By Oct 18,2011

Called to the Wild

Wolf: The Lives of Jack London James L. Haley, Basic Books, $17.99.   Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote facing a wall. He found his window to the cold meadows and deep forests...

By Apr 14,2009

The Fashion Weapon

Lisa Ann does not approve of Sarah Palin’s sex appeal. Asked about the Alaska governor’s looks in March, she told the New Haven Advocate: “It’s a distraction from politics. I...

By Mar 20,2009

Jon Stewart’s Selective Ire

You could hardly be human, American, and a consumer of television media in the loosest sense and have missed last week’s duel between the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and Mad...

By Mar 06,2009

Are You Watching “Watchmen”?

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of “Watchmen” is slavishly committed to the details of Alan Moore’s original comic book. From its opening sequence to its final moments, Mr. Snyder loyally renders the...

By Feb 27,2009

The Black Presidents Before Obama

Barack Obama was not the first African-American elected to the presidency. By my count, he was the seventh. It was just that he was the first nonfiction one. While pundits...