teens. There was also View From the Fourth Row, a jealously scathing take on the fashion business, said to have been written by InStyle accessories editor Alice Kim. No wonder she moved to Ohama… And before Faran Krentcil was Faran Krentcil, fashion writer and society tart, she was The Imaginary Socialite, an anonymous fashion-scene blogger with a wicked wit.
Anonymity is an endangered thing lately, and when we’re all connected and confident in our right to know everything, the lifespan of a mole is increasingly short. We’ll miss @CondeElevator dearly. But you know how the game goes: whack down one mole, and two more pop right up. Oh, wait. It already has! Welcome to the internetsphere, @CondeElevator2!
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://fashionmagazine.com/flare/celebrity/snps-word-of-the-day-mole/&title=SNP’s word of the day: Mole&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/aug12-snpword-mole.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_51283" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Illustration by Lewis Merritt"][/caption]
Word: Mole
Usage: “Mole! Bloody mole! We're not supposed to talk about the bloody mole, but there's a bloody mole winking me in the face!” —Austin Powers
Meaning: A spy who works from inside the organization he or she's spying on; a double agent.
You should know it because: @CondeElevator, duh. Some perspicacious Condé Nastie turned spy last Saturday, tweeting the cattiest/most clueless bits of elevator talk from the “dudeitors” and “Teen Vogue-ers” (and even, once, A. Wintour) of America's glossy empire. In a place where “mole” generally means beauty mark, it now refers to some not-so-pretty secrets. And, naturally, everyone's listening in. Even FASHION’s own online editor and former Teen Voguette Randi Bergman was talking all things Condé on the CBC’s Connect with Mark Kelly last night. Unlike the mystery tweeter, she would not divulge the details, despite admitting to witnessing at least one vertical meltdown.
Yesterday, having passed 60,000 followers and garnered investigative attention from The Daily Beast, Gawker, and dozens more, the @CondeElevator tweeter pressed the emergency button. “This got really crazy,” s/he said. “Love my job. Better stop. #sorry.”
According to the internets, the prime suspect is John Januzzi, an editor at Lucky and beloved Tumblr star. As Bryanboy pointed out, Januzzi worked at Starworks, a major New York PR firm, while @NoBtotheS (a smart, snarky, fashion-y PR-insider feed) was going strong. Could he be a double agent twice over? What, does he have, like, two pairs of balls? Cause that's bold.
Of course, gated communities—high fashion, high society, old media—have always had their resident spies, and nowhere more so than in New York. Truman Capote didn't spill all those plummy '60s secrets out of his own head, and today's Gossip Girl, with its lightning-fingered titular mole, is fiction based on stranger truths. There was the 2007 blog Socialite Rank, which made and shattered the reputations of Manhattan's social x-rays—and turned out to be written by a couple of unknown Russian teens. There was also View From the Fourth Row, a jealously scathing take on the fashion business, said to have been written by InStyle accessories editor Alice Kim. No wonder she moved to Ohama... And before Faran Krentcil was Faran Krentcil, fashion writer and society tart, she was The Imaginary Socialite, an anonymous fashion-scene blogger with a wicked wit.
Anonymity is an endangered thing lately, and when we're all connected and confident in our right to know everything, the lifespan of a mole is increasingly short. We'll miss @CondeElevator dearly. But you know how the game goes: whack down one mole, and two more pop right up. Oh, wait. It already has! Welcome to the internetsphere, @CondeElevator2!){kind=link}