If you had a fifty-fifty chance of carrying a mutant gene that causes a fatal brain disease, would you want to know? Read More
The Greatest Year: 1978
We all tend to think of the golden age as the twenty years or so just after the Second World War, when New York really was both the cultural capital of the world and a great middle-class town. Read More
2002–2003: Into Afghanistan …
The severed head was a little over the top, President Gore had to admit to himself, as he stood on the back lawn of the Greenbrier, waiting for the presidential helicopter to touch down in its usual green blizzard. Read More
It Ain’t So, Joe
It wasn’t A-Rod’s fault; it wasn’t Cashman’s. It was Torre’s. Insider’s view of What Went Wrong in the Bronx,” read the headline of last week’s Michiko Kakutani Times review of The Yankee Years, the book written by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci with Joe Torre’s cooperation and input. In her piece, the paper’s chief book critic refers to “the team’s depressing slide” since their 2000 title and asks why “the Yankees’ fortunes began to spiral downward.” Depressing slide? Downward spiral? Since 2000, the Yankees have won six division championships and made seven playoff appearances while building themselves a gaudy new stadium. They are the fifth most Read More
The House That Ruth Didn’t Build
The Yankees are pretending that, with a final, unimportant game this Sunday, they’re leaving the house that Ruth built: the majestic stadium that opened back when Harding was president. Wrong. Read More