They enjoyed having a couple of dozen desperate-to-please Ivy Leaguers running around the newsroom. It flattered their vanity to have us fetching their sandwiches and separating their carbons. Thus they simply pretended there was a training program, continued to entice copykids with the false hope of a promotion, then each month or so told another copykid that the secret committee had met and decided he or she wasn’t Times material. You’re welcome to stay, the copykid would be told, so long as you understand we’re never going to promote you. Upon hearing that they were “unpromotable,” the
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