Founder Ron Meyer sold “The Shire”—named for a fictional area of Read More
The votes in Kentucky and Oregon are the last Democratic contests scheduled Read More
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida. Ecco, 226 pages, $23.95. The impulse to lump these two novels together is understandable, since Heidi Julavits and Vendela Vida are co-founders of The Believer (a literary journal I’ve written for—just once.) But there’s actually very little evidence to support the notion of a shared Read More
Now when everyone is gazing at Mt. Hood, let's not forget the last outdoor tragedy in Oregon. Today's The Oregonian prints a bravura piece of reporting about why local authorities failed to find the Kim family on Bear Camp Road 2 weeks ago. The story documents a series of bonehead maneuvers inside the Read More
When tragedy befell them on Bear Camp Road in southwest Oregon, the Kim family was driving an all-wheel drive Saab 9-2X . Saab's website shows the sporting vehicle performing on a lot of mountain roads, at least one a little snowy, and in that one the car is carrying skis. SUV ads treat Read More
When exactly did the word “nanny” become synonymous with “naughty”? Wasn’t it just yesterday that nannies were dowdy, Mary-Poppins-and-Fraulein-Maria-esque models of discretion and discipline, wearing starched aprons and stern expressions and offering up comforting cups of cambric tea? This moralistic, Brit-inflected archetype still pops up on shows like ABC’s Supernanny, but these days au pairs Read More
The statistic that shook up business writers around the country is that more than half of domestic passenger seats belong to airlines in bankruptcy. The spate of bankruptcies, on the other hand, is something less than a unique event. “The only other major industry that has more bankruptcies, on a percentage basis, is the restaurant Read More
The statistic that shook up business writers around the country is that more than half of domestic passenger seats belong to airlines in bankruptcy. The spate of bankruptcies, on the other hand, is something less than a unique event.
“The only other major industry that has more bankruptcies, on a percentage basis, is the Read MoreWarm, woody and welcoming, the Harrison works its charms from the moment you arrive. Upon passing through the door, you meet up with two, sometimes three, greeters, all of whom appear to be having a very good day. Within seconds, you are coatless and cheerfully on your way to the table, where you are thanked Read More
Time Has Been Kind
To West Side Granddaddy A casually dressed, middle-aged couple (she in a bulky sweater, he in an open-necked shirt and jacket) rose from their table after an early dinner. The waiter, who was not some young moonlighting actor wearing a T-shirt but an old-time professional in black tie, gently pulled back their Read MoreSenior Moment: Old Man Robs Bank, Then Goes Back For More
It makes sense that, as the population keeps aging (and especially if Social Security does indeed go the way of the buffalo), we'll start seeing older crooks, just like you sometimes see seniors manning the fry machine at places like McDonald's. In fact, there are Read MoreBeware the new TWEE! What's twee ? It's English vernacular for prosaic faux-sentimentality. And as New York retailers struggle to promote holiday shopping in a caring, uncraven way, they are starting to sound rather twee. In fact, the struggle to merge heartfelt inspirational clichés with ad copy is resulting in a new ultra-twee lingo, reminiscent Read More
Whenever I find myself in a waiting period in my writing
career, I think of a passage from the memoir Poets in Their Youth . In it, John Berryman is killing a couple of weeks before he hears if he's gotten a teaching job that he thinks will allow him to properly begin his vocation. It's Read MoreIf I'd listened to the Weather Channel, I would never have made it to EQ the other night. Temperatures were in the 90's and a major thunderstorm–possibly even a tornado–was expected. "Stay away from windows and remain indoors until 10 P.M.," we were told. But restaurant critics are like hurricane chasers, diving recklessly into the Read More
As with so many trumpeted "breakthroughs" in the advance of human knowledge, I reacted to the news of the identification of the Unknown Soldier with mixed feelings. Disinterred from the tomb and, through the miracle of DNA, delivered from the mystery of his unknownness, he became one particular family's son–and by that biological unveiling, no Read More
