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1222223 | 2000 | 08 | 13 | Making Good Neighbors, Part II |
LAST week, this column focused on the preliminaries for building a fence. When you have the necessary materials, you can begin construction.
The first step is to set the posts in the ground. Begin with the end posts. Fence posts should be set to a depth of at least 32 inches. They can be held in place with either packed dirt or concrete.
| LAST week, this column focused on the preliminaries for building a fence. When you have the necessary materials, you can begin construction. The first step is to set the posts in the ground. Begin with the end posts. Fence posts should be set to a depth of at least 32 inches. They can be held in place with either packed dirt or concrete. You can use a clamshell-type posthole digger if you only have a few holes to dig, but for a long fence you might want to rent a power auger to bore holes. (For more information on the tools and techniques of hole digging, see the Home Clinic, March 26, 2000.) The holes should have flat solid bottoms. Two problems that you may encounter are rocks |
1277597 | 2001 | 03 | 13 | Defense Calls Combs Trial 'Stupid' Case |
In a three-hour closing statement yesterday, a lawyer for the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs derided the government's gun possession and bribery case against his client as ''stupid,'' and said the witnesses who testified against him were perjurers motivated by money.
The charges stem from a 1999 nightclub shooting in which three people were injured. The three victims, two of whom testified that Mr. Combs had a gun in the club, have also filed multimillion-dollar civil suits against the rap performer.
| In a three-hour closing statement yesterday, a lawyer for the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs derided the government's gun possession and bribery case against his client as ''stupid,'' and said the witnesses who testified against him were perjurers motivated by money. The charges stem from a 1999 nightclub shooting in which three people were injured. The three victims, two of whom testified that Mr. Combs had a gun in the club, have also filed multimillion-dollar civil suits against the rap performer. Before a rapt jury in State Supreme Court, the lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, characterized the testimony of the victims as a version of ''Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?'' or ''The old 'Price Is Right' joke, 'Come on down,' '' then asked the jurors, ''Who are these people?'' His |
1685377 | 2005 | 07 | 06 | Johnson Delivers Strong Performance on Short Rest for the Yankees |
There are bad days at the office, and there are days like the one the Yankees inflicted on the Baltimore Orioles yesterday.
Before Randy Johnson allowed a base runner, the Yankees had 10 runs and 11 hits, including three homers. The Orioles had made three errors.
| There are bad days at the office, and there are days like the one the Yankees inflicted on the Baltimore Orioles yesterday. Before Randy Johnson allowed a base runner, the Yankees had 10 runs and 11 hits, including three homers. The Orioles had made three errors. When the Yankees finished their 12-3 rout, they had caught the Orioles in the loss column of the American League East standings. After playing so poorly for much of the first three months, the Yankees are squarely in the pennant race. ''We're lucky to be in the Eastern division, at this point, because of the records of everyone else,'' Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. ''We never really got ourselves out of it. I'm pleased, but we have to take advantage of it.'' |
1342491 | 2001 | 11 | 13 | Persian Canal Discovery Is Testament to Ancient Engineering Skills |
In 480 B.C., King Xerxes of Persia ordered his men to build a canal a mile and a quarter long through a peninsula in northern Greece -- conceivably one of the biggest engineering assignments of its time.
The canal was critical to Xerxes' plan of invading Greece, a goal that his general, Mardonius, had unsuccessfully attempted 12 years earlier. Mardonius' fleet was destroyed in a storm while sailing around the tip of the peninsula, and Xerxes wanted to avoid a similar setback by building the canal.
| In 480 B.C., King Xerxes of Persia ordered his men to build a canal a mile and a quarter long through a peninsula in northern Greece -- conceivably one of the biggest engineering assignments of its time. The canal was critical to Xerxes' plan of invading Greece, a goal that his general, Mardonius, had unsuccessfully attempted 12 years earlier. Mardonius' fleet was destroyed in a storm while sailing around the tip of the peninsula, and Xerxes wanted to avoid a similar setback by building the canal. Xerxes went on to invade Greece, starting a brief period of Persian conquest in Europe. In the 2,500 years since, historians have debated whether the famed Canal of Xerxes was really dug all the way from coast to coast. Some have doubted |
1667219 | 2005 | 04 | 24 | Network Vampires |
To the Editor:
I experienced a complicated mixture of bemusement and disgust while reading Jacques Steinberg's vivid article on those aging TV celebrities who refuse to let go (''The Long Goodbye,'' last Sunday). Bemusement because the stations owned by the networks that employ these geriatric attention addicts would never hire people of their age; local newscasts are populated by the young and attractive. And disgust because, by refusing to go away, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters and company are selfishly preventing fresh blood from flowing through the networks' news schedules.
| To the Editor: I experienced a complicated mixture of bemusement and disgust while reading Jacques Steinberg's vivid article on those aging TV celebrities who refuse to let go (''The Long Goodbye,'' last Sunday). Bemusement because the stations owned by the networks that employ these geriatric attention addicts would never hire people of their age; local newscasts are populated by the young and attractive. And disgust because, by refusing to go away, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters and company are selfishly preventing fresh blood from flowing through the networks' news schedules. It's a different kind of greed that has little to do with money. This is epitomized by ''60 Minutes,'' which I like to call ''The Geezer Hour'' -- a show that has grown old and tired because its producers |
1651463 | 2005 | 02 | 20 | It Goes With Saffron |
There's still time to visit ''The Gates'' in Central Park before it closes next Sunday, but if you're tired and hungry after touring the 23-mile-long installation, here are some restaurants where you can refresh yourself.
