Lettters From the Editors:
Rosecrans Baldwin
Rosecrans Baldwin
Zero to Sixty Thousand, 10 March 2006
How many moves can a dancer pack in one phrase? Then repeat, change, jostle, repeat? Flipper-y hand movements and shake-waddle-waddle? All set to live Schumann (Schumann! I adulate!) in silly...
Le Coq! (Updated again), 2 March 2006
Updated Monday, 6 March Madness increaseth. Rooster approacheth. We are now in March, and the blood shall soon floweth! Lots of 2006 Book Tournament news posted today, including our list...
The 2006 Morning News Tournament of Books, 17 January 2006
The wait is over. The authors are only beginning to sweat. Sponsored again by the good people at Powells.com, the Morning News Tournament of Books is back and the Rooster...
The Official TMN Weekly Mailing List, 18 August 2005
For a long time readers have asked for a TMN newsletter to keep them apprised of our publishing schedule. They say, “I love TMN, but sometimes I forget to check...
Spring, Come Quickly, 28 March 2005
It’s almost springtime. Annually it seems like I wait a long time for spring to appear, pining for sunshine, and when it finally arrives it’s over a week later—this being...
TMN, Your Trusted Santa Helpers, 9 December 2004
Dear Eludina and Joel, Thank you for sending your Santa notes to our P.O. Box. We have forwarded them on to Mr. and Mrs. Claus and have also republished them...
Thou Shalt Fete With Us this Spring, 7 December 2004
The past couple years we’ve had a party in the fall to celebrate TMN’s anniversary. Big hits, bright lights, one and all. But this year, due to our upcoming relaunch...
A Short Note on System Status, 8 October 2004
To people who have written in commenting on the staleness of our Album of the Week and People We Like features, we’re sorry we haven’t been able to update them...
New York Diary: Surreal Notes, 27 September 2004
1. A man stood next to me on the subway platform carrying a dozen pink roses. He looked past me down the platform and back up again. We were the...
I Remember All The "Missing" Signs, 10 September 2004
“To all police and fire departments, to all volunteers, I know I speak for all NYC—We are and always will be profoundly grateful to all of you!” photo by Choire...
Notes From Protests Around New York, 31 August 2004
I’m guessing most of the kids wearing Palestinian scarves will probably enjoy a comfortable, good night’s sleep once the RNC’s over, without facing tanks in the morning.Why can’t the protesters...
Opening for Intern at TMN, 30 August 2004
Walking to catch a subway home from Manhattan on Saturday, I was a bit stunned to see the NYPD blimp floating overhead. As of about Thursday, New York City is...
This is Pitchaya Sudbanthad, 15 July 2004
It’s our pleasure to welcome Pitchaya Sudbanthad as our newest Contributing Writer. He’s written a number of great stories for TMN—about Nigella Lawson’s juicy tomatoes, the Nets’ move to Brooklyn,...
TV Ration, 13 July 2004
Telling people I don’t watch TV always gets a look that says, “Listen jerk, don’t give me your self-righteous crap about being better than me, and please don’t tell me...
Advertising on TMN, 30 June 2004
Very exciting to announce: TMN now has text-ads (see today’s headlines)! It’s a plan we’ve been working on for months, so it’s nice to see it finally enacted. Here’s the...
We Will Eat This Every Night and We Will Be Happy, 21 June 2004
I’ve eaten this salad (recipe below) twice in the last week, and to call it one of the best salads I’ve ever had would be like calling Vice President Cheney...
1,000,000 Strong & Growing, 14 June 2004
This is a note from both Andrew and me: TMN has just passed the million mark for page views—in May, we served 1,070,300 pages—and we’d like to take a second...
Cuttlefish, I Am Thine, 11 June 2004
My sister moved to Venice, Italy for a job so we went to visit her with my parents for a week. I had never been there; my wife was...
The Day After The Day After Tomorrow, 2 June 2004
Long live summer. Or, long live escape plans to leave Brooklyn for nicer places. People have been worried about New York’s reaction to this new movie The Day After Tomorrow—where...
Contest Winner, 18 May 2004
The winner of last week’s Marshall Sokoloff/Jewelboxing ‘Salt’ contest is Bill Beardslee of Washington, DC. Thanks again to our sponsors at Jewelboxing and Marshall Sokoloff for making this happen. (And,...
Introducing Danny Gregory, and Contest News!, 26 April 2004
He’s a former sushi chef trained on a cow farm near Osaka. He’s met 80 percent of the Rolling Stones, and slept with two of their daughters. He once raised...
