Heaven Can Wait
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, advice for a lovelorn atheist who wants to know if a Christian could love him back.
Paul Ford
The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
When it comes to in-vitro fertilization, nothing is normal. Your world is upside-down. Your doctor compliments your wife on her monkeys. Then, when every dollar and exertion has gone toward a single hour of hope, it begins to snow.
The Beaver Post-Production
No one knows what will happen to The Beaver, Jodie Foster's new film starring Mel Gibson, where Gibson plays a suicidal man whose life is changed by a hand puppet.
Just Like Heaven
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we answer that eternal question: What happens after we die?
Six-Word Reviews of 1,302 SXSW Mp3s
In anticipation of the South by Southwest music festival, which begins today in Austin, Texas, more than a thousand acts--almost twice as many as last year--offered an mp3 to showcase their sound. We listened to them all.
Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s
The South by Southwest music festival begins in Austin, Texas, today. Of the hundreds of acts hoping to break big, 763 have offered an mp3 of their still-unknown sound. We listen to them all, all the way through.
How to Say I Love You
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we pull out all the stops to help a reader say "I love you," in precisely 100 different ways.
Lawyering
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we address a question thousands of young men and women grapple with each year: To law school or not to law school?
The Grass Is Blue, by Dolly Parton
I just discovered Dolly Parton's 1999 album The Grass Is Blue, a collection of sincere bluegrass interpretations of country classics. Sneering poseurs might shake their heads at Dolly, but they can listen to the boring new Death Cab while I listen to Dolly break my heart over and
Preview of What Is It?
I have now watched the Quicktime preview to Crispin Glover's self-made, low-budget movie What Is It? at least a dozen times. Crispin is dressed like a chorus member from a high school musical version of Lord of the Rings, there are more naked women in masks than you&
No Business
No Business, Negativland's 25-year audiocollage project, soldiers on. Sure, it's familiar now--they're cutting up the music industry's words and putting them back together, going after file-sharing hypocrisy this time--but no one is capable of more subversion on a single CD. They'
I Am Gary Benchley
In which the saga is revealed that bred Gary Benchley; inspired a circus of half-loving, half-betrayed fans; landed a book deal; and even--truly--forced a trip to the hospital after Benchley almost gave his author a heart attack.
Alphasmart Neo
What makes the Alphasmart Neo interesting is what it doesn't do. It's a word processor--a full-sized keyboard with a six-line LCD screen--and that's all. For writers like me who can't stand writing longhand but fall prey to the seductions of the computer
Forty Signs of Rain
Kim Stanley Robinson writes good, didactic, socially conscious hard science fiction. He's best known for his Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt, which imagined what would have happened if Europe hadn't come out of the plague. Forty Signs of Rain, just out in
Accidental Cairns, Mount Savage
Natural disasters have a senseless mode of destruction--earthquakes and floods don't care about what they wreck. But what if nature seems to be deliberately trying to erase your history?
A Tour of the George W. Bush Presidential Library
His father is known as a cheerful correspondent, while his predecessor just released a thousand-page memoir. How will Dub-Dub be remembered when his papers are collected?
Take the Downtown Train
If more men know what’s under the hood of a car than the hood of a clitoris, surely a revolution is needed. Enthusiast Paul Ford interviews Ian Kerner, sex therapist and author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pleasuring a Woman.
The Passion of the Christ: Blooper Reel
No film set exists without its share of gags and accidents, even the filming of Mel Gibson's crucifixion epic. A transcript of scenes that may never make it onto the DVD edition.
Diamonds Aren't Forever
New York City's Q Diamond train was retired from service this weekend, and a merry group of mourners held a party for its last ride.
An Interview With the Dolphin
Many were surprised when the U.S. Navy announced it was using dolphins for mine-sweeping in the war with Iraq. Even more were stunned when one of the dolphins went AWOL. Submerged reporter PAUL FORD gets the interview.
75,000,000 Toddlers Can't Be Wrong
Steve Burns, the former host of Nickleodeon's kids show Blue's Clues, has embarked on a new career path: musician.
Cool 2B Real
The initiative: The cattle industry wants to promote beef to teenage girls online. The result: "Cool 2B Real." Our reporter sneaks into the boardroom and tells us how it really happened.
An Extremely Incomplete Taxonomy of Cinematic New Yorks
New York has faced the apocalypse many times. Unfortunately, it's usually Bruce Willis who saves us. A report on the many versions of the five boroughs produced in film, and why Nora Ephron lives alone.
Obsessions: Looking It Up
Continuing our series on personal obsessions, Paul Ford tells us about his passion for reference works, the more obscure the subject matter the better.
The Opposite of Sex and the City
There is a city that belongs to Sarah Jessica Parker. Rather than let it slowly creep into your head, it's sometimes nicer to imagine HBO's hit series as a Beckett play.
Where Are They Now?
Remember Jack and Diane? Well, they're not doing so hot these days. Tracking down the stars of yesterday's songs to get the update.
A Wrench the Size of Delaware
Toleration is necessary for living in an apartment building, even if your neighbor isn't of sound mind and humor. How a neighbor's problems can swiftly become your own.
News of a Ratproofing
New Yorkers, like everyone else, are constantly under attack by illness, anxiety, bad air, and cell phones—but only one is haunted by a giant rat. Tales of transformation, staple gun included.
Heart of Greenness
New Yorkers, as a rule, fear rats. You see them in the rivers, in your bedroom, sometimes drinking coffee on the subway. A boat ride on the Gowanus.
Visitors in Brooklyn
Your apartment's never smaller than when guests arrive. New Yorkers find solutions (couches, floors, friendly neighbors) but until we all snag that classic six, our entertaining's best left to public spaces.
Catalogue of Bicycle Rides
Every kid wants a bike. We remember our first and anticipate the next. For those that never learned how to ride, may their God be merciful and blind. Our writer has ridden many bikes and still keeps one in Brooklyn. A history of cycling in one man’s life.
Beyond Black Dogs and Mice
A survey of creatures which foreshadow depression, and their literary origins. Our writer gives the lowdown on the beasts that portend misery.