
Against the Clock
The invasion of the Apple Watch is imminent. While the technology future it heralds is exciting, some of our wrists are already spoken for.
The invasion of the Apple Watch is imminent. While the technology future it heralds is exciting, some of our wrists are already spoken for.
Many people in the news are saying sorry, albeit through gritted teeth. Why apologies are essential—especially the non-apology apology—to navigating our modern world.
The Civil Rights Act, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, changed the shape of American society. The story of how it finally passed is just as remarkable.
Good books are frequently credited with being worth reading twice. But when was the last time anyone had time for that?
One of the most striking differences between U.S. presidents is how they choose to stock the White House bar. From teetotalers to all-out drunks, a brief history of presidents and their preferred libations.
Twenty years ago—or even 10—Nashville was falling to the bottom of any list of top U.S. destinations. Music City's recent resurgence is a reminder of what Americans really value.
In the past 20 years, movies and the quotes they’ve sprinkled across American pop culture have occupied a shrinking proportion of our social mindshare. It’s time to mark and celebrate the death of the movie catchphrase.
Construction continues at the new World Trade Center—as does criticism of the approved designs. But a look deep inside the new structure shows the progress so far has proven to be in exactly the right direction.
America endlessly honors its best presidents. Enough with that. A demand for a federal holiday to glorify the five who rose so high, only to fail so shamefully.
It's no surprise people are afraid of the ocean. Some are scared their ships will wreck; others are terrified of the wreckage. To confront his phobia of shipwrecks, our correspondent borrows a rowboat to face New York's dreadnoughts.
For centuries, New Yorkers have looked for relief to the trees of Governors Island--nearby, but a forbidden world away. A new plan to make it more accessible won't make them feel any better.
Joan Didion once called New York "a city only for the very young." Moving back to the city at age 33, our writer considers her complaints and comes up optimistic.
The re-opening of a 1970s murder case this summer shocked Germans of all political stripes.
Nearly 20 years after reunification, a trip into the German countryside finds that the past persists: murder and prostitutes and birthday parties, and plenty of wild boar.
Inspired by the local architecture and the beer-swilling, chain-smoking new parents, our man in Berlin discovers equal parts Chicago and New York in Germany's largest city.
Anarchy is dying in Berlin, and Tina Turner swung the axe. Beginning a new series, our man in Germany reports from a park full of arsonists, punks, and frotteurs.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we channel our inner Governor Sanford to explain the ways of windbags nationwide.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we guide a reader who peppers her friends with questions, but finds they won't reciprocate her curiosity.
Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor has been called a bigot and a racist--and that's just week one. A memo to Republican politicians outlining the next phase of attack.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. In honor of Friday the 13th, we coach a reader on effective use of superstition.
In the days following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, more than 100 cities experienced significant civil disturbance. In New York, everyone expected riots. What happened next.
Don' be distracted by the hubbub surrounding the impressive buildings Beijing is constructing for the Olympics. It's the people of the Chinese capital who need your attention.
We vacation to remove ourselves from our everyday experience—but what satisfies the itch more: huddling in a Cold War housing block or lounging poolside at Sandals? A look at the line between far away and too far away.
While America's urban poverty is a visible and often-addressed problem, the nation's rural poor live a life apart. Examining one architecture program's work to connect them with what they really need.
The government says your stimulus check will soon be in the mail, but when you finally receive it, should you invest it--or instead blow it on something the economy won't ever forget?
When the New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp died recently from lung cancer, America lost one of its most riveting writers--one of the best critics we've ever had, and quite possibly among the worst.
Modernism may be dead, but the world desperately needs radically new ideas about living, working, and governing in the 21st-century city.
Though the U.S. capital is home to scores of memorials, just a handful of them command the attention of most visitors. A tour of Washington's other monuments.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we share some tips for a young reader who wants to take her strut for a walk down the runway.
