Grover's Mill, New Jersey is lovely at this time of year. The long tree-fringed pond still glows with the late blaze of fall foliage. Down at the mill itself, you'd think you could buy a pumpkin; but it's now a mower-repair shop - perhaps a more appropriate business for a...

You know who Kevin Federline is, don't you? Why, for heaven's sake? In what way has hearing about K-Fed's "career" and family troubles made any of our lives more interesting or fulfilling? What about Heidi Montag? Or Jon Gosselin? Khloe Kardashian... anyone?

Our age isn't unique in promoting people who...

On October 14, 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs ... again. There have been one or two conflicts in human history that lasted longer -- though we'd better win this before 2012, or we'll find ourselves alone in a league with the Hundred Years' War.

So, how have...

Four sculpted kings bear his tomb in the cathedral at Seville. Pompous marble proclaims his titles: Admiral of the Ocean, Governor of the New World. The man who, today in 1492, spotted the faint green sliver of the Bahamas on the horizon now rests in a style appropriate to his...

October 9, 1919: Friday afternoon, bottom of the ninth, ninety years ago. One out, two on, Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to the plate. The Reds lead the White Sox 10-5, but there's still hope: the real damage was only done by the first five Cincinnati batters, all those innings ago....

This week in 1964, the Warren Commission made public its report into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It did so with many misgivings. Some members worried that issuing any judgment would merely reopen speculation about a deeply painful moment in American history; others feared that by announcing a...

Where do you do your best work? Possibly not here looking at the screen, nor in the ergonomic workplace so thoughtfully provided by your employer. I know a lawyer who solves cases while asleep; Mozart composed most fluently at the billiard table; Thomas Wolfe wrote his novels atop a refrigerator....

"In order to get our message before the public with some chance of making a lasting impression, we've had to kill people." This is not the usual way to break into the pages of the New York Times, but then this writer was exceptional: the terrorist called "Unabomber" by the...

On this day exactly two thousand years ago, on a narrowing track between impassable bog and high hills, the cultural destiny of Europe was changed forever. At the end of a long running battle in the sodden wilderness, the remains of three Roman legions came up against well-prepared defensive earthworks:...

"The whole world is watching," they chanted; "the whole world is watching!" Perhaps not the whole world - but America was, reclining post-prandially in front of the TV, and what it saw was ugly: Chicago police, robotic in baby-blue helmets and gas masks, yanking kids out of the crowd and...

"Honey, I'm bored. There's nothing to do tonight." "I know! Why don't we try some un-American activities?" What actually is un-American activity? I've had someone accuse me of it for disparaging pro wrestling, but I'm not sure that qualifies. If we were being strictly constructionist about this, we might say...