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After 1,200 Meals, 'Check, Please'
by William Grimes, New York Times
New York diners have never had it so good.

Sex, Silliness In The Year Of Publishing Shamelessly
by Peter Carlson, Washington Post
A very weird year in magazines.

Thoughts On The Killing Of A Young Correspondent
by Jay Rosen
I said earlier: He was a Dutch journalist, and young man of conscience, killed on assignment in East Timor on September 21st, 1999. That is one way of telling his story. I have given you four more: Sander as world citizen, Sander as dweller in the university tradition, Sander and the scruple of post-colonialism, Sander as soldier in journalism's conflict with the media. Others will tell their own tales today, different from mine, and that is all we can do.

Library Books Play Second Fiddle To Videos, CDs
by Michael Booth, Denver Post
As budget-squeezed public libraries rush to buy DVDs for an insatiable public, branches must act more like multimedia centers and less like temples of the printed page.

Oh, R-o-ob, The Bad Words Won't Go Away
by John T. McWhorter, Washington Post
Just like clothing, our language reflects who we are, and we are a people who can only deem most profanity "evil" if we are ready to be seen 50 years from now as being as laughable as the producers of "Gilligan's Island" who required Mary Ann to keep her navel covered.

Japan's Empire Of Cool
by Anthony Faiola, Washington Post
Even as this country of 127 million has lost its status as a global economic superpower and the national confidence has been sapped by a 13-year economic slump, Japan is reinventing itself — this time as the coolest nation on Earth.

Between Iraq And A Hard Place
by Dave Barry, Washington Post
Approximately 2003 reasons to be grateful it's almost December 31.

It's A Long New Year's Eve That Starts At Thanksgiving
by Alex Kuczynski, New York Times
If alcohol has a season, it is now: the eye of the storm between Christmas and New Year's, when New Yorkers have waded through four marathon weeks of holiday cocktail parties.

Experimental Lit
by Laura Miller, New York Times
Few literary scholars appreciate the fact that they labor in a field that lacks ''empirically valid hypotheses,'' or perhaps they prefer it that way.

How To Hold Up A Subway Tunnel: Get A Big Hanger
by Michael Luo, New York Times
The resulting four-year nightmare of jackhammers, blocked stairwells and rerouted exits will finally end next month, and commuters will get their station back. But most will have missed the feat of engineering that unfolded all around them every day.

High-Tech Quirkiness Restores Radio's Magic
by Stephen Holden, New York Times
Music beamed by satellite has resurrected the thrill of musical discovery that has all but vanished on what is called terrestrial radio.

Survivors All, This Family Makes Its Own Holiday Spirit
by Lily Koppel, New York Times
It was a peaceful day. A happy one. It was also a respite from much harder days — days in which the family, rather than coming together, felt as if it was coming apart.

The Ritual Of Breakfast, Without The Stress
by Nigella Lawson, New York Times
Considering how truly great breakfast can be, it is a shame that people rarely eat it properly.

Has The Mainstream Run Dry?
by James Poniewozik, Time
In 2003 TV's ratings went on the blink. Music buyers went missing. Pop-culture audiences divided young from old, red state from blue state. What does mass culture without the masses look like?

The Tyranny Of The Standing Ovation
by Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Go to nearly any Broadway house, any night, and you can catch a crowd jumping up for the curtain call like politicians at a State of the Union address.

The Curse Of Designing With Microsoft Word
by Andy Lester, O'Reilly Network
Word actively dumbs down the design sensibilities of those who use it.

Nothing New Under The Tree
by David Bianculli, New York Daily News
When it comes to Christmas TV specials, they sure don't make them like they used to. And most of the time, for various reasons, they're not even trying.

When In Doubt...
by Blake Gopnik, Washington Post
... Just say 'Merry Christmas'.

Sanctuary In The Past
by John Balzar, Los Angeles Times
The old soap about Americans not caring a whit for their history doesn't account for one thing. It doesn't account for the great many who do. It doesn't account for those untold thousands of people who go marching backward every chance they get. These legions of Americans aren't just mindful of their past, they read history books as the script to bring yesteryear back to life.

Plan B For 'Plan 9'
by Jim Burger, Washington Post
For one obsessed fan, seeing the worst movie of all time over and over just wasn't enough.

Pulling Strings To Get Volins Back Into Children's Lives
by Bernard Holland, New York Times
The University of South Carolina, now a model for the rest of the country, is doing work here that may at best keep the violin a mainstream instrument and at worst provide it a permanent niche. It will not be allowed to become an antique.

