The Washington Monthly has just published my review of Moneymakers: The Wicked Lives and Surprising Adventures of Three Notorious Counterfeiters, the new book by Ben Tarnoff about three American counterfeiters who plied their trade between 1750 and 1865. In reading this entertaining, educational history, I was struck by how useful the idea of counterfeiting is …
The very sexy Anne Francis, a native of Ossining, died yesterday at the age of 80. Many know her best for her portrayal of Altaira in the sci fi classic Forbidden Planet (“Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet” goes the line in “Science Fiction/Double Feature,” a song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She also …
It’s hard to beat David Thomson as a writer or as a film critic, but Mr. Nice he is not. Thomson can often be quite mean about Hollywood stars, and as The Hollywood Reporter disclosed this weekend, he uses the latest edition of his New Biographical Dictionary of Film to chop some new meat. Here …
One man’s completely idiosyncratic, entirely personal, possibly not even defensible list of the best of 2010: 1.) Michael Bloomberg‘s strirring, eloquent defense of Freedom of Religion generally and of an Islamic Community Center (not mosque) in Lower Manhattan (not Ground Zero). 2.) Writing about the Disunion Crisis for The New York Times 3.) Dinner in …
In its special Christmas issue, The Economist has a report on an archeological excavation in the Town of Towton, in England. This is where, on March 29th, 1461, the House of York defeated the House of Lancaster in the climactic battle in the War of the Roses, delivering the English crown to the Plantagenets. The …
Was it a preview of a return to child-free late middle age? Hard to say for sure, but Ginny and I had a good time Sunday in Manhattan. First we had a leisurely stroll up Fifth Avenue for a tour of the Big Street’s holiday decorations (nice flags outside Cartier’s, nicer rocks inside), and then …
In my most recent column for the Disunion series in the New York Times, I tell the following story about a wedding that was held in Washington in December 1860 that was interrupted by a bombastic guest, Lawrence Keitt, buoyantly booming out the news that South Carolina had seceded from the union. Well, I was …
In Charleston last night, the 150th anniversary of the great slaveholders’ revolt that ended in America’s bloody Civil War was marked with a gala ball featuring dinner, dancing, and a theatrical reeanctment of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession. Protesters led by the NAACP gathered outside.