ATELIER *** [Rating: Three Stars] (212) 521-6125; 50 Central Park South (near Avenue of the Americas), Ritz-Carlton Hotel; $$$$; Review: 8/20/03.
With a commitment to delivering modern French haute cuisine with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and herbs in a luxurious setting, Atelier has established itself as one of the city's finest French restaurants.
CAFÉ GRAY ** [Rating: Two Stars] (212) 823-6338; Time Warner Center (third floor) at Columbus Circle; $$$; Review: 12/15/04.
Gray Kunz's new restaurant has a glinting, sparkly, vast dining room that faces an open kitchen. The best of the food here is fabulous, and the menu as a whole is a pleasure-packed testament to Mr. Kunz's nimbleness of imagination and execution.
CAFÉ SABARSKY ** [Rating: Two Stars] (212) 288-0665; 1048 Fifth Avenue (86th Street); $$; Review: 4/10/02.
The menu at this Viennese cafe, in the Neue Gallerie museum, has some tried-and-true Austro-Hungarian staples, like goulash and bratwurst, but they are a warm-up to the desserts. The house specialty is a Klimt torte, neatly stacked layers of hazelnut cake alternating with firm bittersweet chocolate.
DUMONET AT THE CARLYLE ** [Rating: Two Stars] (212) 744-1600; Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street (Madison Avenue); $$$$; Review: 7/23/03.
If you're looking for luxury, here it is. Jean-Louis Dumonet, the chef, has devised a menu that plays to his strengths and engages his passions with a shrewd blend of classic haute-cuisine dishes and equally classic bistro dishes.
METSOVO (212) 873-2300; 65 West 70th Street (Central Park West); $$; $25 and Under: 2/16/00.
Instead of seafood and other dishes that form the usual Greek menu, Metsovo, named after a town in northwestern Greece, specializes in hearty stews, roasts and savory pies from the hills that form a spine through the region.
PICHOLINE *** [Rating: Three Stars] (212) 724-8585; 35 West 64th Street (Central Park West); $$$$; Review: 3/15/96, Article: 12/31/03.
Picholine, named after a Mediterranean olive, focuses on the food of southern France, Italy, Greece and Morocco. The wonderful cheese cart is worth considering if only to hear the lovingly detailed descriptions.
SAN DOMENICO ** [Rating: Two Stars] (212) 265-5959; 240 Central Park South (Broadway); $$$$; Review: 8/6/03.
With its high visibility, high prices and general air of luxury, San Domenico has served as a flagship for serious Italian cuisine since it opened in 1988. The kitchen continues to perform marvels.
| There's still time to visit ''The Gates'' in Central Park before it closes next Sunday, but if you're tired and hungry after touring the 23-mile-long installation, here are some restaurants where you can refresh yourself. ATELIER *** [Rating: Three Stars] (212) 521-6125; 50 Central Park South (near Avenue of the Americas), Ritz-Carlton Hotel; $$$$; Review: 8/20/03. With a commitment to delivering modern French haute cuisine with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and herbs in a luxurious setting, Atelier has established itself as one of the city's finest French restaurants. CAFÉ GRAY ** [Rating: Two Stars] (212) 823-6338; Time Warner Center (third floor) at Columbus Circle; $$$; Review: 12/15/04. Gray Kunz's new restaurant has a glinting, sparkly, vast dining room that faces an open kitchen. The best of the |
1646757 | 2005 | 02 | 02 | Israel Revokes Decision on East Jerusalem Land |
Israel's attorney general on Tuesday ordered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government not to carry out a policy decision permitting the seizure of East Jerusalem property owned by Palestinians living in the West Bank.
The attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, called the government's policy legally indefensible and also cited political considerations in his ruling. ''This decision cannot stand,'' Mr. Mazuz said in a lengthy statement. He cited ''many legal difficulties,'' including ''Israel's obligations according to the rules of customary international law.''
