Tom Alderman

Not to long ago America's airline industry announced self-congratulatory news touting their improved safety records. On behalf of all nervous fliers we'd like to thank you killing fewer of us than you did last year. Now, how about focusing on your primary role: real first-class ease of travel and comfort...

As many know, Ike was an Army general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tail Gunner Joe may not be so familiar unless you're from his hometown of Appleton, Wis., or you're old enough to remember the uber-controversial Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, (R-Wis).

Tail Gunner Joe was what McCarthy supporters called...

It's not that the man needs elevating, certainly not to the millions of Americans in the 1950's who elected Dwight D. Eisenhower to the presidency -- twice. He could have had a third term if his own party hadn't eagerly passed the 22nd amendment limiting the job to only two...

If you have a graduate degree in philosophy plus an additional one in economics, this book might be for you. Everybody else: lots of luck. The late British historian, essayist and university professor, Tony Judt is the source for this material. Timothy Snyder has taken a lengthy conversation with Judt...

Thank goodness the holidays are over. The last song has been sung, the last fight done. We are back to hanging out with people of our own choosing. Holidays bring families together whether we like it or not, and families are tricky things indeed. As a wise psychologist told me,...

Years from now we'll probably look back on today's cell phone technology and marvel how primitive it all was. "Remember dropped calls?" we'll say -- along with "Remember DOS? "Tower Records?"

For the longest time AT&T Wireless spent a lot of ad dollars telling us they had 'more bars...

For reasons beyond comprehension, Marilyn Monroe still engages the public some 50-plus years after her life and sudden, uh, mysterious death at age 36. At last count, Monroe books, calendars, and various doo-dads on Amazon total more than 15,000 listings. You can also find her on stage, including one 'it's-not-my-fault'...

Alfred Hitchcock must be smiling. The birds are here, millions of them, plump little budgies with thick Groucho eyebrows and menacing expressions sling-shooting themselves Kamikaze-style into their, or is it our, very structural foundations. OMG, is this some sort of revealing cultural metaphor? Could be.

We're of course talking about...

"The body is lying in repose." as opposed to lying -- how?

Generational divide: people who hear the William Tell Overture and think The Lone Ranger -- everybody else who does not.

You know you have a personality problem when you see the light at the end of the tunnel...

For book lovers, nothing is quite so disheartening as seeing our local Borders or Barnes & Noble with a "For Lease" sign on the door. It's the indigestible realization that an increasing number of books now require a battery to read.

Not a good time for books, is it?...

If your summer reading or listening includes Ron Chernow's MASSIVE George Washington: A Life, you're going to need some relief, aren't you? With almost 42 hours on audio and a gi-gazmic 904 pages, it's really more a course than a breezy read or listen. So, if breezy works for you,...

A friend recently called a doctor to make an appointment for an epidural shot for his sciatic back pain. He was given a date and told to arrive two and a half hours ahead of the appointed time. When the perplexed friend asked why so long a wait, the answer...

"The last of Hollywood's golden era" is the way so many broadcast and cable obituaries described the legendary Elizabeth Taylor. If they're right we might have some respect for their fact-checking skills. But alas, there are at least five stars from that era who are probably saying to themselves," What...

Japan's capacity to absorb its current natural and made-made assaults is one of those important teaching moments we keep hearing about. Civility and dignity rule instead of rioting and looting. Says a lot about this ancient culture. So it may be a surprise to many Americans under 65 to hear...

If you're in medicine or any of the healing arts, you certainly know the placebo effect. You've may have even used it -- treating an imagined condition with sugar pills, or a dose of Alan Greenspan-speak that the patient can't really follow except the part where you say, "...it will...

You've probably got it. I certainly do. Most of us have one. It is that kitchen drawer, closet, basement, attic or crawl space, where you'll find everything that doesn't fit anywhere else like that years-old ball of string, a plastic stirrer from The Bellagio, a lock with no key or...

CHEERS to Ohio Congressman John Boehner for being able to cry in public when he talks about his hard-scrabble-to-Speaker life story. It's kind of real and brave. When's the last time your TV showed you a major public office holder EVER showing this much emotion - and so often. Okay,...

"Bald is hot," an article in the New York Times recently announced. We bald guys hear this kind of hype all the time, "Bald is cool, bald is beautiful" -- but only from people who are not bald. It's well-meaning and is usually followed up with examples of good looking...

Maybe you've read or heard about the glowing reviews for Emma Donoghue's new boxed-in-a-box novel, Room. The NYT reviewer called it 'remarkable,' The Guardian, 'a gem', and The Washington Post's critic swooned, "one of the most affecting and subtly profound novels of the year.' All of which is quite right...

Lincoln seems to be a popular detective. We're talking about detective fiction, of course, with Jeffery Deaver's successful Lincoln Rhyme and Michael Koryta's Lincoln Perry series. When St. Martin's Press published Koryta's first Lincoln Perry mystery in 2005, the writer was only 21 years old and the book pulled in...