Headlines: December 2002 - The Morning News

Headlines for Friday, December 20, 2002

New York’s currently: wishing you a Merry Christmas

Learn more about the Neediest Cases Fund, then give online, over the phone, or by mail.

Donate to the River Fund, either money, clothes, or personal care items.

Promote and support adult literacy in New York by giving time, books, money, or equipment.

Consider giving to The Friends of The Highline, the group responsible for the track’s preservation. If you haven’t heard of The Highline, we have an old photo-essay.

Contribute your time or money to Habitat for Humanity.

As this week’s People We Like Barry Lewis recommends, give a gift from the heart from God’s Love We Deliver.

Help feed hungry New Yorkers through City Harvest.

Find volunteer opportunities in your community.

New laptop for Kwanzaa? How about donating the old one to a poor school?

Don’t feel like giving money? How about farm animals!

Volunteer or donate to New York Cares, responsible for the annual New York Cares Coat Drive.

Give globally through Unicef.

You are not allowed to donate to The Human Fund, Festivus or not.

Support Doctors Without Borders with money or volunteer-time.

Research these charities with GuideStar. Related: 10 Tips for Giving.

note: if you run a Web site and would like to recommend this list of charities to your readers, please forward them to this link.

Headlines for Thursday, December 19, 2002

New York’s currently: going to La Boheme

Bush unveils Lott-disposal system, assigning Powell and brother Jeb to wack him in the knees. Realizing his career is over, Lott bemoans White House tactics.

7 new designs for the World Trade Center, including some that seem inspiring.

Hundreds of Muslim immigrants arrested and thrown in jail in California after coming forward to comply with new immigration rules. Related: Portraits of ordinary Muslims.

The Second Annual Coudal Holiday Quiz…coming tomorrow!

Perfect for the holidays: How to make your own boudin noir, or blood sausage.

Hidden New York, Quicktime VR pictures from around the boroughs, including Snug Harbor and Orchard Alley.

West Wing’s Sorkin gets drug charges dropped after completing rehabilitation program.

Gawker: New York City gossip blogged.

Christo gets scaled-down approval to drape Central Park in fabric. Related: Interview with Christo collector.

Sodomy laws are a standing insult to, among others, millions of respectable citizens who happen to be gay. They are an absurd anachronism and an obvious violation of the right to privacy. Whatever they may have represented in Montesquieu’s day, or even Byron White’s, in 2002 they are nothing but an expression of bigotry. Hertzberg on sodomy and the law. [ via pu ]

How to decorate your aluminum Christmas tree.

Bar Signs, for when you don’t want to mix communication with drinking. [via k ]

U.S. sides with Israel in delaying diplomatic road map.

Massive archive of National Geographic pictures.

Headlines for Wednesday, December 18, 2002

New York’s currently: wrapping sake for the landlord

Despite lack of working technology, Bush orders missile shield to be built and installed within two years. Notably absent are any calls for cars less reliant on foreign oil, a working national train system, health care detached from the insurance cabal, or the male birth-control pill.

Knicks beat Nets, 101-99. We repeat: Knicks beat Nets, 101-99.

VSA student turns himself in for the Union Square black box tie-up, after detectives infiltrate the art schools.

Army and Marine chiefs doubt Pentagon’s charge that Saddam, if attacked with fast-moving ground troops, will fall early.

UES society about to lose the Madison Avenue Bookshop.

Coworker suicide fails to shatter office.

10-foot-tall footer David Beckham stands in Tokyo, tasting ‘of sweet, sweet chocolate.’

Flak Interview with Verlyn Klinkenborg, Times editorialist and pig-tickler.

Gossip we follow: Hurley tells reluctant-father Bing to take his money and shove it.

Beauty market is tough, so strategies are getting tougher: Bergdorf’s hands out gift cards, competitors call it cheaping-out.

EU summit brings thriving business to Copenhagen prostitutes.

Observer says: Best 2002 comeback: Tina Brown.

Robert Birnbaum interviews Patricia Henley, Donna Tartt. Also, Cuban photographs by Birnbaum.

Christmas and New Year e-cards, by FORK.

Headlines for Tuesday, December 17, 2002

New York’s currently: finally reading Augie March

MTA and Transit Union reaches deal, no strike.

Lott, without the White House’s backing, will face a January 6th election to keep his seat.

Malaysia bans ad campaign featuring not-Asian Brad Pitt promoting Toyotas.

Woman councilor in Pakistan beaten and paraded naked when she refused to endorse landlord’s candidate in election.

White House’s opinion asked for in Supreme Court case, on whether law that protects abortion clinics can be used to punish nuts who advertise doctors on wanted posters.

New York film critics circle picks Far From Heaven as best film, best director.

