Ben Katchor
Picture-story writer Ben Katchor on the process of writing a surreal libretto, working from the couch, supervising ballerinas, and how to get lost in New York.
Rosecrans Baldwin
The Corrections
To the people who came to last night’s Third Thursday, a few corrections for things I may have said while toasting, and, at the time, been wrong about. I am not Danish, nor am I from good Danish stock, ‘the old country,’ or an heir to the Danish throne,
Peter Hertzmann
The serially obssessive Peter Hertzmann behind ‘à la carte’ discusses learning French just to read ancient cookbooks, doing his stages across the Atlantic, and a few other signs of an extremely focused mind.
Third Thursdays
Update: All Third Thursday parties are held at 7 p.m. at Hi-Fi at, suggested to us by Khoi. Hi-Fi features New York’s only MP3 jukebox, 2-for-1 drink specials until 8 p.m., and a pool table. Click here for directions (Avenue A between 10th
Boris Fishman
Wild East editor Boris Fishman on the current state of literature in Eastern Europe, traits of the Russian soul, and the literary cash-currency in hookers, guns, and drugs.
Rosie’s Man Robert
It’s a big happy pleasure to welcome Robert Birnbaum to The Morning News as our newest Contributing Writer. We’ve been reading his great long interviews on Identitytheory.com for some time, and we’re now lucky enough to say he’ll be sharing some of them with us,
Our Girl Schlegel
We are decent copy editors at best, and on most occasions terrible. (I think that sentence fails a number of rules.) Late-night editing and early-morning formatting are no excuses for mistakes, but it’s often been the readers’ eyes who catch our undotted i’s or uncrossed t’
Short Note on Trombones
Today’s story is a great conversation between our frequent contributor Robert Birnbaum and writer Julie Orringer. Robert’s shared a number of his interviews with us so far, and there’s plenty planned for the future, including a conversation with Charles Baxter coming soonish that I want to excerpt
Seat 11, Row 9
Poor fan seat 11, row 9. The story’s everwhere by now: a Cubs fan sitting by the left-field wall reached out for a foul pop-up, deflected the outfielder, denied the Cubs an out. This led to a mighty sweep by the Marlins and then Chicago lost the
Pride, Rage, and Sandwiches
Recently overheard: On the L train, 3pm, near Union Square, train packed with high-school girls going home after school, in blue and white uniforms: Girl 1: See white girl laughing at them? Girl 2: Yuh. Girl 1: That white bitch thinks her ass is funny. We’re funny. Black