Saturday, June 30, 2001
World
A White House Wake-Up Call
With Bush's poll numbers sliding, some GOP insiders fret that his low-key style is not playing with the public.
Life
A Legend Who Defied Time, Type
In a half-century career, Jack Lemmon was the perfect light comedian, the perfect tragic hero.
IM What IM
As our sagging Internet company invented euphemisms for failure, Alice and I took refuge in instant messaging. She had a boyfriend but we couldn't stop.
Friday, June 29, 2001
Life
Fat's Not On Your Hips, It's In Your Mind
Obesity is on the increase, but scientists may have found a way to trick the brain mechanism that tells your body to store fat.
A Modern Erection
The views from Paris' phallic monument are breathtaking, but the girls in their summer dresses make them even more so.
Banned And It Feels Good
Movie critics and entertainment reporters get blackballed by Hollywood studios and high-powered publicists all the time.
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Tech & Science
What's Next: Glasses So Smart They Know What You're Looking At
The glasses would change their refractive power to let users focus on nearby objects like the page of a book or faraway ones like a sign on a highway.
Life
Dueling Dictionaries
When the 1,728-page Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary appears in bookstores next month, "it will start the Third World War of Dictionaries," says its top American editor, Anne Soukhanov.
Speaking Loudly, Carrying A Small Stick
John Mauceri has been conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for 10 years. Now he just wants a little respect.
The Book-of-the-Month Club Tries To Be More Of-the-Moment
The era of blockbuster authors, ubiquitous book superstores and online retailers has not been kind to the book club.
The Serious Price Of Popularity
Sell too many copies of your books and the critics will turn their backs on you. So what's a writer to do?
Wednesday, June 27, 2001
World
Turning California On
It turns out, in other words, that Mr. Cheney — who prides himself on his tough-mindedness — was naively out of touch with reality.
Tech & Science
Want To See Some Really Sick Art?
Viewers can witness someone else's system crashing and files being corrupted, in real time, as if it were a creepy performance.
Life
The Magic — And Surprisingly Tasty — Kingdom
A family man's gotta do what a family man's gotta do. Here's how to eat well while you are doing it.
Jingle In July
Summer's here and the time is right for cutting Christmas records.
How To Be A Broker To The Stars
Azoulay began with a rhetorical question: "Are celebrities different?"
Wanted: Real People; No Experience Required
The entertainment industry faces a potential crisis, albeit one that appears largely of its own making and excess. It is rapidly running out of real people.
In Praise Of Online Journalism
We helped bust Slate's hoax.
Eating Well: Natural Food Is Big, And Sometimes Even Natural
How much is about branding, and how much about delivering what the consumer expects from the name?
Expressions
My Noiseless Entourage
Charles Simic teaches American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire. He has received numerous literary awards for his poems and translations, including the Mac Arthur Fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize. Jackstraws, his new book, was published in 1999.
EOF
Scientists Start Accounting For Taste
Psychiatric consultant Dr Raj Persaud of Maudsley Hospital in London believes his studies of dementia patients show a link between taste and "hard-nosed intellectual function" - in other words, appreciation of classical music may require more brain power.
Tuesday, June 26, 2001
World
Cellular Thinking
No issue now under discussion offers a better opportunity for profound philosophical debate than the question of whether drivers should be barred from using hand-held cell phones. I kid you not. This issue has everything.
Tech & Science
Designed For Other Worlds, Robot Is To Follow The Sun
Next month, a robot will traverse a cold, rocky wasteland in the far North driven by its own determination to bask in the sun.
Life
Sun, Sea And Sex
As the summer holidays approach, get ready to shed your clothes - and your inhibitions. For when the temperature rises, so does the libido.
What's Wrong With This Picture? Wedding Phtographers Are Either Running The Show Or Running Amok
[One] reason, I think, is the odd, modern craving to document our lives rather than experience them.
Two — Make That Three — Cheers For The Chian Bookstores
Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Books-A-Million have enormously enriched the nation's cultural life.
EOF
See No Evil, Or The Blind Hearing The Naked
A blind man was caught listening to child porn. Can he be prosecuted?
Monday, June 25, 2001
Life
The Red-State Network: How Fox News Conquered Bush Country — And Toppled CNN
FNC goes for the jugular, without a doubt. But working within the glossy (sometimes blood-spattered) packaging, Fox producers insist that the dignity of their news is uncorroded.
High-concept Haute Couture
Luxury retailers are doing their best to turn their stores into theme parks, messy apartments or the Museum of Modern Art. But will anyone buy the clothes?
Schindler's List
The movie is a rare case of a man doing the opposite of what he seems to be doing, and a director letting the audience figure it out itself.
What Do Wo/men Want?
Long gone are the days when women were relegated to niche marketing and men ruled the roost. Now TV and magazines are rushing to cater to male insecurity, while women won't stand for being force-fed celebs and fashion. For media companies, getting the formula right is the Holy Grail.