- "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." - Dr. Samuel Johnson
Monthly Archives: December 2014
Martha Gellhorn’s Excellent 1947 American Adventure
Martha Gellhorn was much more than just another ex-wife of Ernest Hemingway. She was a superb war correspondent, an accomplished novelist, and a perceptive analyst of post-World War II America. (See Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center for further … Continue reading
Daniel Berehulak Wins NYT ‘Year in Pictures’ Bakeoff
As you splendid readers might – or more likely might not – have noticed, the hardlooking staff has annually chronicled the leading lights in the New York Times Year in Pictures review. (Previous winners: the redoubtable BU alum Tyler Hicks … Continue reading
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Tagged Daniel Berehulak, Ebola, New York Times, Sergey Ponomarev, The Year in Pictures, Tyler Hicks
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Raymond Chandler’s Not-So-Simple Art of Murder
As you splendid readers might – or more likely might not – remember, the hardworking staff waxed nostalgic the other day about the great hardboiled writer Raymond Chandler and his trademark essay, The Simple Art of Murder. We subsequently re-read Chandler’s … Continue reading
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Tagged Ballantine Books, Blackmailers Don't Shoot, but down these mean streets, George Orwell, Howard Hawks, John Huston, Owen Taylor, Politics and the English Language, Raymond Chandler, Red Wind, The Big Sleep, The Simple Art of Murder, The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words, Trent's Last Case
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The World’s Oldest Living Altar Boy (Peggy Noonan Edition)
As the hardworking staff has previously noted, back in the 1960s we were the world’s oldest living altar boy at the Church of St. Thomas More in Manhattan. And as we also noted, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York intends to … Continue reading
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Tagged Bishop Furlong, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Carnegie Hill, Cathaholic, Christopher E. Baldwin, Fordham Prep, Jackie's Agnes, Kim Kardashian of the Upper East Side, New York Times, Peggy Noodnik, Peggy Noonan, Rev. Kevin Madigan, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, St. Catherine Siena, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. John Nepomucene, St. John the Martyr, St. Thomas More, St. Vincent Ferrer, Wall Street Journal
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Christmas Present: Chandler’s ‘The Simple Art of Murder’
Splendid reader Bill sent this response to our recent Grammer Is My Business post about the new book The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words. Chandler’s essay “the Simple Art of Murder” is the best essay on any … Continue reading
Five Restaurant Chains That Won’t Be Advertising in the NYT Anytime Soon
Yesterday’s New York Times featured this article from The Upshot on page 3: Call the roll of the departed advertisers: Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Potbelly, Chipotle, Shake Shack, Sonic. If any of them run an ad in the Times in … Continue reading
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Tagged Chipotle, Lipitor, New York Times, Potbelly, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Shake Shack, Sonic, The Upshot
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Whistler Past the Graveyard: America’s Most Artistic Artist
Ever since reading the novel I, James McNeill Whistler by Lawrence Williams in 1972, the hardworking staff has been a fanboy of James Abbott MacNeill Whistler, the 19th century American expatriate artist who embodied “art for art’s (and my) sake.” (Just for the … Continue reading
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Tagged Andy Warhol, Ann Landi, artficionado, ARTnews, Charge of the Light Brigade, Charles Freer, Darren Waterston, Filthy Lucre, Frederick Leyland, Freer/Sackler, I James McNeill Whistler: A Novel, James McNeill Whistler, James McNeill Whistler: The Case for Beauty, John Ruskin, Lawrence Williams, MASS MoCA, PBS, Peacock Room, The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, Thomas Jeckyll, Uncertain Beauty, Winslow Homer
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Ave Atque Vale, NYT Advertising Column(ist)
It’s the end of an era at the New York Times: The Grey Lady is apparently tearing the sheets with its eight-decades-long advertising column. From the New York Post: Times set to drop popular advertising column Word is circulating that … Continue reading
‘The World’s Oldest Living Altar Boy’ II (St. Thomas More – or Less – Edition)
As chronicled here not long ago, I was the world’s oldest living altar boy back in the ’60s, thanks to a deal my Mom (aka Jackie’s Agnes) cut with Bishop Furlong at the Church of St. Thomas More in Manhattan. In … Continue reading
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Tagged Bishop Furlong, Cathaholic, Christopher E. Baldwin, Fordham Prep, Jackie's Agnes, New York Times, Rev. Kevin Madigan, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, St. Catherine Siena, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. John Nepomucene, St. John the Martyr, St. Thomas More, St. Vincent Ferrer
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