In Britain, Borders UK has gone into administration, as they call bankruptcy, and the other big chains, most notably Waterstone’s, are not asking for whom the bell tolls. Meanwhile, in the US, both Borders and Barnes & Noble both posted quarterly losses, and, according to the AP, both “forecast a difficult holiday season, saying competition …
This is most minor footnote to what is, after all, a terribly large tragedy, but last week’s shootings at Fort Hood reminded us of a question that has long rattled around in our heads: why does the U.S. Army continue to maintain so many bases named after Confederate generals? Fort Hood is named after General …
I loved the article in The New York Times the other day about the new ideas about the Battle of Agincourt, the mythic victory that the English under Henry V enjoyed over the French on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, in 1415, and that gave rise to Shakespeare‘s stirring “Band of Brothers” speech. “They devastated …
Writing in The Daily Beast, Rebecca Dana contends that by avoiding the use of euphemisms in his announcement of his sexual affairs, David Letterman “has perfected the art of disclosure.” “When David Letterman confessed last week to having had sex with women who work on his show, the real shock wasn’t the affairs themselves (I …
This is high season for sexual censoriousness. Facts are in short supply, but conclusions are abundant. We do know that David Letterman has allegedly been the victim of a crime involving affairs with members of his staff. We don’t know whether Letterman was married at the time of any of these events (as if it …
AFTER POLANSKI AND LETTERMAN, CAN “AN EDUCATION” SURVIVE? Read More »
Those condemned to live somewhere other than Manhattan may not know this, but we have this enormous skyscraper right in the middle of the island that we’re all rather proud of called the Empire State Building. Not content enough to allow the building to speak for itself and project an image of strength, power, sophistication, …
Knowing of my longstanding fascination with private conversations made unintentionally public, my friend David Hochman sent along this treasure from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Please note what the very specific president does not discuss (payment). Click here to listen.
You never can tell what a summer will be remembered for. The summer of 1975 got Jaws, the summer of 1916 got the Somme. One summer gets a hummable ditty from Mungo Jerry that will be played on the radio until the end of time, and another summer gets Hurricane Katrina. With about four weeks …
By the end of the week, we will embark on the 40th anniversary of one of the most amazingly newsworthy months of our history. July 16th, of course, is the anniversary of the day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first me to walk on the moon. Two days after that, …
Caught on a rain-drenched Sunday with hours to kill between presentations at the Times, I visited the Met. I didn’t mean to hit the Arms and Armor gallery, but suddenly there I was. I looked around in memory of my friend Bob Carroll. I like to think that some of his work is still on …