Monthly Archives: March 2006

Off to points west. Don’t expect any new posts until early April.

My eyebrows went up when I saw this report from the Minnesota Daily: Atheists are America’s least trusted group, according to a national survey conducted by University sociology researchers. Based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000 households and … Continue reading →

Frank Rich, of course, was the famous "Butcher of Broadway", who could close a show with a single review. But his successor, Ben Brantley, has his moments as well. Remember The Capeman, the $11 million flop from Paul Simon? Brantley … Continue reading →

As I was walking down 13th Street last night, I looked up, as I usually do, to see if there were any horrendously ugly sculptures on view. For 218 E 13th Street was for a very long time the studio … Continue reading →

Nick Lemann has 4,685 words on Bill O’Reilly in this week’s New Yorker. At no point is the article presented as a profile, but that’s how it reads. Until you reach the end and you realise that although Lemann has … Continue reading →

Le Miu. Went there last night. Just check out the menu here. We spent rather more than we’d intended. But it would have been worth it if we’d spent twice as much. Quite possibly the best sushi I’ve ever had … Continue reading →

Amy Lawday sends me a rather weird on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand report-slash-editorial about Brutalism on the BBC’s website. The story comes in the wake of the first listing of a Brutalist building: the 1958 Old Vic Annexe, by Lyons Israel Ellis. Writes Amy: … Continue reading →

In my first Report Report Report (please nominate articles for subsequent ones!) I went into some detail about the views of Austan Goolsbee and David Reiley on the subject of incentive pay for bus drivers. Both of them agree that … Continue reading →

Report Report Report 1: Buses Many thanks to Gari N Corp for recommending this Slate article as the first recipient of my Report Report Report, wherein I compare academic reports with the journalism which reports on them. At first, I … Continue reading →

Summit Communications, a company which makes money by taking the prestige of the New York Times and selling it to corrupt third-world governments, has outdone itself today with a "Special Advertising Section" on Sudan in the New York Times, featuring … Continue reading →

David Carr ♥ Graydon Carter. Carter has just poached Cullen Murphy and William Langewiesche from the Atlantic; they’re only the latest in a long list of big-name journalists at Vanity Fair, from Christopher Hitchens to Todd Purdum. Gushes Carr: Beneath … Continue reading →

Eric Asimov doesn’t like the wine list at Cafe du Soleil: It’s not that the wine list is too small. It offers several dozen bottles – mostly French but some Italian, American and Spanish, too – befitting the size of … Continue reading →

I was a bit disquieted to walk down my street this evening and see this poster taped to the wall. The poster (click for full version) gives the name and alias of a man who may or may not be … Continue reading →

The NYT’s Timothy O’Brien has a long article today – which immediately hit the top of the Most E-Mailed List – headlined "Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top of Big Law Firms?" O’Brien gives a comprehensive overview of … Continue reading →

Which classic suite of skyscrapers is this a picture of? Work at it: if you look in the background of the photo you’ll see a big hint. If you really can’t get it, the answer is here. What fascinates me … Continue reading →

I’d like to start a new feature on felixsalmon.com, called the Report Report Report. The Report Report Report is for anybody who has ever read a news article whose subject is a "new report" (or survey, or study, or similar). … Continue reading →

Pages 69 to 80 of this weekend’s New York Times Magazine comprise a 12-page advertorial from Rwanda. The web address given should you want even more information is www.rwandatourism.com – yes, Rwanda Tourism. Somehow I doubt that the amount of … Continue reading →

So you know that trip to Patagonia? The one I’ve been super-excited about for ages? The one which begins this coming Wednesday? Well, it’s off. I’m not leaving the country, because I’m married to a US citizen. If I wasn’t … Continue reading →

Apparently the show I’m listening to on the radio right now isn’t a repeat or a re-run, it’s an "encore presentation". Offender: National Public Radio, or at least WNYC.

As I was posting the last entry, I noticed my use of the phrase "ultimately, however" in the final paragraph. It’s a nasty, pompous phrase, but – worse – it also felt uncomfortably familiar. So I did a quick search … Continue reading →

The NYT is going all-out on what seems to be little more than a storm in a teacup about whether or not Costco sold a couple of fake Picasso drawings. The first article was published on Thursday and corrected on … Continue reading →

For no particular reason except to remind myself what I thought: Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes: Don’t believe the hype. Starts off well, but has far too much padding. No one cares about whether, why or how Arthur Conan … Continue reading →

The 50 least expensive cities in America are all in the south. The 50 most expensives cities are overwhelmingly in the north, plus California and a couple of places like Miami (which is still just 56% as expensive as New … Continue reading →

Both Joseph Clarke, in the comments to my Gawker Stalker piece, and Andrew Krucoff, today, make the good point that the evil nature of Gawker Stalker can be allayed by celebrities (or anybody else) reporting false sightings. Indeed, false sightings … Continue reading →

Talking of the NYT, the op-ed page strikes back at the news pages today. Remember that dreadful story about wi-fi piggybacking? Well Timothy Lee obviously saw it, had much the same reaction as I had, and managed to get his … Continue reading →