The Times columnist got off some good lines in his Tuesday op-ed offering about being invited to speak at career day at Beverly Hills High School—"I was pleased to find the student body was racially diverse. There were Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews and Persian Jews" and "I know who you are. You are rich, don't study too hard and have probably done cocaine — in short, you're well on your way to being president" are examples. But his fellow columnist Rudy Cole, of the Beverly Hills Weekly, was not too happy. He writes toward the end of his weekly notes roundup, From the Hills of Beverly:

There have been some unfortunate departures from our schools recently, but I would offer one more: The person responsible for inviting Los Angeles columnist Joel Stein to speak at a Career Day program at the high school recently. His pay back for the invite was a nasty, snarky little bit in the Times.

Cole is a veteran of city government in Beverly Hills.