New York Diary: A Day at the Races Two-dollar champions or bank-drained losers, fortunes and retirements made over cocktails—what’s not to love about horse racing? Rosecrans Baldwin and TMN photographer Geoff Badner spend a day at Belmont with their wallets in their hands.

Letters from Rome: Fighting Smog These are tough days for Rome, with many worried for the Pope’s health. Feeling equally worried for his own and his family’s, newcomer and author Anthony Doerr reports on days of tiny miracles, crossbow makers, and a lack of Ziploc bags.

New York Solitaire New York is a filthy place, through and through. So how have we convinced ourselves that it’s such a beautiful city? Michael Barrish explains a game he invented to sort through the trash and find a better life.

The Tears, Live in Heaven In 1992 Suede was hailed by the notoriously excitable Melody Maker magazine as “The Best Band in Britain”—before they even…