The 92nd Street Y's "Writing New York" reading on Jan. 5 should have been a placid affair. Three authors, all of whom live in and write about the city, were to read from their current work: Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead and the mustachioed Edgardo Vega Yunqué. Mr. Lethem, who won the National Book Critics Circle Read More
Dr. and Mrs. Popularly Elected First Family; don't bring up the Patakis; biotechnology can be fun!; Schiff likes Giff
Karenna Gore Schiff's ears peek out from between the strands of her flaxen hair; she, 30 years old, fixes the irregularity. Her husband, Andrew, 38, a former physician turned biotech venture capitalist, isn't here. He is a Read MoreOld School , by Tobias Wolff. Alfred A . Knopf, 195 pages, $22.
With the publication of Old School , Tobias Wolff-who freely admits to spending six months on a single short story-has scraped whatever sheen remains off the writer's mystique. I suspect that Mr. Wolff embraces the maxim attributed to Anthony Burgess: If you Read MoreLiza Minnelli, who once modeled Blackglama mink, then for years was a fervent anti-fur advocate, was spotted at Nov. 13's opening-night party for famed furrier Dennis Basso's new Madison Avenue store. But The Transom-we were the First Postmodern Gossip Column!-were kind of puzzled. We are just good-natured kids, but we remember that in 1995, The Read More
