February 2006 Archives
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Letters From the Editor
New Reviews
If it's true that opinions are like assholes, and that the internet is full of both, then please tell us why aren't we a natural part of that? Which is...
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Reading
Book Digest: February 28, 2006
Here are some things axiomatic for me in my take on talking about books: 1) There are far too many books and writers deserving of the meager attention doled our by...
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Of Recent Note
For February 2006
What the writers have been enjoying, watching, reading, hearing, eating, viewing, and digesting for the past 28 days.
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Spoofs & Satire
Barnosky and I
You’ve received the credit card statements, the cancelled checks, the postcards from Aruba. But only at the end of a case of identity theft will you discover how much was really taken from you.
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Op-Ed
Heeding the Lamplighter’s Whistle
He’s gone. He’s been gone for some time. I’d still come running, though, at the very first note. Just one little round of the Masterpiece Theatre theme, and I’m all his, that little gas-lighting corporate mascot.
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Gallery
Picture New Orleans
A gallery of images from photographer Tema Stauffer showing aspects of New Orleans—abandoned lives, startling ruin, subtle beauty—you can’t catch on CNN.
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Books
The Beginning of Spring
In 1998 Penelope Fitzgerald won the NBCC Award for The Blue Flower. Since then, many of my friends have read that book as their introduction to her and been confused, or...
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Birnbaum v.
Andrew Delbanco
Author and Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco, named by Time as “America’s Best Social Critic,” talks about his new Melville biography—one that’s actually enjoyable to read.
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Television
Girlfriends
Girlfriends, on UPN, could have been another empty yuppie comedy, a black woman's Sex in the City. Instead, the sitcom about four female black professionals in L.A. is witty,...
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Notes From the Lawn
Landscaped Beyond all Recognition
We bemoan the rise of the McMansion, the slash-and-burn path of the strip mall—but the real problem may be lurking in the shrubbery.
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Books
Literature Is Freedom
In 2003 when Susan Sontag won the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, her acceptance speech--delivered in Frankfurt at a ceremony boycotted by the U...
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Personal Essays
I’m Your Biggest Fan
There are many reasons to pepper a celebrity with fan mail: admiration, a sense of kinship, obsession, even boredom. Any are acceptable and all are believable—until you try to explain your motives to others.
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Things
Cottage Cheese
It was with surprise that I discovered cottage cheese a few weeks ago. My mother says I ate it as a child, but I don't remember. So cheap, so versatile,...
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Letters From the Editor
Itchy
On the subway this morning, I saw somebody reading one of the free dailies. The cover headline, referring to the Cheney hunting accident, read, "Triggy Dick." Ah, so they mean ...
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Books
Arthur and George
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes is a potboiler, a thoughtful thriller, a shirttails-grabbing day-ruining page-turner, a piece of very good fiction, a careful portrait of two men's very different...
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Letters From the Editor
Introducing Todd Levin
We are extremely pleased to announce that Todd Levin has accepted our invitation to join our Contributing Writers staff. Todd has written lots of great stories for us before (like...
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Letters From London
Days of Grind and Poses
The modern city anticipates our moods—start off jolly and you’ll find a dozen happy sights. Start the day day rotten, though, and everything’s squalid. How can you maintain sanity when the city changes as often as you do?
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Movies
Les Perles de la Couronne
As charming as it is inaccurate, Les Perles de la Couronne makes a mockery of European history in three languages. The film has a literary playfulness found in the best...
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Reader Letters
Monkeys, Really?
After a youth spent in American public schools, I have tried to understand that there is no such thing as a “dumb” question. And yet over and over again, I...
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Web
Open Source
Christopher Lydon, former New York Times man, former local TV news anchor, and one-time Boston mayoral candidate and his able crew have ventured into a compelling hybrid of radio and...
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Spoofs & Satire
Be Not Afraid
Between rescuing Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck and dodging bullets during an interview, German director Werner Herzog leads a dramatic life. According to his private diaries, we shouldn’t be surprised.
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Birnbaum v.
Lisa Randall
Strings, branes, and baryogenesis—our man in Boston is guided through contemporary science by one of the country’s top theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall.
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Things
Udderly Smooth Udder Cream
As a young child, I was shocked and horrified to learn that the lotion my father regularly applied to his hands was, in fact, udder cream. As in it had...
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New York, New York
Raise the Woof
While Super Bowl XL was being beamed into taverns across Manhattan, bars showing Puppy Bowl II were a lot harder to come by.
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Things
Colf
Want wintry exercise that doesn't require a schlep to Vermont? Then grab a softball, some form of club, and find the nearest patch of ice to replicate a game of ...
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Spoofs & Satire
We Didn’t Start the Fire
The winter 2006 tour journal of the Piano Men, North America’s only five-member Billy Joel tribute band.
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Books
Me Write Book
It's not easy being the world's favorite frigid hominid, especially when your existential problems are worse than most college sophomores'. Me Write Book, It Bigfoot Memoir, by TMN favorite Graham...
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Op-Ed
Would You Like Havarti With Those Freedom Fries?
Embassies have been torched, several people have died, ignorance flows from all corners—all for a few cartoons less intelligible than your average “Cathy” strip.
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The Non-Expert
Way to Go
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we have your answer for the next time somebody asks you how, when your number is finally up, you want to go.
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Movies
The New World
Terrence Malick’s The New World isn’t for everyone, but if you liked The Thin Red Line or, for that matter, Koyaanisqatsi, you’ll appreciate this...
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Spoofs & Satire
One Possible Outcome of Super Bowl XL
The predictions have been made, the spreads have been laid. So who will reign supreme on Sunday? Anything is possible.
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Music
Blur, Blur
When Blur effectively defeated Oasis in the Britpop wars, it was because of its self-titled album. In the years leading up to its 1997 release, the two bands had traded numerous...
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Gallery
The Bear in Helsinki
The bear heads abroad again, this time to Finland, where even a groundbreaking art exhibit can’t distract him from the cans of bear meat on grocery store shelves. A gallery of photographs from our smallest correspondent.