He Was Some Einstein—and Funny, Too!
Albert Einstein made a fortune in physics, according to Al Czervik, but Bob Einstein, a.k.a. Super Dave Osborne, mined comedic gold. He was a great […]
A New Year of Resolution Versus Defiance
Congressional Democrats have but one resolution: to undo the president. Do not bemoan their cause, because they intend to keep their word—their newest members never […]
Cuba Libre
The greatest story ever told—about the greatest story ever told—is not “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” as the New Testament has nothing to do with […]
A Lilliputian Revolt
Images abound of American servicemen celebrating Christmas. From shirtless soldiers in the South Pacific, whose first summer is a December day below the equator, to […]
The Rise of the ‘Welfare Capitalist’
Facebook spends more money to protect Mark Zuckerberg than it does to safeguard your personal data. Do the math, or have Google do it for […]
Home for the Holidays
They come home more indoctrinated than informed, more addicted than adjusted, more estranged than educated. They come home the way they left it: able to […]
The Puritanical President
When Thucydides writes his History of the Cola Wars, when he finishes his account of the Eastern Front in which a billion reds, alongside an […]
End Times for Time Magazine
From Men of the Year to Person of the Year. From the men who slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the heart of […]
Final Thoughts About the Finality and Burial of an Ex-President
Soldiers carried the flag-draped coffin through the nave. They carried it beneath the individual flags of the Republic, between the image of the nation’s Founding […]
A Date That Lives in Infamy
He spoke after the dawn’s early light, after he had received proof through the night. He spoke to a nation in mourning. He spoke with […]
Tom Friedman’s Garage Sale
I have seen the future, and it is a chain-smoking chimpanzee typist: a chest-beating, keyboard-banging columnist for The New York Times who does on paper […]
Every Page Is Extra: The Interminable Nature of John Kerry
The initials JFK are shorthand for tailors and typesetters alike. The letters adorn barrel cuffs and shirt pockets, where the stitching is surgical in its […]
Not His Finest Hour: George Bush and the End of the Cold War
Picture Victory in Europe Day not as an hour of triumph but as a moment of tribulation in which, instead of thanking Englishmen for their […]
Remembering Ricky Jay
He was two names in one. Not Rick, Richard, or Ricardo. Neither Ricky nor Jay, but Ricky Jay. Rick—ee. J—ay. Ricky Jay. He was fluent […]
‘House of Cards’ Collapses
The wooden, zebra-striped arm—the mechanical limb attached to a squat torso—where cars stop and drivers lower their windows and strain to accept a paper wafer […]
A Chosen—and Thankful—People
A portrait of chosenness, of a chosen people, whose status was not a sign of superiority but a symbol of suffering: of barren fields and […]
November 22, 1963
It was not the last word he said, but it was the final word he may have heard. It began in the morning and ended […]
‘As You Wish’: Remembering William Goldman
William Goldman was the 10th dentist, the outlier among the nine out of 10 dentists who recommend Crest. Untrained and unlicensed, he did more to […]
Eyewitness to Hell: The Woolsey Fire
The demonic-shaped face of a cyclone, with two fireballs for eyes—the earthly equivalent of solar flares, with long filaments of plasma—whose pursed lips are like […]
A Tribute to Stan Lee
Picture the scene transition—the spin, the blur, and the fade-away—as we segue from footage of the Hitler Youth to a fleet of newspaper delivery trucks […]