Introducing Geoff Badner, 6 April 2004
We’re very excited to announce Brooklynite Geoff Badner has joined TMN as our Contributing Photographer. He’s done lots of features here before, and there are also a bunch in the...
I Make Bad Trebek, 22 March 2004
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones, and people who write questions for contests should avoid ambiguous phrases, lest they spend their weekend in the library double-checking...
Steps, 10 February 2004
My apartment could fit in my parents’ driveway, and they’d still be able to park both cars. It could nestle in the front rooms of my grandparents’ apartment in Chicago,...
Things Recently Learned, as Told in the Second Person, 15 January 2004
1) Laptops are not supposed to smell like cabbage. When your dining table is both the only counter in your miniscule kitchen and also your desk (this twin purpose forced...
The Corrections, 19 December 2003
To the people who came to last night’s Third Thursday, a few corrections for things I may have said while toasting, and, at the time, been wrong about. I am...
Third Thursdays, 8 December 2003
Update: All Third Thursday parties are held at 7 p.m. at Hi-Fi at, suggested to us by Khoi. Hi-Fi features New York’s only MP3 jukebox, 2-for-1 drink specials until 8...
Rosie’s Man Robert, 19 November 2003
It’s a big happy pleasure to welcome Robert Birnbaum to The Morning News as our newest Contributing Writer. We’ve been reading his great long interviews on Identitytheory.com for some time,...
Our Girl Schlegel, 6 November 2003
We are decent copy editors at best, and on most occasions terrible. (I think that sentence fails a number of rules.) Late-night editing and early-morning formatting are no excuses for...
Short Note on Trombones, 22 October 2003
Today’s story is a great conversation between our frequent contributor Robert Birnbaum and writer Julie Orringer. Robert’s shared a number of his interviews with us so far, and there’s plenty...
Seat 11, Row 9, 15 October 2003
Poor fan seat 11, row 9. The story’s everwhere by now: a Cubs fan sitting by the left-field wall reached out for a foul pop-up, deflected the outfielder, denied the...
Pride, Rage, and Sandwiches, 8 October 2003
Recently overheard:On the L train, 3pm, near Union Square, train packed with high-school girls going home after school, in blue and white uniforms: Girl 1: See white girl laughing at...
Confessions of a Businessman, 6 October 2003
It’s meant to be an ironic title – I’m a terrible businessman, and really I have no idea what to do when it comes to numbers, selling, or any non-editorial...
Introducing Choire Sicha, 25 September 2003
It is Andrew’s and my great pleasure to introduce Choire Sicha as a new Contributing Writer for The Morning News (portrait to come soon). His most recent story is ‘Ronald...
Thanks to Everyone, 22 September 2003
Thank you to everyone who came – it was a wonderful night, and we had a ball. Various head-counts put the crowd around 150-200 people, and though I can’t...
Party Guide, 19 September 2003
The Morning News fourth-anniversary party is being held this Saturday and we hope you can make it. My guess is that a lot of people will come not knowing anyone....
Announcement, 8 September 2003
So here is the deal my friends: You are officially invited to join us for the TMN all-get-out roast and rip-roaring dukes, duchesses, and delinquent dons party celebrating our fourth...
Notes on Our Return, and Kevin Fanning, 2 September 2003
Goodbye August, hello September! It’s drizzling and cool in Brooklyn this morning, and we’re happy to see the hot weather go. (But of course, it will be back.) The summer...
Diary, Pictures of Fair Food, 11 August 2003
1. We visited friends this weekend in New Jersey. They had insisted we try ‘Fair Food,’ so, in all fairness, we tried all that we could afford. Not shown but...
Reader Mail: Doubly-Sucking, 4 August 2003
From: zari Date: Mon Aug 4, 2003 1:25:02 PM America/New_York To: TMN You guys have jumped the shark. I had my doubts when you celebrated one year of daily publishing...
More Recent Thoughts, 4 August 2003
1) Watched 8 Women on DVD last night, the second-to-latest film by François Ozon (his newest is Swimming Pool) and didn’t like it very much. I lasted through the film...
Recent Thoughts, 29 July 2003
1. Under one of the windows in the living room, where I work at a desk in the corner, four guys in reflective vests and hard hats are ripping up...
Getting Benjamins from the... Benjamin?, 23 July 2003
It is a hot summer for The Morning News. As you’ve read in Andrew’s recent letters (one, two), we have used the extra time afforded by our ‘summer publishing schedule’...
