"'He looks like he's in college and everybody calls him Favs, so you're like, "This guy can't be for real, right?"' said Ben Rhodes, another Obama speechwriter. 'But it doesn't take long…
I've been reading and listening to people talk for over a half century, so it's really weird to have to look up 2 words in 2 hours. First, MadisonMan, he of the bird's-eye view of the Michelle Obama rally-ette, said :…
"It was a not very tall candelabra of old bronze and artistic workmanship. It consisted of a group: on the pedestal stood two female figures in the costume of Eve and in attitudes for the description of which I have neither …
So how can a real, American literary artist take a job as a creative writing professor? Asks David Gessner. [I]t’s hard to imagine [Thoreau] taking a break from one of his marathon strolls to waste three hours teaching a graduate…
That's an observation about the way using a typewriter changed Friedrich Nietzsche's writing — and perhaps also his thinking. He himself said: "our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." S…
It's not through Jim Webb: Democrats can't out-tough the GOP. It's possible that James Webb can do it. But he's sui generis ; a Democrat who can win at politics when played under Republican rules. Democrats love …
On the list of Stuff White People Like: White people love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white …
"I very nearly missed out on becoming a mother." And I very nearly missed out on linking to this article — because I've already written about Rebecca Walker and, even then, I felt put off by the way this woman is …
I'm not sure whether I'm bothered more by the form or the substance of this sentence. It's from a NYT article by Michael Kimmelman headlined "A Lowbrow in High Office Ruffles France," and it follows the lin…
Just one of over 200,000 books that business prof Philip M. Parker has written using a computer algorithm that collects information from the internet. He makes money producing these obscure things by selling them on Amazon, whic…
I've been ignoring this Dick Cavett thing in the NYT that's been sitting at the top of the most-emailed list for days, but now I'm reading it. I don't want to delve into Cavett's earnest opposition to the war…
NY Post headline about Judge Weinstein's decision in the Polizzi case: Maverick Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein issued the ruling in a child-porn case over which he presided - chastising himself for not telling the ju…
Manohla Dargis describes a scene in the new movie "Elizabeth: The Golden Age": Declaiming from atop her white horse, her legs now conspicuously parted as she straddles the jittery, stamping animal, she invokes God and …
That would be Charles Schulz , according to a new biography (which his kids are upset about). Oh, good grief, what do you expect from a cartoonist? Of course, the guy is going to be depressed and bitter. That's comics, isn…
Apparently, there's lots of it. Well, we all remember "Borat," and I can remember Oliver Reed and Alan Bates naked-wrestling in front of the fire in Ken Russell's version of the D.H. Lawrence film "Women in…
Imus sued and got $20 million from CBS. Now, the basketball players are filing their lawsuits: Today's suit refers to terms used by Imus April 4 -- including referring to women on the team as "nappy headed" -- as &q…
Ah, headlines! They're so wonderful. Sigh.... You know what would be cool? If some politician or politician's wife (or husband) "penned" a memoir and it wasn't the least bit inspiring. So, let's have a l…
Somebody 's jealous! According to Matthew Scully, who worked with him for five years, [Michael J.] Gerson did not come up with the language that made him famous. "Few lines of note were written by Mike," Scully says…