Just don’t try to explain it…Video: Joe Le Taxi.

Gary Condit sues Dominick Dunne for $11M in slander.

Man uses 135,400 lights and five miles of extension cord for house-trimming decorations.

Giant index of blues lyrics.

Man accused of robbing Christmas tree in front of 10-year-old boy.

Doubt is like a divining rod; it begins to tug when it nears something fertile and fluid and underground. Stacey D’Erasmo on writing through doubt.

True love shown.

Our most recent favorite gallery in Brooklyn: Black & White, including the photography of Meighan Gale. [ thanks to ak for the link ]

Headlines for Monday, December 16, 2002

New York’s currently: certainly not fooled by your rocks

Canada vs. U.S.: Always ugly, and always about that damn space-arm.

Second-ranking Senate Republican Don Nickles wants Lott out of the building. Alabama senator Richard Shelby defended Lott: ‘I think we should not lynch him.’

Transit strike postponed, for now.

States debate feasibility of universal healthcare.

Defense Department considering covert propaganda missions in friendly countries to sway public opinion. Related: Archive of U.S. propaganda in the Middle East.

Stand-up comedy called deadly weapon in Venezuelan protests against Chavez.

Gore hits the hot tub on SNL, then tells Ed Bradley he’s not running for President.

Gee-Dub-Dub sent out a million Hallmark Christmas cards this year.

I wish I had a popsicle as sweet / As kisses from impulsive androgynes / With tentacles the hue of fresh-tossed wheat / Extending gently, tracing tender lines. The Exquisite Sonnet Project, with each poem written by 14 different people.

NYT Magazine’s Year in Ideas, featuring super-new concepts like remote-controlled rats, Yamamoto’s Adidas shoes, and the ambulance-homicide theory.

Shopping with Google: Froogle.

Only 9 days now, but still… The 10 Days of Christmas.

Representatives from 40 or more of New York’s 100-year-old stores get together for gin daisies.

Polar bear books.

Headlines for Friday, December 13, 2002

New York’s currently: sick to hell of good ol’ boys

Cardinal Law resigns as Boston’s Archbishop.

Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy. Lott’s comments are supported by his voting and speech-record. Related: Mississippi ain’t proud of its boy, especially since he was an ardent segregationist in college and has appealed many times to white supremacists, e.g. The Council of Conservative Citizens, once saying they held ‘the right principles and the right philosophy.’ Even Peggy Noonan is calling for his resignation.

Rightwingnuts.org, tracking Republican extremism.

Video and documents from Thurmond’s rabidly-racist Dixiecrats party.

The century in shoes.

As E.B. White wrote, lived, and left, Turtle Bay on the East Side is a marvelous place to live.

Satellite photos show two nuclear facilities in Iran.

Google’s year-end zeitgeist.

Support the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Brooklyn’s best hair shop, the Beehive, on Monday at Galapagos.

Duke of Windsor’s liquor cabinet sold.

Bloomberg tells transit works, if they walk, to pay up; Transit boss tells Bloomberg, if he talks, to shut up. Mike, however, will be riding his shiny new bike come Sunday.

It makes the statue seem to exist in time; in the imperfect tense. I mean the effect is temporal because, while Moses looks at the terrible thing to his left, hair flows through the fingers of his right hand. In effect, he was just sitting there when suddenly… Leonard Michaels on Michelangelo.

New bar in Cobble Hill: Magnetic Field.

Headlines for Thursday, December 12, 2002

New York’s currently: humming Sinatra

Sunken tanker off Spanish coast to be second-worst oil spill in history.

North Korea restarts nuclear program, frozen in 1994, in reaction to U.S.-led oil embargo.

Have a hard time getting through Union Square yesterday? Blame the person who taped 38 empty black cardboard boxes, each with FEAR written on the side, to benches and walls.

President reviving nationwide smallpox vaccinations.

Vivendi raided by French police over alleged financial sham involving Jean-Marie Messier.

Top 100 wines of the year.

U.S. policing misfires, shamed when boat full of Scuds sails on to Yemen.

More than 25 percent of California children are overweight.

Killing women for being raped or cooking badly up 25 percent in Pakistan.

Passionate arguments on burning crosses in the Supreme Court.

City preparing penalties in case transit workers walk.

IBM and Philip Glass came together to produce The Philip Glass Engine.

101 Damnations reading tonight in Williamsburg.

Alabama’s most violent prison houses women. [ via ts ]

The Secret Lives of Numbers: Studying the popularity of certain arrangements of digits.

Headlines for Wednesday, December 11, 2002

New York’s currently: speaking in front of a class

Treasury secretary-designate John Snow’s railroad company CSX Corp. paid no federal income taxes in two of the last four years, despite seeing more than a billion in pretax profits, and paying Snow $36 million.

