Samuel Johnson

Five of the best in line for the Guardian first book award

An "ambitious, varied and incredibly individual" shortlist for the Guardian first book award is announced today. The five works include a history of 20th-century classical music, a novelistic memoir of a Soviet-era romance and...

Here comes the bride's sister

Anne Hathaway gives a powerful performance in 'Rachel Getting Married' **** Samuel Johnson famously remarked that a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. Director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet,...

Library Ghosts: International

Here with the final post in my series of haunted libraries for Halloween. Although only a few foreign haunted libraries are listed here, I suspect someone with multilingual talents and access to primary print sources could turn...

Oat Straw, to Ease Your Election Fears

Two things can be found taped to the refrigerator door in my house. One is the latest dog-centric New Yorker cartoon. This week, the cartoon depicts two dogs. One is lying on a couch, face up, while the second dog, sitting on a...

Long lines in Florida as early voting surges nationwide (Feature)

Long lines in Florida as early voting surges nationwide (Feature) Talkback Add your comment (no registration required) Obama will prolong the recession he helped create.Oct 29th, 2008 - 22:59:40 Michael Barone has written a...

Millennials are different? Pardon me while I retch

People in their 20s tend to be ambitious, love communicating and are enchanted by new ideas. But this is hardly a new phenomenon, so I don’t buy the notion that the 20-somethings of today are somehow fundamentally different

An Obama Defector

Wendy Button, an Obama speech writer, sees the light:...The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of...

Reading Habits

Literature Books & Culture, September/October 2008 Reading Habits by Timothy Larsen Ah, to have been a reader two centuries ago, in a golden age of English literature. But the thrust of William St. Clair's The Reading Nation in...

Obama's Speechwriter Opens Eyes, Votes McCain

Found on Ravelry, but originally posted at The Daily Beast: So Long, Democrats by Wendy Button October 28, 2008 | 6:55am A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain. Since I started writing...

Think Millennials will Change the Workplace? Ha.

Johna Till Johnson, Network World Are young workers today fundamentally different? It's trendy these days to describe the so-called "millennial" generation -- those born between 1989 and 2000 -- as somehow fundamentally...