Minnesotans are a humorous people and we are attempting to elect a comedian to the U.S. Senate, which is delicate work, as you might guess. You shouldn't sweep a comedian into office on a wave of public adulation any more than you should let him win ...

7 Jan 2009

I touched on Perfumes: the Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez in today's G2 arts diary . What a wonderful book (I've just opened it and, in a synaesthesic overture, it's offering me Amouage Gold, a spray-sample of which I left between its leaves ...

7 Jan 2009

TRINIDAD — A tube failure sent steam hissing from a line and created quite a stir at the Luminant plant Tuesday night. What initially sounded ominous — reports of a possible explosion at the plant — turned out to be much ado about nothing ...

6 Jan 2009

Henry David Thoreau said, "It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being." There are two cats and a dog in our household. They are the true rulers of the house. Masky, the older of the two cats, has been ...

6 Jan 2009

When I interviewed the director Sir Peter Hall recently, he mentioned that when he was preparing the British premiere of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1955, Peter Brook suggested that he consider Francis Bacon as set designer. Although Bacon had ...

6 Jan 2009

Mayor Nutter stood at the center of a hot and cramped room at the Kingsessing Recreation Center three weeks ago, repeatedly interrupted by hissing, booing and foot-stomping as he pleaded his case. "This is the last thing I want to be doing," Nutter ...

5 Jan 2009