Trent Lott prefers to endorse Strom Thurmond for Presidency every 22 years.

Pataki begged to stop transit strike. Related: New Yorkers go bike-shopping.

The Guardian asks writers for their favorite books this year.

Many people protest when offices relax their dress codes, others protest when dress codes are raised.

This is one of those sweet smells like cut flowers, like fresh-baked bread, that’s part and parcel of life in every city across the world. Brooklyn coffee roaster cited for offensive odors.

The New York Public Library owns more than 25,000 restaurant menus. Related: William Grimes finds pure Mexican soul food on ‘a cheesy block east of Madison Square.’

Affectionate profile of Paul Muldoon by Sven Birkets.

Man calls police when hoodlums attack his car, mysteriously turning water into frozen crystals.

My favorite criteria is when pieces of a work of fiction—a line or a moment—come back to you after you’ve read the work when you’re doing something entirely different. And I don’t know how to catalog that. Powells interview with Alice McDermott.

Little LUGs: New York high school girls want to be gay-ish.

Beautiful if a tad derivative clothes and web design at United Bamboo.

A teacher of mine in college once said you have to remember when you are reading history what halls were open to people and which were lighted. It stuck with me. Interview with historical spy-novelist Alan Furst.

Another advent calendar: Electric December.

Headlines for Tuesday, December 10, 2002

New York’s currently: searching for the perfect breakfast roll

Judge gives White House and Cheney big win, saying Congressional investigators have no right to sue when politicians won’t hand over documents.

In the face of possible a transit strike and hike, reporter joins the NYPD’s anti-pickpocket squad for a ride. Related: Mayor plans legal firestorm to prevent transit strike.

Parents with late-night howling children turn to the ‘Sleep Lady.’

Homeowners in Brooklyn and the Bronx spending more on housing than anyone else in the U.S.

Marvel Comics debuts first gay character, unfortunately called ‘The Rawhide Kid,’ featuring six-shooters and a wicked fashion sense.

South Korean President joins call for U.S. to hand over two sergeants to Korean Court, after being acquitted in military trial of killing two girls.

High-scale retailers go for long-range financing to survive holiday season.

50,000 screws loose on Kentucky road.

Similar to yesterday’s panorama of Times Square: full-screen view of the Towers of Light memorial.

Man involved in car crash survives for almost a week on Taco Bell packets.

Check if you’re naughty or nice.

21 designs for 2021, including a building printer, tchotchke-shredder, and a cure for jet lag.

Human error causes most falls from ski lifts.

Headlines for Monday, December 9, 2002

New York’s currently: doing homework for the wedding

Top Iraqi General says they were close to developing bomb after invading Kuwait.

At least 13 men convicted in 11 NYC murder cases have had their convictions overturned since 1998.

Serbia fails to elect a president for the second time, as only 45 percent of the population turned out to vote, below the required 50 percent. Related: 21 percent of Americans in 1996 were ‘too busy’ to vote.

Despite the U.K. Culture Minister decrying all Turner Prize short-listed entries as evidence of Britain’s dying relevance in art, artist Keith Tyson wins big prize with sci-fi fantasies.

Rooster-owners crank-called between four and six a.m.

Quick interview, good photographs: Twins, courturiers Viktor & Rolf.

10 songs for this week, with insufficient commentary.

For those outside New York, here’s Times Square.

How to grow enough herbs for your restaurant on your roof in Hell’s Kitchen.

Susan Orlean on the dead but amusing technology of party-phones.

Swell dresser Gordon Parks celebrates 90th birthday.

Interview with Alexander Payne, director of Election, the bard of Omaha. Related: Anthony Lane on Payne’s new film, About Schmidt.

The Best Food Stuff of 2002.

Los Angeles opens Hollywood information booth, learns that tourists just want to see George Clooney in good weather.

Michael Shapiro on the state of magazine writing and the curse of Tom Wolfe.

Paper snowflakes for the holidays.

Headlines for Friday, December 6, 2002

New York’s currently: riding muddy trains

Berlin art-goers mistake suicide victim for performance art.

Surprise, surprise: Homeland Security Department to receive summary-memos from the CIA and FBI, not detailed intelligence.

Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers to pursue peace deal, giving regional control to rebel-held areas, after almost 20 years of civil war.

Dartmouth swim team goes up for sale on eBay. Related: eBay fraud scam busted.

Leona Helmsley back in court, to defend herself against charges she hates gays, alleged to have said, ‘I hate Donald Trump. Donald Trump is gay.’

Implosionworld, the explosive demolition industry’s national source of information.

I Love Cheese: Touring America’s creameries. Related: TMN-favorite This Is Murray’s Cheese Shop has opened a Grand Central stand for commuters needing their Spanish goat cheese-fix.

