Donald Trump‘s presidential publicity stunt reached its natural and entirely predictable denouement yesterday when, boosted by press coverage generated by yet another pretend flirtation with a political campaign, his reality television show was renewed by a hit-starved NBC. For a good example of the news media’s maddeningly narcissistic role in our national political life, see …
At a Paul Simon concert in Toronto last week, a Newfoundland woman named Rayna Ford called out for Simon to play “Duncan,” saying that it was the song on which she learned to play guitar. Perhaps feeling groovey, in any event feeling light-hearted, Simon promptly invited Ford onstage to pay the song. The video records …
Yesterday was a beautiful day for predicting the end of the world. Apparently life as we know it will come to an abrupt halt a week from tomorrow. That, at least, is the opinion of Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California. At about 6pm (PST, I’m assuming), he is predicting that about two percent …
SEVENTH AVENUE & 33RD STREET, MAY 12th, 12:35 PM Read More »
I ventured into the wilds of lower Hastings (or perhaps it was uper Yonkers) to attend the latest version of Spoken Interludes, the series of readings organized and hosted by my friend, the novelist DeLaune Michel. Last night’s readers were Jennifer Coady Epstein, author of the novel The Painter from Shanghai (almost all the guests …
Apparently Newt Gingrich is going to announce today that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee (or its equivalent). Many people on the left scoff at the notion of Gingrich being able to mount a serious campaign, pointing to his embarrassed departure from the speakership in 1998, his messy private life, and the sickbed divorces. …
My new favorite commercial is this Volvo ad, featuring the unique song stylings of the Swedish singer Miss Li. Lots of pizzazz.
It has always shocked me that it took nearly four years after the Crash of 1929 for the famous Pecora hearings to take place. One cannot believe that all that time passed before the Senate held hearings that exposed the corrupt and short-sighted practices that ruined the economy. Well, here we are, coming up on …
In his explanation of why he refused to release the photos of the dead body of Osama bin Laden, President Obama told 60 Minutes “”We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies. We don’t need to spike the football.” I don’t agree. Put me down as standing with the Beatles on this one. As they …
Ezra Klein has a smart, sobering piece in The Washington Post today, evaluating the strategy of Osama bin Laden, and how he has almost succeeded in attaining his goals. Klein speaks to a counterterrorism and al-Qaeda expert named Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, whose view is that “bin Laden has been enormously successful” using a strategy that the …
Forty years ago, at the tender age of 17, I found in the book rack at Reade’s drug store on Belair Road in Baltimore–improbably enough–a copy of Managing Mailer, an account of Norman Mailer 1969 campaign to become mayor of New York, written by his manager Joe Flaherty. As I have previously written, this book …