Oneness, 10 July 2003
Lunch break. I’m lying on the couch in my living room, all the lights are on, I’m reading Bryan Magee’s description of Schopenhauer’s philosophy as it differed from Kant’s, in...
Reader Letters, 9 July 2003
We receive lots of mail from readers. Most of it is flattering, some letters are angry, some are smart and point out our mistakes. We also get tirades about Iraq...
Doing It Right, 20 June 2003
photo by Frederic Bonn There is too much to say or describe about the wedding, the honeymoon, all the anticipation and excitement, so let’s just say it was wonderful (very...
Off, 3 June 2003
‘There was a lull during which Velma loaded her cigarette case and Father Fabre surveyed the room – the bookcase with no books in it, only plants and bric-a-brac, and...
A Mental Glimpse, 28 May 2003
Imagine an old stock machine, with the ticker tape spitting out the side: this, then, is my brain right now: wedding wedding wedding wedding wedding work wedding cheeseburgers wedding wedding...
Finding The Cure, 16 May 2003
We are clouds / and terrible things happen in clouds.– Dean Young It’s been a hard winter and spring for almost everyone I know. A lot of my friends and...
Easter Dandies, 20 April 2003
My family has an Easter tradition of eating brunch at the Peninsula hotel, then going outside to Fifth Avenue to march in the parade of sartorial queens, do-dandies, and bow-tie’d...
Maybe, Just with Sugar, 14 April 2003
In deference to my esteemed colleague, I agree: it is spring in Brooklyn, it is beautiful outside, I was able to wear a light jacket this morning when I walked...
Reasons To Be Cheerful, 1 April 2003
Reading Nick Hornby’s new collection, Songbook, a birthday present from a friend, and I’m very happy. Hornby’s books do that to me. I should be doing work, but I’ve been...
Signs of Protest, 23 March 2003
A list of signs seen at the Saturday, 23 March 2003 anti-war march in New York City. - Fuck Bush And Fuck All You Fucking Republicans- I Weep For My...
Brooklyn Views, 6 March 2003
So you’re all nervy on the way back from the gym. Anxious, defensive, self-loathing like a sweat. You think, you call this a life? You’re almost whacked by a limo...
Three Observations on the Way to Lunch, 25 February 2003
1. Leaving the L train, up through the station, I nailed the smell. Winter smells like winter. Enough. It’s the same everywhere I’ve lived, and after four years of college...
Sure Shot, 21 February 2003
My in-laws’ relationship with basketball has been touched on before, but when the future father-in-law sinks 8 free throws in 30 seconds during a halftime contest at a recent UNC...
A Few Notes, 13 February 2003
Not much news to report this week, but a few enhancements around the site: 1) If you read Web sites with an RSS News reader, (e.g., NetNewsWire, Amphetadesk), then you...
Two Observations While Grocery Shopping, 31 January 2003
1. Two police officers are riding the train with me between Union Square and 6th Avenue. I'm sitting down; one cop, standing next to me, keeps her radio on her...
Greatness, Thrust Upon Us, 22 January 2003
We saw Sam Mendes’s production of Twelfth Night last night at the BAM Harvey Theater, an early Valentine’s Day present from my mother (who may not celebrate all holidays, but...
Introducing Leslie Harpold, 21 January 2003
Though for many, Leslie Harpold requires no introduction, it’s Andrew’s and my great pleasure to announce that she has joined The Morning News as a new contributing writer. Leslie (previous...
Introducing Tobias Seamon, 13 January 2003
There’s a report in the Times today that this winter may be the dreariest in New York’s history, which seems a slightly unscientific approach to measuring weather, but feels entirely...
A New Sort of Letter, 9 January 2003
Honestly, I have to get better about writing these editor letters. I’ve been confused about how to use this area of the site (Andrew and I had an editors’ meeting...
Power of the Internet, 9 December 2002
Here’s the deal: My fiancée and I are starting to look for a new apartment. The stress, dangers, and complete hell of finding a good broker-free apartment in this city...
Maturity Expressed, 3 December 2002
It’s good, I think, to reveal on occasion one’s younger side, to dismantle or at least set aside our mature trappings and play like blond-haired children, roll in meadows, run...
Sick History, 15 November 2002
I’ve been sick for the past week and a half. Here’s what it was like, had it all been chronicled on the front page of this site.New York’s currently:got a...
Turning Three, 7 November 2002
At one point I wanted to scream, a giant whopping WOOOOH!!! right over the heads of everyone in the bar, but I held back and introduced myself to another new...
