- Lizzie Widdicombe: Ancient Philosophers and Greek debt.
The other night, with the Greek political system in a deadlock and the euro in jeopardy, members of the Hellenic Council of America, a group that promotes the culture of ancient Greece, hosted a lecture at the Stathakion Center, in Astoria. The speakers were M. A. Soupios and Panos Mourdoukoutas . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: How top chefs fly with their knives.
Here’s a travel story that will send you back: Some years ago, Eric Ripert, the executive chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, was returning to New York from Washington, D.C., where he’d cooked for a charity event. He put his carry-on bag through the . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Mitt Romney’s psychic reading.
Mitt Romney’s victories in Wisconsin, Maryland, and D.C. last week lent the primaries a new statistical fervor. Pundits who’d been talking about mood and narrative switched to hard numbers—delegates, probabilities. Useful, but it was enough to make the mind crave a more metaphysical reading . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Mark Singer: Honorary degrees for Tony Kushner and Frank Rich.
Though not quite a contact sport, commencement exercises can arouse free-floating anxieties and conjure improbable perils. An hour before the New School’s ceremonies got under way, at the Javits Center one afternoon last week, a buffet lunch had been laid out in a makeshift greenroom for the . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Colin Firth on being English.
Alert your mother: Colin Firth was in town last week. The British actor best known for playing variations on the repressed-but-sexy English gentleman, such as the aloof Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s “Pride and Prejudice,” and the uptight, but still eligible, Mark Darcy, foil . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Occupy Wall Street, a culture of its own.
Visiting the site of Occupy Wall Street last week—a month after the protest began, and shortly before Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s threatened and aborted cleanup—was a bit like visiting a civilization at its peak: Paris in the twenties, Rome in the second century, or, at . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: You’ve Got Mail
Moral-reasoning pop quiz: There’s a film coming out—a thinly disguised portrayal of a media mogul—and word is that if it’s released it will hurt the mogul’s reputation. Powerful people intervene: they call a meeting and offer the movie studio . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Scousers
Clive Owen fans fall into a few categories. There are those (largely female) who like Owen for his looks. Then there are others (mostly male) who like his grizzled demeanor as an action hero in movies like “The International” and “Children of Men.” He seems rough . . ....
- Vince Aletti: An Elliott Erwitt retrospective, at the International Center of Photography.
The Elliott Erwitt retrospective that sprawls through the International Center of Photography is called “Personal Best,” so don’t expect a revisionist take on the photographer, who recently won the museum’s Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement. This is the authorized version of a career that . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Forbidden Fruit
The three-week citywide performance-art festival Performa begins next week, opening not with a dinner but with a “food event”: “a series of food installations and happenings,” according to the invitation, “that will lead guests”—Cindy Sherman, Mario Batali—“on . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Roberta’s, in Brooklyn.
paragraph class="noindent">This gourmet pizza place, located amid a desolate-looking stretch of warehouses in Bushwick, is often described as a D.I.Y. enterprise. The label is slightly ambiguous—aren’t a lot of other restaurant entrepreneurs doing it themselves, too? Carlo Mirarchi, the chef at Roberta’ . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Social Register, the original Facebook.
The news, last week, that the Encyclopædia Britannica was discontinuing its book edition seemed to signal a new world order—the decline of print, the surrendering of institutional hierarchies to the democracy of the Internet. But another transformation has occurred in recent months, with less fanfare: the . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Defending the accused after a giant Mob bust.
It’s a common refrain, among the city’s armchair criminologists, that the Mob is dead in New York. So last Thursday’s giant federal Mob bust—a hundred and twenty-seven people, encompassing seven crime families—elicited a special fascination. It seemed almost nostalgic . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Defending the accused after a giant Mob bust.
It’s a common refrain, among the city’s armchair criminologists, that the Mob is dead in New York. So last Thursday’s giant federal Mob bust—a hundred and twenty-seven people, encompassing seven crime families—elicited a special fascination. It seemed almost nostalgic . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: France’s First Lady takes a tour of N.Y.U.
