It was an August night some time ago at Frances Tavern, a pub at 54 Pearl Street that reopened last night after a few months of closure. Presumably men were drinking, and presumably men were eating. Then, in a flash, an 18-pound cannonball bounded in from above, splintering the roof and eventually resting in a Read More
Manhattan began to diversify its ethnic bases today, if only for a short while. Baby strollers and folks with cameras choked the arteries leading into the park, overlooked by the statue of George Washington at the center of the esplanade. Hundreds of people continued to stream into Union Square from all directions, joining what Read More
Remembering Andrea Bronfman
“I got up this morning and saw the front page of the New York Post—the idea that someone would use the word ‘socialite’ to describe her …. If she was anything, she was the un-socialite,” said Doug Anderson yesterday. Mr. Anderson was a co-founder, with Andrea Bronfman, of the Association of Israel’s Read More
There is never a bad reason to consult George Washington Plunkitt on matters relating to politics here, there, anywhere. The old Tammany sachem understood the attractions of power, and his reflections on how you get it and how you keep it are as relevant today as they were in the glory days of the old Read More
His Excellency: George Washington, by Joseph J. Ellis. Alfred A. Knopf, 352 pages, $26.95.
For someone who specialized in graceful, perfectly choreographed exits, George Washington has a way of returning over and over again. Children may know less and less about the distant past (a recent survey found many believe Gandalf to be the Read More
Reformers are mornin’ glories, said the sage of Tammany Hall, George Washington Plunkitt. They lack the grit and determination of political professionals, and so are forever doomed in their efforts to turn politics and government into dispassionate, rational enterprises undertaken by men and women with only the purest intent and, of course, all the right Read More