Just in time for President's Day, a fun activity the entire family can enjoy: Who was the worst vice-president ever? We review history's candidates who could reach for Cheney's crown.
Katrina's destruction of the Mississippi coast left many residents homeless, unemployed, and vowing recovery. One year later, our writer revisits the coast, but finds little sign of progress.
Official Washington, DC, is tailored for certain groups of people: tourists, politicians, and lobbyists. But setting aside the monuments and museums leaves a series of parks where the city's history and social conditions are thrown into stark relief.
Pop quiz for the journalism students in the audience: What's an editor to do when her reporter is assaulted and the attacker, whom the reporter strikes back, turns out to be the story's subject?
Washington's DuPont Circle may now be a posh address for lawyers and diplomats--and 4,000 Starbucks outlets--but it was once a bohemian hotseat for intellectuals.
Why are so many news shows so dully casted--except for the flamboyantly named superhero in front of the blue screen? The top 10 best-named weathermen currently rescuing the news.
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, smart and original, and it plays with race and class without relying on dry stereotypes. Luckily, the show
Admitting you have a problem is a big hurdle to face, but confessing you need help can be even more difficult, especially when you're forced to choose your own path. So: Will it be robot or monkey?
Faulkner died 40-some years ago, and whether southern literature passed with him has been a hot topic ever since. Regardless of the genre's health, the region has lately produced a bevy of talented writers. One to watch is Michael Knight, the head of the creative writing program at
To rebuild the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast, Mississippi's governor picked a panel of vaunted New Urbanists to submit plans. But is their nostalgia for small-town America appropriate, nevermind prepared for the task?
Next month Troy Coleman, aka Cowboy Troy, will perform at the Country Music Awards in New York City. Cowboy Troy is one of Nashville's hot young stars. But unlike most country superstars, he raps, laying old-school rhymes over pedal-steel guitar. Far from just scoring points for originality, he
Even in the face of disaster, life finds a way. But how long can we afford to flout forces beyond our control and live on unsteady ground? And what are we willing to pay? Our writer sends a dispatch from New Orleans.
Did David Childs really steal his Freedom Tower design from a Yale student? And can you call that stealing, or just the way the business works? Our critic explains how plagiarism exists in architecture, and why there actually should be more of it.
Fans of the Oxford American like to hate its editor, Mark Smirnoff. He repeatedly runs the magazine into the ground only to resurrect it after months of radio silence. But then he puts out something like the 2005 Music Issue, and all is forgiven. An eclectic mix of obscure and
The recent publication of Robert Lowell's letters makes us wonder, will someday collections of today's scribblers' correspondence include emoticons? A look at the last gasps of letter writing.
It’s one thing to be Mario Lopez and have a single claim to the history books, but it’s quite another to distinguish your celebrity with a striking, but unrecognized achievement. OUr writer takes a look at three famous men, not necessarily known for inventing chewing gum or cornering the pencil mark
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help two readers with vital questions of national security: Can cars backtrack mileage if driven in reverse, and who is responsible for forcing celebrities down our throats?
Which story is front-page material: Kerry's tan, or his position on loose nukes? Bush's plans for immigration reform, or a bulge in his jacket? By fluffing rumors and stuffing their shirts, the political media this election season has constantly failed the public.
It's easy for Yankees to see the South as a swamp, full of evangelist in-breds and Fox-fed yokels, when the media reinforces the stereotype.
Great buildings deserve strong guardians and even stronger PR, and so do bad buildings apparently, as shown in the case of 2 Columbus Circle.
The White House Correspondents Association dinner is DC's biggest night--politicos mix with editors mix with celebrities, all very realalcoholik. It's also among the lowest points of journalism.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we counsel a young man beleaguered by visions of marked-down tuna fish and cases of Two Buck Chuck.
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week a reader sends in a cryptic plea for help in the ways of "IT" and we decipher "IT"s true meaning.
The plan for the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site is nearly finished, but what good is a design competition when we're still trying to decipher the meaning of the event?
