Out of the mouth of a babe: a shrewd insight into the media. Monica Lewinsky said she wanted to be an assistant producer in TV, or an assistant account executive in PR, or else do “anything at George magazine.” The…

A prediction: 2007 will not be remembered as the year baseball finally came clean about its steroid problem. It will merely be remembered as the year our schizophrenia about baseball’s steroid problem reached its pinnacle. Former Senate Majority Leader George…

A LOT OF PEOPLE like Howard Stern. In fact, a lot of American radio listeners more or less organize their lives around Howard Stern. And there are probably at least as many who wouldn’t cross the street to spit at…

It has long been thought in Hollywood that you can persuade an American to do just about anything but pay money to watch a subtitled foreign movie. This confidence in Homo americanus‘s xenophobia and illiteracy can now, I think, be…

I was amused to hear of John Kerry citing his shadow running mate John McCain on Wednesday while oh-so-politely discussing President Bush’s plan to pull superfluous American troops out of Cold War installations. As the Washington Post‘s Lois Romano tells…

Things Worth Fighting For: Collected Writings by Michael Kelly (The Penguin Press, 426 pages, $26.95) “One day in 1998,” Michael Kelly wrote in November 2002, “I was invited to have an off-the-record chat with an important staff person on the…

A couple of months ago I reviewed the new book Bobby Fischer Goes to War for the Spectator. The book is about Fischer’s chaotic but ultimately triumphant 1972 world championship match against Soviet titleholder Boris Spassky. Its title, however, might…

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time, by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (Ecco, 342 pages, $24.95) Bobby Fischer might not have been the strongest chessplayer of the 20th century,…

EDMONTON — What does the June 28 Canadian election mean for Americans? I’ll give you one obvious answer: It’s the easiest Canadian election for Americans to understand, from their vantage point, in the last 20 years. Writing about Canadian politics…

In Review: FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression, by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 352 pages, $27.50) FDR’s Folly is, as the title suggests, a prosecution brief against the New Deal. Don’t pick it up…