Smaller AirPorts Are Growing In Stature
by Barry Estabrook, New York Times
Many passengers are happy to drive a bit to save money or avoid long lines.

This Buyer Of Fiction Has Real Clout
by Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal
Meet the woman who decides what Barnes & Noble stocks.

Look! Up In The Air! It's A Plane! The Joy Of Flight
by Joel Achenbach, Washington Post
A hundred years after the Wright brothers, everyone has to change planes in Atlanta.

McLanguage Meets The Dictionary
by Dennis Baron, Chronicle Of Higher Education
Dictionaries don't tell us how to use our words, they describe how we use them.

For Some, It's A Very Moo Shu Christmas
by Alex Witchel, New York Times
Welcome to the conundrum that is Christmas New York style: while most restaurants close for the holiday, or in a few cases, stay open and serve a prix fixe meal laden with froufrou, thousands of diners, most of them Jewish, are faced with a dilemma.

The Kitchen Faucet Is A Vegetable's Best Friend
by Marian Burros, New York Times
It has become clear that fruits and vegetables have been responsible for about as many reported cases of food poisoning as beef, chicken, fish and eggs combined.

Children With Time On Their Hands Have Vanished... Let Us Mourn
by Mimi Swartz, Los Angeles Times
FAO Schwarz and its customers knew, once, the difference between doing and being, understood that children needed time alone, in peace, to imagine their futures, even if it was just to scan the pages of a catalog. Those children are gone now, so there is no need for a company that catered to them. That's a reason to mourn, if ever there was one.

When Books Kill
by Aidan Doyle, Salon
Movies and video games get blamed for acts of senseless violence all the time. But some famous murderers got their ideas from literature.

Traffic Flow Is Crucial Part Of Debate At Trade Center
by David W. Dunlap, New York Times
Planners have been given, through unparalleled disaster, the rare opportunity to correct what is now regarded as a major mistake made in the 1960's: the truncation of Dey, Cortlandt, Fulton, Greenwich and Washington Streets to create the site of the twin towers and 7 World Trade Center.

Saving The Family Farm
by B.J. Roche, Boston Globe
"Innovation" might not be the word that comes to mind when you travel the back roads of New England. And "marketing expert" might not be the term you'd apply to the guy cutting hay. But agriculture is changing, and farms are having to change with it. Witness these four examples of farmers breaking with tradition to survive.

Spare Us The Dreary Science Behind Art
by Kate Taylor, Globe And Mail
It ultimately doesn't matter much what event caused Munch to paint The Scream.

DreamWorks Still Looking For A Hit In '03
by Laura M. Holson, New York Times
DreamWorks operates in a netherworld of being too big to be considered merely a production company yet too small to be a major studio.

The Thrill Is Gone
by Michael Walker, Los Angeles Times
Airline travel isn't what it used to be — and it's not just because of 9-11. Forced into action, the industry is attempting to redefine the flying experience.

Acquiring Minds
by April Witt, Washington Post
Consumerism was the triumphant winner of the ideological wars of the 20th century, beating out both religion and politics as the path millions of Americans follow to find purpose, meaning, order and transcendent exaltation in their lives.

Food For Thought
by Julia Reed, New York Times
The newest ideas in cooking aren't so different from the oldest.

The Powering Up Of The Power Lunch
by David Carr, New York Times
The right lunch at the right place at the right time is a statement, a way to get the jungle drums chanting.

In San Francisco, Good Things Come On Small Plates
by Bryan Miller, New York Times
San Francisco is joining in the East Coast trend towards small portions of food.

Wine's Secret Club
by Corie Brown, Los Angeles Times
L.A.'s wine storage scene — yes, it's a scene — has exploded. And the locker rooms are for more than just cellaring. (Have you heard about the fabulous $13 Shiraz?)

Away At College, But Not Quite Away From Home
by Lisa Kalis, New York Times
So long, dorm room. These days, a growing number of parents around the country are buying property for their college-age children to live in.

Religious Upsurge Brings Culture Clash To College Campuses
by Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor
Religion on campus is thriving these days, but it doesn't always find an easy home in the intellectual, secular world of higher education.

Out Of The Shadows
by Jen Banbury, Salon
Armed only with ancient film, scraps of paper, broken buildings and an irrepressible passion to create, Baghdad's artists are emerging from the long darkness of Saddam.

