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Books: “American Egyptologist” by Jeffrey Abt, review.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Born in Illinois in 1865, James Henry Breasted turned an early interest in the ministry and a talent for languages into a remarkable career as America’s first formally trained Egyptologist. He specialized in the recording of inscriptions and wanted nothing less than “the recopying and republication of . . . (Subscription required.)

Emily Nussbaum: Children’s TV enjoys a renaissance.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

When children’s television comes up in conversation, everyone knows the drill. Begin with the sinister idiom “screen time.” To show you’re no prig, make a warm remark about “Sesame Street.” Name your favorite Muppet. (I suggest Beaker or the Swedish chef.) Then . . . (Subscription required.)

Sasha Frere-Jones: Rick Ross and the life style of a boss.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A central motif in contemporary hip-hop is rapping about drug dealing by artists who may not actually sell narcotics. Among others, Jay-Z, Clipse, and Young Jeezy have rhymed about a past or present involvement in the trade on the street. It’s typically impossible to determine whether . . .

Alex Ross: Philip Glass’s 75th birthday celebrations.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Philip Glass’s place in musical history is secure. His sprawling, churning, monumentally obsessive works of the nineteen-seventies—“Music with Changing Parts,” “Music in Twelve Parts,” “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha”—have fascinated several generations of listeners, demonstrating . . .

Raffi Khatchadourian: Dallas Wiens, face transplant recipient.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

God took Dallas Wiens’s face from him on a clear November morning four years ago. If you ask Wiens, he will say that it was neither an accident nor a punishment; it was simply what had to happen. At the time, he was trying to paint the roof . . . (Subscription required.)

Cartoons from the Issue

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A collection of cartoons from the issue, plus this week's Cartoon Caption Contest.

Michael Chabon: “Citizen Conn.”

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

I first met Mr. Morton Feather in the spring of 1997, just after his discharge from a weeklong stay at Cedars-Sinai, where they were treating him for cancer of the bones. Though he was at the time unknown to me even by reputation, I soon learned that my own . . . (Subscription required.)

Andrew Marantz: Buddy Roemer, Presidential candidate, O.W.S. supporter.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Last Tuesday, while Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney campaigned in Florida, Buddy Roemer walked toward Zuccotti Park. He carried a briefcase and wore a navy suit, a red tie, and loafers. The park had reverted to its pre-Occupy state—construction workers on stone benches eating sandwiches—but . . . (Subscription required.)

Lizzie Widdicombe: Quentin Rowan, a.k.a. Q. R. Markham, plagiarism addict.

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Spy novels embrace clichés—the double agent, the bomb-rigged briefcase—and “Assassin of Secrets,” published last fall, made a virtue of this tendency, piling one trope onto another to create a story that rang with wry knowingness. The book is set in the . . . (Subscription required.)

Goings on About Town: Above and Beyond

Web — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

goatTitle-->WESTMINSTER KENNEL CLUB DOG SHOW Samoyeds, Cavalier King Charles spaniels, golden retrievers, Rhodesian ridgebacks, French bulldogs, dachshunds, and many other breeds come to town for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. (Madison Square Garden, Seventh Ave. at 33rd St. 800-745-3000. For more information, visit westminsterkennelclub.org. Feb. 13-14.)