In the biggest waste of scarce journalistic resources in the history of mankind, the New York Times has hired a perfume critic.

The New York Times announced today the appointment of Chandler Burr as its first columnist to review and rate fragrances. Mr. Burr, a longtime magazine writer and the author of "The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession" (Random House, 2003), will have his first column - called Scent Strip - published in the fall issue of T: Women's Fashion on August 27, which will feature actor Catherine Keener on its cover.

Scent Strip will appear frequently in issues of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. In the column, Mr. Burr will review and rate new and classic perfumes as well as other scents such as perfumed candles. He will ascribe a four-star rating system to each perfume, similar to those awarded by The Times to restaurants, ranging from no stars for a poor or satisfactory perfume to four stars for an extraordinary scent.

Apparently that one reporter covering conservatives has a good handle on his beat. Seriously, how nutty does management have to be to come to the conclusion that they're not covering perfume and scented candles adequately enough and need to hire a scent critic?