The French government last week reported that anti-Semitic acts rose sharply last year, confirming a trend that has been noticeable at least since the early 1990s. You still hear the old Yiddish proverb, men ist azoy wie Gott in Frankreichor,…
The French scholar Patrice Gueniffey, a specialist in the French Revolution and the leading contemporary authority on the Napoleonic era, refers to Walter Bagehot on the two essential requirements of any regime, dignity and efficiency. Without an aura of dignity,…
Naomi Osaka held her nerve, shook the frustration of blowing match points, and beat Petra Kvitova in three sets to win the Australian Open. Both played hard-hitting baseline tennis that stretched their physical and mental stamina. It was exhausting —…
In the thick of a demonstration in Paris protesting the unfairness of it all, a French professional boxer assaulted a cop and sent him to the hospital and thence on a fortnight’s sick leave. Demonstrations by men and women wearing…
As Americans ponder the lessons of the year gone by, worry about why their clothes don’t fit, weigh the virtues of fresh water vs. rye whiskey, and compare the benefits of tiddlywinks and free-style swimming, it dawns upon large swathes…
Roger Federer holds his first serve against Milos Raonic, who held his own first game rather more handily. It is the second set of the Stuttgart Open final, the surface is grass. The top player of the century is back…
Rafael Nadal won his eleventh French Open on Sunday, and Simona Halep her first. As both champions were seeded No. 1 in their draws, it was an orderly way to mark the 50th edition of the storied Internationaux de France held since…
You see where the line is between a good tennis player and an Immortal in the first round match between former No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rogerio Dutra-Silva on the Philippe-Chatrier Stade at Paris’s Roland Garros the other day. The…
AP story on Philip Roth’s passing on the internet: standard newswire, fine as such, touches the bases quickly, even if it goes way over the conventional 21-word-max lede. He was “prize-winning,” “fearless”; his novels looked at “sex death assimilation fate”…