Last week Ginny and I went to visit our good friends Greg and Susan Schmidt in Pittsburgh. We had a lot of fun. On Saturday, after breakfasting at the crowded, somewhat disorienting Oakmont bakery, we went to the campuses of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon. We saw the iconic Panther statue, the iconic …
2.14 Six other prosecutors follow Sassoon and resign, including lead Adams prosecutor Hagen Scotten, who writes, “[A]ny assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing …
This is the phone list for the staff of Time magazine during the week of December 17, 1997, posted by my erstwhile colleague Lisa Grananstein. That was the week the magazine was preparing Time‘s annual Person of the Year issue, this …
ARTIFACT: THE TIME MAGAZINE PHONE LIST, DECEMBER 17, 1997 Read More »
In November 1971 (when I was a college freshman), Playboy held a Writers’ Convention. At least 71 writers attended; the magazine reportedly paid $100,000 to assemble the group. (That’s about $779,271 today.) Of the 71 attendees, 47 gathered for this photo. I’ve actually met four members of this group: Bruce Jay Friedman, Calvin …
1.31 The Washington Post: “The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department is departing after a clash with surrogates of billionaire Elon Musk . . .over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year. . . The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal …
JANUARY 2025: “IT’S LIKE THE SECOND ACT OF CABARET” Read More »
12.31 A Complete Unknown. I thought the film did a brilliant job of capturing what it must of felt like to be hearing those songs for the first time. 12.30 Linda Lavin dies at 87 12.29 Jimmy Carter dies at 100. James Fallows in The Atlantic: “Most reckonings have suggested that Carter might well have …
DECEMBER 2024: “ATTENTION IS THE ONLY CURRENCY THAT MATTERS” Read More »
11.30 Ivy 11.30 Lou Carnesecca dies at 99. 11.29 Lance Morrow dies at 85. 11.28 Thanksgiving at the Beekman Arms. 11.26 Gladiator II 11.26 Patricia J. Williams in NYRB, reviewing Separated, by Errol Morris: What, then, to make of a constitutional democracy that builds such a payment scheme into its very system of justice? What …
10.31 Francis Wilkinson on Bloomberg: “[Trump] has been exploiting fear — scary Black man, no birth certificate — since long before he ran for office. His message is an endless cycle of Who’s More Frightening? Haitians starting a new life in Ohio? Or the trans kid at the local high school trying to make it through another day? Are …
9.30 Unredacted, by Christopher Steele 9.30 Pete Rose dies at 83. 9.30 Dikembe Mutumbo dies at 58. 9.29 The Chicago White Sox conclude the season at 41-121, the worst in MLB history. 9.29 Kris Kristofferson dies at 88. 9.27 Maggie Smith dies at 89. 9.26 Hurricane Helene makes landfall as a powerful Category 4 storm, …
SEPTEMBER 2024: “THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS, THEY’RE EATING THE CATS” Read More »
8.30 Trump at a Moms for Liberty rally: “Think of it, your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. . . The school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And many of these childs, 15 years later say, what the hell happened? Who did this to …
AUGUST 2024: “YOU GET WHAT YOU GET AND YOU DON’T GET UPSET” Read More »