With the book industry virtually moribund, isn't it odd that teen literature is taking off: these are the kids who are not supposed to even be able to read, except (possibly) from a computer screen. But maybe the familiarity with computers has increased literacy (although, forget about spelling!) For after...

Though I still think he's the greatest politician since sliced bread, I've started to sour on President Obama a bit. Maybe it's this Afghanistan thing -- you know, escalating a war he promised to get us out of. Forgive me for being so squeamish, but I just don't like...

On Feb 5, the management of the NYC's famed Chelsea Hotel evicted a 75-year old man from his apartment. The police were called and he was told to have his belongings out by four that afternoon. This was not a case of non-payment, as the tenant was paid up through...

Writers have been expending a lot of ink lately in trying to figure out who in their right mind would want to move into one of these leaky aquariums developers keep building all over New York City. The short answer, according to Penelope Green in Sunday's Week in Review section...

The breaking news at New York's famed Chelsea Hotel is that managing partner Stanley Bard, and the rest of the Bard family, have been forced out by their board of directors. Starting Monday, an as yet unnamed new management company will take over the day-to-day operations of the hotel.

The...

Louisville's Courier Journal is thinking of suing the NCAA for ejecting their blogger from a University of Louisville-Oklahoma State baseball game. What it comes down to, I suppose, is whether a blog is viewed by the courts as a sort of live telecast akin to TV or Radio, or a...

I knew there was something wrong with those Mini-Coopers. They're just too damned cute for their own good.

Now we learn ("Billboards That Know Your Name," Barnaby Feder, nytimes.com) that when you buy one of these cartoonish golf carts, you are automatically enrolled in a sinister...

With the advent of AZT and the various drug cocktails used to treat the symptoms of HIV, we have become accustomed to thinking of AIDS as a manageable disease, rather like tuberculosis, seemingly well on it's way to eradication. But more ominous parallels between these two great epidemics of...

I've been waiting for some time for somebody to notice that the High Line project in West Chelsea isn't all it's cracked up to be. (For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, the Highline is an elevated park being built on old railroad tracks on the West Side...

At first I laughed when I read of the novelist Michael Crichton's attack on Washington Political reporter Michael Crowley (Felicia R. Lee, "Columnist Accuses Crichton of Literary 'Hit-and-Run'", New York Times, 12/14/06). How utterly bizarre. It seems that in his latest novel, "Next," Crichton has invented a character, "Mick Crowley,"...

Last weekend outside a nightclub in Queens New York, police fired fifty shots into a car occupied by three unarmed men, killing 23-year-old Sean Bell--a groom on his wedding day--and seriously injuring the other two. The operation was ostensibly a part of a crackdown on violence in Chelsea nightclubs; questions...

Since maintaining the status quo in Iraq is plainly untenable, the debate over what course to take seems to be boiling down to two options: pull out slowly in a phased reduction of troops, or increase troop levels and try to stabilize the country. But both these options will have...

With election day upon us, it couldn't hurt to remind ourselves once again of the differences between Democrats and Republicans, both the politicians who go by these names, and the voters who put them into office. While I was home visiting Kentucky lately, I chanced upon two letters-to-the-editor in the--unfortunately...

I know I'm rather late in commenting on the Mark Foley scandal, but it's taken me this long to quit laughing. This is really what they call the chickens coming home to roost, now isn't it? Force of habit compels me to cheer for any revelation that exposes hypocrisy, even...

It's a sad day--or should I say week--in the history of alternative weeklies. But I can't say I didn't see it coming. First, awhile back, the Village Voice fired a good chunk of it's long-time staff; then, more recently, they eliminated the last remaining columns focusing on National politics. Last...

The Pentagon is apparently taking heat for their refusal to bomb a funeral in Afghanistan. So I just wanted to be the first to commend the Army officers involved in the decision for their courage in standing up to the bloodthirsty lunatics in the White House who would bring our...

I tore an article by Ralph Peters out of the New York Post a couple of weeks ago (Moment of Truth: Islamo-fascist terror could trigger a brutal western response, Aug. 20, 2006). I've held onto the scrap for awhile just so I could have time to sufficiently digest it--for believe...

Well, let's see, where are we? First there was 9-11; hard to deny that that was the beginning. This outrage seemed to call for some kind of a response, so we invaded Afghanistan, and put our former buddies the Taliban--who we supported in their war against the Soviet Union--out...

The Gramercy Hotel used to be a place very similar to the Chelsea, down at the heels and full of bohemians and bohemian charm. But then the developer Ian Schrager gutted it and threw the permanent residents out on the street. Now it's an art hotel for the rich and...

It seems obvious that the terrorists want us out of Iraq--in physical, financial and cultural terms--and out of the Middle East in general. The World Trade Center, after all, was one of the most potent symbols imaginable of Western financial world domination. But there's a difference between what the terrorists...