Marathon Through Brooklyn, 4 November 2002
Photos from the New York City Marathon as it passed by the author’s apartment in Brooklyn, with many ludicrously impressive people in wheelchairs, and a scramble band that included a...
Jubal-ation, 27 October 2002
The recipe for Confederate General Jubal Early’s favorite punch, the right drink to serve when your brother-in-law-to-be from North Carolina visits for the weekend and you decide to throw a...
Best Home Office, 19 October 2002
Photos from the New York Public Library, 42nd Street branch, and Bryant Park. Pictures were to be taken at the Jefferson branch as well, but the author left his camera...
Andrew’s Wedding Toast, 8 October 2002
I didn’t use my camera at Andrew’s wedding this past weekend, but in the tradition of Rosecranses in my family, I did give a poem-toast, right before they cut the...
The Worst Toilet in the World, 26 September 2002
In which the editors and some writers met at a bar for drinks, talked about girls, other writers, stories about our parents, trips to Mexico, the Flaming Lips; then someone...
11 September 2002, 11 September 2002
A photograph of Manhattan taken this morning from Brooklyn and part of a poem by Frank O’Hara, written in 1964. 6:45 am, 11 September 2002 where does the evil of...
Quitter, 12 August 2002
Today is my last day at a web design company I’ve worked for since August 1999. In the span of three years, I have: survived 13 rounds of lay-offs; moved...
Dream Analysis, 26 July 2002
A friend recently asked me to describe some of my dreams in an email for him to analyze. For the sake of full-disclosure (wait there buddy boy, what full-disclosure? No...
Superdork, 18 July 2002
Dork Gets Shirt. ...
Pétanque, 15 July 2002
A few pictures taken at the Bastille Day festival in Boreum Hill where we arrived ten minutes too late to play pétanque (they wouldn’t bend the rules for us, even...
Kubb, 12 July 2002
I am not very athletic. I’m currently learning how to play basketball, a sport my fiancée and her entire family are very good at. (They favor college basketball, Tarheels particularly,...
I Am a Pompous Twit, 27 June 2002
I met Paul Ford for drinks a week ago. We sat in the backyard at Iona, an Irish pub in Brooklyn, where they have a ping-pong table set up under...
The Things She Made, 13 February 2002
Only caught two episodes of PBS’s Art:21, but luckily saw the interview with Maya Lin, a name that in my ignorance meant nothing until the show explained she had designed...
File under Weird, 12 February 2002
Subway riders refuse to be surprised; hobos, dwarfs, musicians go unnoticed. Everyone’s seen the hip-hop tumbling team before and aren’t impressed by the little kid’s back-flip. I have been yelled...
Reaping What We Sowed, 10 February 2002
In today’s Sunday Times: ‘Singles Head to [Williamsburg] for Romance’ by Julia Chaplin (all italics added) For decades Brooklynites have put on their slinky best and commuted to Manhattan to...
Catholic Writers and Me, 30 January 2002
I do not know which to prefer,The beauty of inflectionsOr the beauty of innuendoes,The blackbird whistlingOr just after.That is from ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,’ by Wallace Stevens....
Fudge!, 28 January 2002
I’ve been recently re-reading David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day, a book that my friend Dmitri gave me in Italy two years ago and had me laughing out loud...
The Wily French, 24 January 2002
A giant Ferris wheel is being taken down in Paris’s Place de la Concorde after the mayor said it had overstayed its welcome. ‘When I heard it was coming down,...
Anecdote, 22 January 2002
I was supposed to have lunch with a friend of my father’s at the Yale Club on Friday; I say supposed because I was turned away – by the coat-check...
Method Dogs, 15 January 2002
start blabber: I watched Dog Day Afternoon last night for the first time and have to say I was very impressed; it falls within the late-70s camp of New York...
Mixed, 18 December 2001
A very interesting guide to writing systems, Omniglot; my favorites, for now, are Lontara and Makasar, Gujarti, and Ol’ Reliable Mayan. There is also the numbers 1 to 10 in...
On Moving, 11 December 2001
He wore sunglasses, a black puffy jacket, brown pants, and a pair of deck shoes. He was smoking, something with a brown filter – ruling out Parliaments – and his...
Mortimer Gaffington’s at it Again, 10 December 2001
‘Man charged in $2m theft of rare books from Yale’ The 21-year-old from Hamden, Conn., was in court last month on charges he stole $2 million worth of rare books...
You Know I Believe and How, 1 December 2001
There were three crowds today at Strawberry Fields, Central Park: one around the dial that was built for Lennon’s memorial, another around a group of four guitar players, and a...