Southerners routinely get trashed up north, where they're either derided as racists or hayseeds, or the offspring of siblings.
Urban character is easy--Chicago has architecture, New York has culture, Los Angeles has a six-hour flight to New York--but what about cities with zero personality? Let's say, Washington?
In recent years public architecture has a bad record in New York, especially after the uglification of modernism. Why then are people not paying more attention to Ground Zero?
Of all the classic New York hotels, one of its finest, the Knickerbocker, has fallen into almost-total obscurity.
The Washington Post's new free newspaper Express is targeted to illiterate youngsters with wallets. A report on the difficulties of selling young and hip.
Since 1989, anyone named after some variation of Urkel has lived a miserable existence.
Fact-checking: It's not an easy job, and it's not without its faults. Which is why it wasn't any feat of genius for Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair to crack the system.
Within the halls of Washington, D.C., lurks a stench of unsolved crimes, muttering highwaymen, and altogether strange behavior. Our writer peers into the capital’s dark corners.
Psychoanalysis in literature is old hat, but there were days when it was new. Returning to Mary McCarthy to see which neuroses still ring true.
Your parents' hobbies seem odd and quaint until you discover you can't sleep late on the weekends anymore. Finding early middle age in the flower boxes of your backyard.
Daisies and rifles are never easy bedfellows, especially when both are just starting to bloom.
The Chinatown bus network: offerring inexpensive transport between the major Chinatowns of the eastern US. The New York Times coos over the novelty; we actually take a ride on the bus and have a decidedly different take.
New York and Washington have their differences, but the greatest disparity (at least to someone who just moved from Manhattan) is in their subway systems.
We may spend more time with our co-workers than our families, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them. Our D.C. correspondent Clay Risen starts a new job and barely gets past the front desk.
Considered the best profile writer New York's ever seen, Joseph Mitchell's influence is unfortunately on the wane. Why today's prose-makers have lost their way.
You know Santa: cheeks like a rose, nose like a cherry. Now meet the Krampus, a boozy, goat-horned menace that whips European children during the first days of December.
There may be a thousand art exhibits in the city at any time, but few are housed in an abandoned subway tunnel buried under Brooklyn.
No longer content with acronyms or surnames, companies now hire brand consultants to name their children. The best and the worst of new-age monikers, including those easily pronounced as ass-enter.
New York City is a collection of islands, and one, Hart Island, is completely inaccessible, possibly because it's reserved for the dead. A report on the home of potter's field and an abandoned missile base.
Barring Times Square, nighttime New York is awash in a warm glow. Who do we thank for this? Why, our streetlamps! Investigating the rich history of light in the city.
While looking through his parents' attic our writer finds the May 14, 1942, issue of the Nazi party propaganda paper Illustrierter Beobachter. Nobody has any idea how it got there. A look between the pages.
The American South has many strange places to visit, though most towns don't have their own Hanging Gardens of Babylon, complete with plastic elephants.
The proposed designs for downtown Manhattan are roundly disappointing, particularly for their lack of imagination. How about some tulip poplars?
Central Park is a lot of things: the pastoral center of New York City, a relaxing stroll on a Saturday afternoon, a patch of grass lined with horse manure. It's also home to a minimum-security prison.
It's an acquired taste. It's a strange delicacy. It's a "non-alcoholic cereal beverage."
New York's fashionably-lit are always looking for the next hot thing in plastic glasses. With the days of Dave Eggers now frozen, and Franzen quickly fading, could writer J.T. LeRoy be it?
If you happen to leave early from a show at the Philharmonic, be prepared to be asked for your ticket. No, not by an usher, but by a young would-be concert goer who'll either take your seat or talk trash behind your back.
New York's new daily paper The New York Sun was launched two weeks ago with great expectations, brio, and fanfare. So far we've seen a lot of wire stories, copy errors, and sloppy writing.