DO NOT INVITE ME, PLEASE – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  We've all had this experience:  We hear of a party, and we hope we're not invited.  The people.  The noise.  The phoniness.  The boredom.  There are times you just want to stay home and watch a Hitchcock movie.

I had that same sensation when reading this, about a party in Davos, Switzerland, where the mighty and the shallow of the Earth are meeting to contemplate our economic future:

...silent in the social networks on her trip to the confab so far is New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson. (In fact, her most recent tweet, back in December, announced her trip to Iowa for the caucuses, which hardly rates.)

Linda Zebian, a spokesperson for the Times Company, confirmed that Abramson, who's been in the top Times masthead slot since September, "is indeed attending Davos this year for the first time."

Her predecessor, Bill Keller, never attended the conference.

"I'm just not that into conferences, but I know a lot of people find them useful," he said.

Keller wasn't sure whether his predecessor, Howell Raines, had ever gone, but pointed out that Times journalists often do.

This year, the crew includes Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Andrew Ross Sorkin, Zebian confirmed.

Abramson will be joined by publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who's long been a fixture on the Davos circuit.

And more: Sulzberger is hosting a dinner tomorrow on Abramson's behalf, Zebian said, and Abramson will lead "a panel of women leaders" in a discussion on Thursday.

Zebian declined to offer any further details since "both are private events," but said "no news will be made" at the dinner and that Abramson's panel would be hosted by PriceWaterhouseCooper International.

Well, news is seldom made at dinners or panel discussions except for who showed up and what they said.

COMMENT:  I have personally instructed members of my family to screen my mail and incoming electronic messages for any hint of an invitation to said events, especially the dinner.  If such hints are forthcoming, they are to be kept from my eyes.

Can you think of anything so dull as the publisher of the failing New York Times holding a dinner in Switzerland to introduce his new editor, whose major claim to fame is co-authoring a hit book on Clarence Thomas? 

I'm not worried.  I don't think I'm on the invite list.  I'm going into New York this week to have a hamburger with my younger daughter, and that's far more important...and interesting.

January 25, 2012