ELEVEN FOR 2011
As has become our custom, here is a wholly individual, utterly personal, completely idiosyncratic list of the top 11 whatevers of 2011. 11. THE MIDNIGHT RAMBLE On a freezing night last winter, a group of us took a limo to Woodstock to see the great Levon Helm and his amazing band in concert in Levon’s …
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT: CHRISTMAS EVE 2011
The Christmas Eve party was at our house this year, and love and joy came to us, and to our wassail, too. Ginny outdid herself in the kitchen, making a Beef Wellington that disappeared in no time. Bad puns were entertaining, the Giants won, and apart from a malfunctioning flash which gave us far too …
GIVE ‘EM HELL, BARRY!
“You know, you never want to say, ‘It’s all them,’” President Obama told Barbara Walters last week, “But I do think that right now at least, in the Republican Party there are a couple of notions. Number one is that compromise is a dirty word. Number two, anything that Obama’s for, we’re against.” Come on, …
PRAIRIE HOME COMPANIONS ON THE TOWN
Cathy, Tim, Greg, Susan, Jo, Dave, Ginny and I hit Town Hall on Saturday evening to attend a taping of the radio show Prairie Home Companion. We enjoyed Garrison Keillor‘s low key, folksy, whimsical fun, and his guests Gillian Welch, Joel Grey and especially Itzhak Perlman (with a very fine Klezmer orchestra!) were a treat. …
BRYANT PARK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18h, 5:00 PM
Masses of skaters enjoy a temporary rink in Bryant Park.
ROCKEFELLER CENTER, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18th, 4:30 PM
Ah, the traditional Tannenbaum, surrounded by tourists and the traditional pomp of the urban sidewalks. Greg and Susan Schmidt and Ginny and I took in the sights before meeting more of the gang. Kind of fun, despite the constant buffeting of humanity on the hoof.
PROGRESS AGAINST GERRYMANDERING
In Slate, Will Oremus reports the very good news that non-partisan citizen efforts in California and Arizona have attracted lawsuits from aggrieved professional politicians. Excellent news! The cure seems to be working! “Often,” explains Oremus, “congressional gerrymanders are the result of bipartisan compromise—an agreement that allows the majority party to solidify its hold on the …
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, 1949-1911
At The Annual White House Correspondents Dinner In Washington DC, May 1, 1999. By Karin Cooper/Getty Images.