The other day, students in New York University’s visual-arts program received an e-mail advising them to be in their studios the following Monday afternoon. “They said that somebody famous was coming,” Robert Leonardi, a senior, recalled, “and that anything could happen.” A . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Young Professionals United for Change watch the State of the Union.
Four years ago, the Young Professionals United for Change—three thousand black banker and lawyer types under the age of forty—held a formal gala in Washington to celebrate Barack Obama’s Inauguration. By contrast, the group’s State of the Union “watch party,” . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Scott Stringer, Scarlett Johansson, and New York’s mayoral race.
One of the many collateral effects of Anthony Weiner’s political demise—besides immortalizing the direct-messaging function on Twitter—was to blow open the race to succeed Michael Bloomberg as mayor of New York City. Officially, campaigning won’t start for at least another year . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Van Cleef & Arpels diamonds on display.
Paris, France, sometime in the nineteen-fifties. A woman walks into Van Cleef & Arpels and falls in love with a diamond necklace. It’s expensive—say, four hundred thousand francs. “Listen,” she tells the jeweller, “tomorrow I’m going to come with my . . ....
- Donations For Animal Shelters
People who donate money or time to animal shelters are very welcome. Shelters need all the help they can get. There are too many animals that cannot be accommodated by shelters....
- Riverdale Art Center Brings Contemporary Art to the Community
Last November, The Riverdale Art Center (RAC) opened it's Victorian doors on the old Richard's Corner in Riverdale and was run by a group of volunteers who followed the lead of founder, Patricia Watson. This once unused spacious house now serves a much greater purpose bringing fine contemporary art and a grounding sense of community to local residents and neighboring towns alike....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Gwyneth Paltrow, from movie star to domestic goddess.
It’s tough for some people to accept Gwyneth Paltrow’s transformation from movie star to domestic goddess. Something about the combination of her willowy looks, her glam life style (she is married to Chris Martin, the Coldplay front man), and the unlikely food tips in her e . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Bohemian, in NoHo.
paragraph class="noindent">New York does exclusivity well, but Tokyo does it better. There is a Japanese phrase, “Ichigensama okotowari,” that’s used by owners of certain discriminating restaurants and shops, and means, roughly, “We respectfully decline first-time visitors.” In other words: walk-ins . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Bohemian, in NoHo.
paragraph class="noindent">New York does exclusivity well, but Tokyo does it better. There is a Japanese phrase, “Ichigensama okotowari,” that’s used by owners of certain discriminating restaurants and shops, and means, roughly, “We respectfully decline first-time visitors.” In other words: walk-ins . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Matador tailor Justo Algaba and the Metropolitan Opera’s “Carmen.”
Justo Algaba, one of the world’s most respected matador tailors, was in town the other day from Madrid, where he has a two-story shop devoted to the production of matador outfits, called trajes de luce (“suits of light”), because of their shimmery, multicolored adornments. Algaba . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: The taxi-driver’s advocate.
On Houston Street at Avenue A the other day, a woman stuck out her hand to hail a taxi. It was cold and drizzly—hyper-competitive cab-hailing conditions—but she was likely to have better luck than most people. The woman was Bhairavi Desai, the executive director . . . (Subscription required.)...
- What Happens During Sevile Spring Fair?
Every spring, locals and travelers alike gather together to enjoy the colorful and festive spring fair in the city of Seville, located in the Southern part of Spain. This glamorous event takes place every spring after the Holy Week. Generally, the event will last for an entire week....
- Homemade Pet Food is the Best Way to Feed Your Pets
Homemade Pet Food can be a life saver for cats and dogs! Whether it's Homemade Dog Food or Homemade Cat Food you need to learn what ingredients best suit your pet's needs....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Kids get real on MTV’s “Skins.”
Six years ago, in Bristol, England, the television writer Bryan Elsley was brainstorming ideas for a new series—cop show? courtroom drama?—and he approached his nineteen-year-old son, Jamie Brittain, for advice. The response was tough but useful. “He basically told me all my ideas . . ....
