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Tennis v. Shootout, Anyone?
It used to be a cliche in the theater what whenever a playwright wanted to clear the stage so that principle characters could talk alone, an actor in white shorts would rush in waving a racquet and...
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A Thought While Reading ‘The Goldfinch’
I’m not sure The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt deserves the Pulitzer Prize. It’s way too long (771 pages), and the pace mires down way too often. Early promises aren’t fulfilled, the characters are more...
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Something Literary
You’d think a traditional publishing person like me wouldn’t be intrigued by a tiny collection of iPhone snapshots such as this:Not a “real book,” right? It’s smaller than a deck of cards, has fewer...
View ArticleHey Bernie! Listen to Barney
If you’re already in awe of the fact that rogue Senator Bernie Sanders has been drawing as many as 10,000 people to hear his speeches about running for president, here’s an episode from Barney Frank’s...
View ArticleOliver Sacks (1933-2015): A brief remembrance
One time I interviewed Oliver Sacks when he had a bout of knee pain and found it difficult “to negotiate your San Francisco hills,” he said. I think he was staying at the Mark Hopkins or Fairmont and...
View ArticleThe “Bad News = Good News” Rule
One of the things that’s always worried me about American journalism is the “Bad News Is Good News” rule. That is to say that a murder, riot, scandal, war or earthquake is “good” because it boosts...
View ArticleWhere Did that ‘Foreigner’ Go
People who make decisions about media — heads of publishing houses, TV producers, Hollywood studio chiefs— believe that most Americans aren’t interested in anything “foreign.” As a result, for many...
View ArticleAmazon: The Spoof and the Store
Here’s a fictional job interview from a recent novel about Amazo — pardon, a retail book giant on the Internet with the made-up name of Scroll. See if you recognize this novel: “Tell me,...
View ArticleDumbness and Pornography at the New York Times
I used to enjoy the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times, in particular a page called The Ethicist. The writers there grappled with tough, snarly questions about ethics and moral clarity in our...
View ArticleRemaindering “The Art of the Deal” for … $184?
Remember a few weeks ago when Donald Trump announced that he raised $80 million in the month of July alone? And most of it came through “small dollar donations”? I chalked it up as another Trump...
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