How Can Someone Hate Mad Men?
Prestige drama Mad Men is beloved by critics and those who give out awards. Now one critic is railing against the show's first four seasons as "weak" and "haphazard." Could he possibly be right?
How Dumb Is Your Favorite Website?
Google has just introduced a new option that allows you to filter search results by "reading level." Who knows what black magick is behind this, but we thought it would be fun to compare some popular websites.
Tony Judt Is Dead At 62
Author and intellectual Tony Judt died yesterday in New York at 62, after a battle with ALS. His best known book, "Postwar," about Europe after WW2 was called "remarkable" by The New Yorker. Read his final essays, starting here.
The Real Margaret Atwood is a Twitter Addict
The Canadian author set up a Twitter account to promote a book, and now totally loves the OMG's and LMAO's. She quickly gained thousands of "Twitterpals," one of whom said to her, "I love it when old ladies blog."
Sarah Palin Against the 'Experts'
In The New York Review of Books, Jonathan Raban argues that Sarah Palin's popularity is based on her oversimplification of economic principles. (And, also, hating the Jews.)
David Levine —
the New York Review of Books' signature illustrator for the last half century, at an exhibition of his work in 2008, according to the New York Times. Levine died today at age 83. RIP.
The Gays Do Not Want Michael Jackson, Thank You Very Much
The intellectualization of Michael Jackson as icon starts in earnest today with The New Yorker theater critic Hilton Als' queer theory read on his career in The New York Review of Books. The only problem is, Jackson wasn't gay.
Arlen Specter, Drunk on Power
On the day you're the guy who switches parties and potentially gives Democrats a super-majority in the U.S. Senate, there are certain perks. Like making people read your boring New York Review of Books piece.
Getting Your (Random Ass) Media Outlet Into North Korea
It is not easy to get news out of the North Koreans. It took the CIA to basically break the story of Kim Jong-Il's stroke; as an expert pointed out in today's Washington Post: "We don't know diddly about what is going on inside that closed country."* But it turns out Kim Jong-Il likes publicity! "I know I'm an object…
'NYRB' Explains Blogs
The New York Review of Books, highbrow home of Joan Didion letters and occasional epic literary feuds (or "nerd fights") today undertakes it greatest challenge: explaining "blogs" to its million-year-old readers. The author assigned to the task? Journo (and cartoonist!) Sarah Boxer, who has assembled a little print…
New York Review of Books Personals a Hotbed for Eldersex
Have you ever made it all the way through an issue of the New York Review of Books? Of course not! But did you realize that the septuagenarian crowd is getting totally rowdy back there, carefully crafting literate, occasionally randy personals for potential hookups? (Remember, they don't know how to use Craigslist).…
Critic, biographer and novelist Elizabeth Hardwick, co-founder of the New York Review of Books, has died. In a response to a letter from screenwriter and New Yorker columnist Penelope Gilliatt that complained about Hardwick's trashing of Lillian Hellman in 1968, Hardwick wrote: "Perhaps Miss Gilliatt doesn't yet…
Crisis In Academia: Books Are Going Unreviewed!
Last week, the NYT Book Review gave a page to MuggleNet's What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7. Today, as discussed, they reviewed the autobiography of Ron Jeremy. It is a fun little paper, the NYTBR. But the professors over at The New Republic's education blog are not amused. America, they say, is in urgent need of a…
Love, Intellectual Style
Well, what were you expecting from the New York Review's personals?
