Saturday, November 8

With co-op prices plungingnot!—perhaps it’s time to discover Staten Island! The Little G.O.P. Borough That Could stages its first Staten Island Pizza Tour, a weekly event perhaps hoping to appeal to Grimaldi’s tourists, who are surely tiring of long lines and lack of a ferry. This charming island tour includes stops at Staten Island eateries Read More

Cuomo and Newt at Cooper Union: Gunfire and Orchestras

He’s still got it, Mario Cuomo. Remember him?

Remember The Speech? The one he called “A Tale of Two Cities.” The one he gave at the doomed 1984 Democratic convention in San Francisco, in the midst of the Reagan revolution and the rebirth of the religion of wealth.

You don’t have to depend on nostalgia—you Read More

Why the N.F.L. Sucks: Tight-Ass Prigs Ban Football Dance of Joy

It’s a struggle between American Puritanism and American flamboyance.

I’m talking about the argument over N.F.L. touchdown dances and other outcroppings of fun in this sport that takes itself so seriously.

As the Super Bowl approaches, the sports prudes are at it again. Consider the deep distress with which an otherwise intelligent local sports Read More

In New ‘Quality TV,’ Dark Is New Light: CSI-ing of America

Did you realize that, according to the BBC, CSI: Miami—the one starring David Caruso—is the world’s most popular TV series? It features on more Top 10 ratings lists in more countries than any other show. This seems to me a phenomenon worth investigating. Especially since I’ve recently fallen under the spell of the show through Read More

Isaac Bashevis Singer Comes Back From Dead as the Anti-Theist

There’s a fascinating new war going on in the culture between self-proclaimed “scientific atheists” and theists. Militant atheists who believe that God is a “delusion,” as Richard Dawkins would have it, and believers who adhere to the idea of a just and loving deity.

The atheists are on the offensive, one might say, with Daniel Read More

The Iranian 'Scholars': Times Bends Backwards for Holocaust Deniers

Holocaust denial is a particularly insidious evil. It was almost painful to read The Times’ earnest struggle to report on the Iranian Holocaust-deniers’ conference in anticipation of its opening on Dec. 11. It will be fascinating to see how the rest of the media reports on this conference of “scholars” whose distinguished keynote speaker is Read More

Kramer vs. Kramer: Five Theories on Michael Richards

Explaining Kramer: being an intensive exegesis of the media theories of Michael Richards’ racist outburst.

I know. You haven’t read enough about the subject, but reaction has been all over the map, and perhaps there’s a value in examining the contours of the map. Beginning with …

Theory No. 1 (my sentimental favorite): Blame Seinfeld, Read More