“We finally took the plunge!” The eager first-time homeowner, Gavin Parks, told The Observer. The mergers and acquisitions consultant was referring to his recent $1.6 million purchase at 61 Jane Street, but he may well have been referring to the other recent plunge he and wife, Elizabeth, took—their June nuptials. Indeed, the Read More
“We finally took the plunge!” The eager first-time homeowner, Gavin Parks, told The Observer. The mergers and acquisitions consultant was referring to his recent $1.6 million purchase at 61 Jane Street, but he may well have been referring to the other recent plunge he and wife, Elizabeth, took—their June nuptials. Indeed, the two-bedroom, two-bathroom Read More
Is it lame to still geek out whenever J.K. Rowling makes a public appearance? It probably is but, no matter, we're going to update you about her Harvard Commencement speech anyway. She was the university's fifth female Commencement speaker since 1950. At the June 5 ceremony talked about her greatest challenges and achievements: failure and Read More
To publish or perish? That is the question Harvard faculty will face today, when they vote whether or not to publish their scholarly articles online (and open up their research to millions of readers) or continue to distribute their work in obscure journals with steep price tags and minuscule readership. According to Patricia Cohen Read More
Is it still schadenfreude when it’s the indestructible Martin Amis getting kicked around? His new book, a collection of essays and stories about militant Islam, The Second Plane: September 11, 2001-2007, won’t be published over here until April Fools’ Day, but it’s already out in the U.K. (Jonathan Cape, £12.90) and was greeted last weekend Read More
Newly minted Harvard president Drew Faust issued a statement this morning in which she praised Read More
Star Childs, who graduated from Yale with a forestry degree 27 years ago, was hammering a nail into a stump outside Sunday’s Yale-Harvard football game. He wore a tie, vest, and blazer, plus matching knit cap, and had a red cup in his non-hammering left hand.
The dozen students gathered around him cheered. “I’m a forester, Read MoreSt. Martin’s Press will end its partnership with the Harvard-based, student-produced travel guide series Let’s Go after more than twenty-five years. St. Martin’s, which provides Let’s Go with final edits, printing, distribution, and advertising, will continue to put out Let’s Go guides through fall 2009--one set of 15 books will come out this November, Read More
Rudy Giuliani said it's "fundamentally irresponsible" to set a date-specific timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq. Eliot Spitzer wanted to borrow millions of dollars and spend it on pet projects for legislators. Bill Thompson said some landlords got tax breaks from the city they didn't deserve. The city may open a Read More
Laurence Tribe, the celebrated liberal Constitutional scholar, was looking at a black plastic “Countdown Clock” that sits on a desk at his home in Cambridge, Mass. “Time until Bush goes,” reads the legend accompanying the digital read-out. The countdown stood at 692 days. If the number seemed exhausting to the Harvard Law School professor, it Read More
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith just said that his conference is going vote Martha Stark for comptroller. Here's a snippet of the exchange Smith had with a radio reporter who asked why they're backing Stark. Smith: "It's a conference decision." Reporter: "But why is she more qualified than the other two?" Smith: "Because Martha Stark Read More
The power of Louis Begley’s Matters of Honor sneaks up on the reader softly. The story is told with a quiet control that deepens into silence, which is to say that it is as much constructed from suppressions and elisions as from anything actually stated. The sentences never deviate from their subdued precision, no matter Read More
Simkhe accuses me of ignoring a lot of other leftwing Jews' critiques of the neocons, and assuming I'm the first Jew to notice. I'm sure you're right; it's not a discourse I'm that familiar with. One thing I'd note is that I talked to Phyllis Bennis a couple years back and, yes she knows the Read More
I've just gotten a copy of a 79-page paper called "Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Critics of 'The Israel Lobby'" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The scholars began circulating the rebuttal privately in December but have not published it on-line, I gather, because they are working on a book about the Read More
I'm actually shocked that Niall Ferguson, a Harvard professor, used Tolstoy's opening line from Anna Karenina, "All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," as the lead of his review of a book about business dynasties in my latest New Republic. It's shocking that Ferguson would display such laziness Read More
