September 2006 Archives
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Spoofs & Satire
Employees Must Double-Wash Hands
The recent E. Coli scare sent many bags of spinach into the trashbin. Now that the FDA says the outbreak is over, how will restaurants assure us what they’re serving is safe to eat?
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Watching
Video Digest: September 29, 2006
In my freshman year of college, I was walking past a bar so intentionally dingy its name was Hole in the Wall. A guy stumbled out, grabbed my shoulders, and...
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Op-Ed
Longing for the Sad Bastards
When did our angst-driven movie men get all tangled up in their apron strings? A screen history of damaged males.
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Listening
Mp3 Digest: September 27, 2006
I went to college in central Maine, a small school on a hill overlooking a rusted-over textile town where Richard Russo used to teach (the town’s river and shirt...
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An Online Petition to Save the Redwoods
Part One
In the first of a three-part fiction series, a co-worker exhibits intriguing new qualities, and life at the office gets shaken up.
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Reader Letters
A Response From John Warner
I am writing in regards to your article of July 15, 1977, titled “Gender-Bending Grade-Schooler Attracts Notice,” which reported on my emergence as a leading androgynous figure in the fashion world. I...
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Birnbaum v.
Sean Wilentz
Historian Sean Wilentz talks about social studies versus history, purple prose in founding-father biographies, and how “states rights” started trumping slavery in Jefferson Davis’s memoirs.
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Reading
Book Digest: September 25, 2006
Based on the drumbeat of enthusiastic notices it seems that the book of the moment is critic/scholar Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost. Good news indeed (I will have something...
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My Life in the Times
Gender-Bending Grade-Schooler Attracts Notice
One local boy’s locks sends shockwaves throughout his community, and a clear message to the world of fashion: The younger generation plays by a new set of rules.
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Watching
Video Digest: September 22, 2006
In college, I fancied myself a movie expert because I owned the Godfather box set and could quote Showgirls. I’d been raised on Entertainment Tonight and HBO reruns, and...
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Personal Essays
But I Play One on TV
Saving lives is hard enough—what medical professional has time for significant romantic moments in the supplies closet? A lifetime of TV role models.
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Listening
Prog (Not Prog)
If you lived in Austin right now, you’d have every right to be angry. The reason: last weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, which must be something like...
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Spoofs & Satire
Let’s Catch the Wave of Waterboarding!
In a recent White House press conference, Karen Hughes, undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs, unveiled an exciting new chapter in the war on terror.
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A Walk in the Park
Washington, DC
Official Washington, DC, is tailored for certain groups of people: tourists, politicians, and lobbyists. But setting aside the monuments and museums leaves a series of parks where the city’s history and social conditions are thrown into stark relief.
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Reading
Book Digest: September 18, 2006
President Bush’s press conference of Sept. 15 should be noted as a landmark of sorts, as he continued to use the presidential bully pulpit to elevate public discourse and educate...
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Profiles
Ipswich Rock City
Somewhere between the pub stage and the capacity-filled stadium is Ipswich, home to one of Britain’s most overlooked music scenes. Though why anyone would want to look there in the first place is anybody’s guess.
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My Life in the Times
John Warner’s Datsun B210 Is Underpowered, Ugly
Power, speed, performance: You won’t find them here. Our reviewer is forced to put this once-sporty 1978 model through its paces. Part of a series of reports on the life of our writer.
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Watching
Video Digest: September 15, 2006
As a kid growing up in Texas, I didn’t follow politics or look up to elected officials. I was too busy worshiping Rob Lowe and practicing crotch thrusts for...
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A Walk in the Park
New York City, Part II
A city so nice, we had to cover its parks twice. Outsized attention is a given for places like Central Park. But in a city as big and speckled with green spaces as New York, small, local parks are always a quick walk away right when you need them.
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Letters From the Editor
Fall Intern Desired
Update: The applications window is now closed; thank you to everyone who got in touch. The Morning News needs a fall intern to cuddle and train in the black arts....
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Listening
Observing Expectations
In a college film class, we watched the opening to The Shining first with its soundtrack, second with the audio portion muted, third while a student turned off the television...
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New York, New York
Elephant in the Room
Republicans are hard to come by in New York, so is it any shock the city’s voting machines prefer Democrats? A true tale of election-day partisan mechanics.
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Personal Essays
American Samaritan
In the past five years the U.S. has had no closer partner than the U.K., and though it’s not always a perfect marriage, Yanks and Brits can still come together to solve a problem—even on the steps of the British Library.
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New York, New York
What We Said
Amid the chaos of Sept. 11, 2001, we sought human contact—to speak and to listen. Five years later, we remember what we said.
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Reading
Book Digest: September 11, 2006
Publishers Weekly and The New York Times must have been too busy to note that Dandy Dan Wickett, founder of the Emerging Writers Network and the hardest working man in...
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Gallery
Yesterday’s People
Tim Dirven’s pictures don’t blur the line between art and journalism—they eliminate it. His camera finds intimacy in the well-worn or far-away news story.
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Watching
Video Digest: September 8, 2006
My favorite documentary—one of my favorite movies, actually—is the British Seven Up! series. Started in 1964, the project interviews a group of English schoolchildren every seven years as they...
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A Walk in the Park
New York, Part I
Hundreds of miles of pavement and incredible real-estate prices may suggest that humans have placed an indelible stamp on New York City. But the wilderness is just biding its time.
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Listening
Seeking the Jam of the Summer
Now that Labor Day has come and gone, and summertime is officially over, and you’re regaling your friends with tales of Canadian girlfriends and Mexican boyfriends and getting tiny...
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My Life in the Times
Boy’s Pain Is Orthodontist’s Pleasure
The X-rays and photos show beyond any doubt that one orthodontist’s recently found treasure spells financial tragedy for a local family.
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Reader Letters
Toronto Revisited
Hi Folks, I’ve enjoyed reading your series on city parks and was very excited to see that Toronto had it’s own article. Being a Torontonian, I...
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Letters From the Editor
Mucking Up The Courts
It’s not often we hear about TMN playing a role in law enforcement, especially when it’s in a plagiarism case (since we’ve enjoyed promoting plagiarism in the...
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Profiles
Drumroll Please
A million-plus viewers will tune tonight to watch costumed young people dance with fake weapons and play bugle—and that’s just the fans already in the know. America, you live in a drum corps world, you just don’t know it yet.
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Reading
Book Digest: September 4, 2006
Journalism being what it is—it seems driven by lists and so-called service features and other banalities—there have been occasions when I have been tempted to stoop to such,...
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Watching
Video Digest: September 1, 2006
My new obsession is VideoJug, a compendium of how-to videos on everything from “How to Cook a Chicken Curry in 10 Minutes” to “How to Tie a Bowtie”. Each installment is...
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The Non-Expert
What About Blackberry?
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we test whether therapy is conductable over portable email devices.