Mandela sees progress in South African sexual practices, i.e. condom use.

The winners of the Guardian’s annual text poetry contest, for cell phone bards.

Nothin’ Says Lovin’ Like The Morning News from the Oven, and other slogans.

Protest-organization blooms on the Web.

Hobbit-rap: The Lords of the Rhymes, straight out of Fangorn.

On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky, not quite a roller-coaster ride but more like when the toilet-paper roll gets a little squashed… Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Results, 2002, honoring bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.

DIY: Thrift Deluxe.

Headlines for Thursday, December 5, 2002

New York’s currently: enjoying its first real snow

Presidents Washington through Bush may have lied about key matters.

World’s most expensive cocktail goes for $64 at the top of the new Trump World Tower. Investment manager, after sipping drink, comments, ‘In New York, you don’t think of expense.’

Surprise to Americans, Jamie Oliver was a mockney gobshite at home until his new show re-won U.K. hearts.

Difficult task: Afghanistan’s Karzai to build a national army over the next year.

Shopping still a hot topic in contemporary art, especially when featuring the Hermes Crispy Chicken Deluxe.

U.S. becoming less popular around the world. Related: Palestinians switch from Marlboro to Gauloises, but keep drinking Coke.

U.K. woman uses sheep to create poetry and explain quantum mechanics.

Pleasantville cop cleared in wife-killing case after forensics shows she died from bleeding in her coronary artery, not his hands.

Laurel Nakadate’s show ‘We Are All Made of Stars’ opens tonight, featuring videos of her and strange men. Read her four-day diary on putting together the art and the show.

L.A. district attorney wants Wynona to do community service, stop using aliases like ‘Emily Thompson,’ allow cops to search her house at any time, and probably cut down on the painkillers Ms. Thompson requires.

We are what we wear, and we prefer to wear uniforms. On a personal note, we’d like those uniforms to soon exclude mesh-backed caps worn at a not-so-rakish tilt.

Bill Moyers guns after Bill O’Reilly with a newspaper ad.

Full-screen diving.

VICE’s don’ts are still very funny.

Headlines for Wednesday, December 4, 2002

New York’s currently: trying to remember where Manhattan is

Turks and Saudis will allow use of air bases in war; Turks unsure about harboring ground forces.

60 bushfires erupt around Sydney.

The dish on New York’s power siblings: J. Lo and L. Lo, the Hilton Tramps, and of course, the Paul and Chloe Sevigny, inspiration for the Sevgala.

South African town, Orania, is whites-only.

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes up tonight. Watch the rising with the TreeCam.

Thanksgiving haul at airports: 15,982 pocket knives, 98 boxcutters, 6 guns, and a brick.

Wendy Perriam beats out Ethan Hawke for ‘Bad Sex in Fiction Prize.’ Hawke’s runner-up passage: ‘I knew I had reached the moment my life had been waiting for. I was going to be a father and a husband. I spanked her bottom and cranked up the tunes.’

Graphic City: Strasburg

Americans will receive 2,200 spam emails this year.

Men have it much worse than females. Throughout history there have been great paintings and sculptures of chubby women. But have you ever seen a statue of a fat man? Absolutely not. Jeffrey Steingarten dresses like a lawyer while he cooks, because it’s slimming.

Chapel Hill thrift shop spends up to $500,000 a year trashing unwanted clothes; Salvation Army spends $2-2,500 a month. Related: Despite last night’s loss to Illinois, Tar Heel coach Matt Doherty now being called a genius.

Very well done advent calendar.

The staff of ‘This American Life’ pick their favorite broadcasts, unfortunately only available with the dreaded RealAudio.

Headlines for Tuesday, December 3, 2002

New York’s currently: cold

Supreme Court to rule on race in college admissions.

With weapons inspections in Iraq running smoothly, Bush and Co. bluster and blab to make noise and frighten citizens.

British dossier on Iraq’s human rights abuses now available.

Bertelsmann to put every publisher under one roof—a 48-story skyscraper—and the editors are getting squirrely.

More details on the Seagal-Busch-Mafia story.

The Knicks are actually winning, but shhhhh….. don’t tell anyone.

Ted Koppel provides haven for reclusive celebrities, like Garry Trudeau, without interruption, Reilly or Rose-style.

Al Gore on the media, and the tyranny of Fox News.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries has a fun installation at Artkrush (see featured artist).

Kevin Guilfoile reading tonight in Chicago.

In truth, most of the time, the rejections seem silly to you. You reach a point where you don’t hear either the denigration or the applause. I learned a lesson. I had some success when I was younger. Everyone loves you when you’re in tall cotton. Interview with James Lee Burke.

An extremely devoted account of Larry Walters, ‘The Lawn Chair Pilot.’