Books and Ideas

Credenzas of Fragmentation: Lobo Antunes’s Decadent Despair Credenzas of Fragmentation: Lobo Antunes’s Decadent Despair

In António Lobo Antunes's new novel, a lost boy despairs of finding a real family in the wasteland of his past.

Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer

Wanted: Political Poetry Wanted: Political Poetry

Are you worried about the election? Do you write haiku? People for the American Way and The Nation invite your entries the McPalin Haiku Hysteria competition.

Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Erica Landau

Someone Watching Sarah Palin’s Campaign Tactics Imagines How She Might Challenge a Referee’s Call in a Sixth-Grade Hockey Game Someone Watching Sarah Palin’s Campaign Tactics Imagines How She Might Challenge a Referee’s Call in a Sixth-Grade Hockey Game

Push back on the pushy hockey mom.

Oct 8, 2008 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Saturday Night Live’s VP Debate: With Tina Fey, Queen Latifah Saturday Night Live’s VP Debate: With Tina Fey, Queen Latifah

In an uproarious recreation of the 2008 VP showdown, Fey introduces a flute for the 'talent portion of the debate.'

Oct 5, 2008 / Video / Saturday Night Live

Homer Simpson vs. Electronic Voting Homer Simpson vs. Electronic Voting

The Simpsons character encounters a corrupted electronic voting machine: 'This doesn't happen in America! Maybe in Ohio, but not in America!'

Oct 2, 2008 / Video / YouTube

On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok

The song of a political visionary--with apologies to Alan Jay Lerner.

Oct 1, 2008 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Paul Newman Paul Newman

He was funny, he was thoughtful, he was committed and, in the end, he was a friend, period.

Oct 1, 2008 / Editorial / Victor Navasky

Looking Backward Looking Backward

As America's second Gilded Age fissions around us, we can sense the zeitgeist shift. Are we staring into the abyss of 1929 or heading for a new New Deal?

Oct 1, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Steve Fraser

From Gorbachev to Putin From Gorbachev to Putin

Five authors provide differing views of the post-glasnost era and of the failed promise of democratic reform in Russia.

Oct 1, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Robert V. Daniels

No Exit: Laurence Tribe and ‘The Invisible Constitution’ No Exit: Laurence Tribe and ‘The Invisible Constitution’

Laurence Tribe's new book asks us to consider the "invisible" web of ideas that have grown around the text of the Constitution. But who's to say what it contains?

Oct 1, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Lazare

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