In Health, Then Sickness, 30 November 2001
We had a large party for Andrew’s engagement last night and let me tell you, he was surprised. He and M. came up the stairs at BQE and stood shell-shocked...
Continuing Celebrity Coverage, 1 November 2001
Now, I may be shooting myself in the proverbial foot with this post, but let’s see. CNN has a five-question interview with Jeff Bridges today, in which he answers questions...
Language, 29 October 2001
I just emailed Josh the following definitions of strange words and realized that they’re funny enough for everyone to enjoy; this is from a Harper’s excerpt two years ago of...
Notes on New York, 24 October 2001
Two notes: A brief history of Don DeLillo’s career, largely culled from the few, previous interviews he’s given, applied to recent events. Long before the World Trade Center attacks, DeLillo...
What the Onion Might Say, 23 October 2001
Editors Vow to Find Synonym for ‘Pound’ NEW YORK, USA (The Morning News) – Editors from top news agencies met Tuesday in order to find alternatives for the popular word...
Worthy for the Headline, 22 October 2001
‘Twins fashion fighting felines’ by Beth Long Ruth and Rebecca Brown have 4,386 cats. The identical twins from the Maple Glen section of Upper Dublin Township have fashioned thousands of...
France, 22 October 2001
‘France’s Downfall: The most comprehensive account of the most sordid period in French history’ by Eugen Weber In May of 1940, when the Germans attacked, the French didn’t know what...
New Yorker Reading/Benefit, 11 October 2001
We had good seats tonight, seven rows from the stage at Town Hall, two seats on the orchestra’s Eastern aisle. Before it started we waited in a crowd on 43rd...
Jubilee Grows in Brooklyn, 22 September 2001
There has been a band marching around Williamsburg this afternoon, eight or ten members strong, like a New Orleans funeral march. The music is jazz-like, samba-ish, led by a group...
What I’ve Learned, 15 September 2001
Sadly, not much. I spent yesterday afternoon, as seen by my link progress below, reading as much as I could (and there were many things I read that I didn’t...
Notes of Revision, 13 September 2001
In all the different things I wrote yesterday (and the day before), I remembered this note I’d meant to post: I’d just heard about the second plane crash when a...
Manhattan, 13 September 2001
I can’t tell you how sad it is to walk up from Union Square, see the whole length of 14th Street locked off from traffic, the same cloud of smoke...
Sunday is for the Books, 9 September 2001
Summer hasn’t left Brooklyn yet and as my neighbors are playing a repetitive, pounding, techno/rap strain that has made its way through my bedroom wall, I’ve sequestered myself in the...
Fan, 6 September 2001
Jeff from Stones Throw is one of our greatest fans; here’s the email he sent last night to feedback@starbucks.com. Dear Starbucks, Since making themorningnews.org the first web site that i...
Overheard Conversation, 4 September 2001
While waiting for friends to pay for their orders in a deli, I overheard the following delivery order, as read by the cashier: One Corona One pack of Parliament cigarettes...
Fact Checking, 31 August 2001
Our proofing team at Horizon Companies has noticed an error in our ways: in a previous note about the movies Shrek and Gone in 60 Seconds, we incorrectly attributed the...
Popular Entertainment, 29 August 2001
A game: which of the following lines are from Shrek, a children’s movie about ogres and princesses, and which are from Gone in 60 Seconds, an adult movie about cars...
Conspicuous Expulsion, 29 August 2001
As I was walking back from the deli, I saw a cab pull over on Park Avenue for a businessman with his hand out. The businessman got into the backseat...
The Man behind the Father behind Jimmy Corrigan, 28 August 2001
A good article with Chris Ware that is strangely titled ‘A Conversation with Charles Baxter.’ Well, I believe that there’s no substitute for actually looking at a human figure for...
Graves in Paris Turned, Rolled, 2 August 2001
Overheard conversation on Bedford Avenue: Dude 1: You, like, had an existential crisis when I left and now that I’m back, you’re having another one. Dude 2: Yeah…true....
Overheard Conversation, 23 July 2001
Scene: Register line at a deli. Characters: D (dude), chugging out of a large Sapporo can. GF (girlfriend), waiting for D to finish drinking. D: This place sucks. GF: Let’s...
When Diction Matters, 12 June 2001
Overheard conversation while waiting for Jim at Old Town Bar and Grill. part one First Man: I can’t find any. Second Man: Are you using a yahoo? First Man: Yeah....
