In these tough times, many media types are lamenting the death of the magazine industry, so let me be honest as a writer for some of our treasured manuals to the finer things. Yes, it's getting difficult to find places in The Budget for the products and experiences that Luxury...

Here's what I think when a life-form (other than my wife) tells me it's newly jobless: So What? That's right, I'm indifferent (and obviously comfortable with hypocritical double-standards). But I'm not indifferent because I lack concern for Humanity, nor because I'm unafraid of the Recession. I'm indifferent because I've been...

I have always hated singing. I was introduced to it as the son of two concert pianists, trained at Juilliard and winners of international competitions, one of whom eventually became a voice and choir teacher (along with international baccalaureate music theory/history and other subjects). But growing up in my so-called...

A couple of weeks ago, an article in the LA Times about young immigrant liver-transplant survivors who hit 21 and lose state health coverage which often causes a lapse in their post-transplant care without chances for re-transplantation, should have caused more of a (political) stir than it did. Not...

"Written-by-a-real-doctor" articles and books about the medical profession are today's literary and journalistic gold. Perhaps spurred along by the incisive and thoughtful work published in recent years by The New Yorker's Jerome Groopman and Atul Gawande, an increasing number of articulate M.D.'s are clamoring for a chance to show off...

"So, are you on strike?"

"Nope."

"But you're a writer?

"Not that kind of writer. Not right now."

"Then what do you write?"

"Articles, columns, essays. You know, for newspapers and magazines. I'm also working on a book."

In a recent New York Times piece, Paul Krugman, one of my favorite columnists, explains how the numbers can't deny that Hillary's health plan is better than Obama's. But what "better" means here is relative even when stats and dollars are an issue. The idea is that Hillary's plan...

Though I've somehow ended up as a professional writer, I never enjoyed Scrabble as a kid. I found it too wonky, or maybe I just had too small an attention span--when I had free time from music or words, I preferred to let my mind, well, rest. Figuring out the...

Today the AP reports the ACLU is arguing that all those adventuresome spirits who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy. Public Bathrooms! And this is the ACLU fighting on behalf of Sen. Larry Craig. Call me crazy--or just a politician: But it's not like this...