All That Noise For Nothing
by Aaron Friedman, New York Times
Every day, car alarms harass thousands of New Yorkers — rousing sleepers, disturbing readers, interrupting conversations and contributing to quality-of-life concerns that propel many weary residents to abandon the city for the suburbs. So there must be a compelling reason for us to endure all this aggravation, right? Amazingly, no.

In The Capital Of The Car, Nature Stakes A Claim
by Kate Stohr, New YorkTimes
After decades of blight, large swathes of Detroit are being reclaimed by nature. Roughly a third of this 139-square-mile city consists of weed-choked lots and dilapidated buildings. Satellite images show an urban core giving way to an urban prairie.

The Halo Squard
by David Montgomery, Washington Post
Guardian angels patrol the rough streets, unpaid but appreciated.

Turning Heads With PowerPoint
by Xeni Jardin, Wired News
David Byrne, who climbed to fame with the Talking Heads, lately has been wrapping his brain around PowerPoint, cranking out art.

Higher And Higher
by Adam Gopnik, New Yorker
The tall building is the symbol of all that we hope for — height, reach, power, and a revolving restaurant with a long wine list — and all that we cower beneath. It is a symbol of oomph and of waste, the lighthouse of commerce and the outhouse of capitalism, the tallest candle on the biggest cake, and the cash-economy prison made up of countless anonymous cells.

Final Days In The Life At Jennicam
by Mike Musgrove, Wsahington Post
After seven years, it looks like former Washington resident Jennifer Ringley is finally turning off the webcams.

Hints Of Wine? Chocolate Enters The Tasting Room
by Julia Moskin, New York Times
In the beginning, there was wine. And there were wine tastings and wine snobs and wine-of-the-month clubs. Then olive oil, vinegar, cheese, coffee and butter followed into the American culinary consciousness. Now the appreciation of fine chocolate seems poised to become the next gastronomic parlor game.

Vegans Vs. Atkins
by Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon
Animal-rights activists claim that low-carb, meat-heavy diets are killing people. Are they raising legitimate health concerns — or are they just rabid anti-carnivores?

Boob Tube
by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Washington Monthly
MTV used to be about ambition. Now it's about hot tubs.

The L.A. Advice Guy
by E. D. Maytum, Los Angeles Times
The frenzied search for replacements for Dear Abby and Ann Landers had at its core a strange double standard.

Greens And Doctors Are Against Them, And Now It Seems They Cause Arthritis Too. Can Anything Save Chopsticks?
by Hector Mackenzie, Sunday Herald
The Year of the Goat has not been kind to chopsticks.

The Writing On The Wall
by Tracy Mayor, Boston Globe
Though handwriting's days may be numbered, traditional cursive is still taught exactingly in New England classrooms.

When Political Art Mattered
by Jesse Green, New York Times
Only once in the 20th century did plays and posters and other creative works really change the consciousness and the policies of the country: the 80's, in response to the AIDS epidemic. How? And why?

How 'The Nutcracker' Became An Institution
by Nicholas Fox Weber, New York Times
That the origins of this performance were part czarist, part Orthodox Church, part German fairy tale reconfigured by a French novelist, speaks also of the wonderful way that culture, like sports, bursts the boundaries of nationalism.

It's Not The Hat That Makes The Cowboy
by Aaron Latham, New York Times
With the closing of the frontier, the decline of western movies every Saturday afternoon at the Bijou and the evaporation of afternoon westerns on television, being a cowboy more and more comes down to wardrobe.

Fast Food Flap
by Candy Sagon, Washington Post
His detractors call him a pimp, a sell-out and a hypocrite. He, in turn, accuses them of being elitist, unrealistic prigs. Who would have suspected that a chicken sandwich could generate all this heat?

Copywrong
by Fiona Morgan, Independent Weekly
Copyright laws are stifling art, but the public domain can save us.

Why Do People Read Newspapers?
by Carl Sessions Stepp, American Journalism Review
A massive research effort by the NAA- and ASNE-backed Readership Institute endeavored to find out. Now newspapers are heeding some of the findings in an effort to reverse the persistent circulation slide.

For A Good TIme, Well, Don't Call Dad
by Mary Duenwald, New York Times
Sir Walter Scott's dark heroes, rebellious and promiscuous, and his proper heroes, law-abiding and monogamous, reflect the two types of men scientists recognize by the kinds of relationships they have with women: cads and dads.

Disney Devotee Designed, Lives In Facsimile Of Haunted Mansion
by Brian Feagans, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Something frightful happens every time Mark Hurt turns on the cold water in his downstairs bathroom.