| Israel's attorney general on Tuesday ordered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government not to carry out a policy decision permitting the seizure of East Jerusalem property owned by Palestinians living in the West Bank. The attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, called the government's policy legally indefensible and also cited political considerations in his ruling. ''This decision cannot stand,'' Mr. Mazuz said in a lengthy statement. He cited ''many legal difficulties,'' including ''Israel's obligations according to the rules of customary international law.'' If the government confiscated such land, it could inflame passions on one of the most volatile issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as a capital. Last summer the government quietly approved a measure saying it could take control of Palestinian-owned land in |
1703800 | 2005 | 09 | 21 | Indulgences for Those Used to Saying No |
Usually, when you bake cookies and cakes without wheat flour, eggs, sugar and butter, the first thing that goes is proper texture. Then flavor. But the oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies ($1 each) that Erin McKenna, below right, is turning out at Babycakes, 248 Broome Street (Orchard Street), (212)677-5047, her new little bakery, are delicious, more crisp than chewy. Her iced cupcakes ($2.75 and $3.25), especially the chocolate ones, are tender, rich and light. Ms. McKenna said she experimented for months to come up with recipes using organic spelt flour, agave syrup, fruit purées, cold-pressed coconut oil and, for gluten-free cupcakes, garbanzo beans. Nothing contains nuts of any kind. But she does rely on excellent chocolate, which also saves the day. Muffins ($2.75), brownies ($2.50) and pound cake slices ($2.75) are also available.
| Usually, when you bake cookies and cakes without wheat flour, eggs, sugar and butter, the first thing that goes is proper texture. Then flavor. But the oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies ($1 each) that Erin McKenna, below right, is turning out at Babycakes, 248 Broome Street (Orchard Street), (212)677-5047, her new little bakery, are delicious, more crisp than chewy. Her iced cupcakes ($2.75 and $3.25), especially the chocolate ones, are tender, rich and light. Ms. McKenna said she experimented for months to come up with recipes using organic spelt flour, agave syrup, fruit purées, cold-pressed coconut oil and, for gluten-free cupcakes, garbanzo beans. Nothing contains nuts of any kind. But she does rely on excellent chocolate, which also saves the day. Muffins ($2.75), brownies ($2.50) and pound cake |
1169499 | 2000 | 01 | 18 | Two U.S. Teams Battle in Bridge |
Two American bridge teams battled here today in the semifinal of the Bermuda Bowl competition at the Orbis World Championships. After 32 deals of a scheduled 96, the United States 2 team, headed by Jeff Wolfson, led by 27 imps. His teammates are Neil Silverman, Chip Martel, Lew Stansby, Michael Rosenberg and Zia Mahmood.
Their opponents, United States 1, are Nick Nickell, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Paul Soloway and Bob Hamman. Both teams survived desperately close quarterfinal matches here on Sunday. In the other semifinal, Norway led Brazil by 6.
| Two American bridge teams battled here today in the semifinal of the Bermuda Bowl competition at the Orbis World Championships. After 32 deals of a scheduled 96, the United States 2 team, headed by Jeff Wolfson, led by 27 imps. His teammates are Neil Silverman, Chip Martel, Lew Stansby, Michael Rosenberg and Zia Mahmood. Their opponents, United States 1, are Nick Nickell, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Paul Soloway and Bob Hamman. Both teams survived desperately close quarterfinal matches here on Sunday. In the other semifinal, Norway led Brazil by 6. In the Venice Cup for women's teams, the surviving American team led against Denmark at the same point by 29 imps. The players are Jill Meyers, Randi Montin, Shawn Quinn, Renee Mancuso, Janice Molson and Tobi Sokolow. The |
1506286 | 2003 | 07 | 22 | Part by Part, Investigators Relive the Shuttle's Demise |
Every piece told a story.
As the independent board investigating the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew worked through the mountains of debris and data that had been collected in the $400 million effort to solve the mystery of the Feb. 1 accident, investigators often showed the obvious excitement of people taking part in a grand detective story.
| Every piece told a story. As the independent board investigating the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew worked through the mountains of debris and data that had been collected in the $400 million effort to solve the mystery of the Feb. 1 accident, investigators often showed the obvious excitement of people taking part in a grand detective story. The result is a detailed ''working scenario'' based on close examination of debris, sensor data, computer modeling and more. And at every turn, the suggestions of how the disaster unfolded are backed up with meticulous experimentation: Sherlock Holmes at the lab bench. This month, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board released the final version of that working scenario, a 200-page document that is the most thorough telling yet of |
1623026 | 2004 | 10 | 29 | China's Bank, In Transition, Raises Rates |
China's central bank raised official borrowing costs for the first time in nine years Thursday night, a step aimed at slowing breakneck economic growth and inflation but one that could risk social unrest if heavily indebted state companies respond by laying off more workers.
Beijing also removed the ceiling on what banks could charge for loans, a measure that paradoxically could make more loans available to risky private enterprises and ultimately enhance China's long-term growth prospects and give its economy much greater stability.
| China's central bank raised official borrowing costs for the first time in nine years Thursday night, a step aimed at slowing breakneck economic growth and inflation but one that could risk social unrest if heavily indebted state companies respond by laying off more workers. Beijing also removed the ceiling on what banks could charge for loans, a measure that paradoxically could make more loans available to risky private enterprises and ultimately enhance China's long-term growth prospects and give its economy much greater stability. The two moves shift China further toward a Western-style financial system in which markets determine the allocation of credit, not government officials. The interest rate increase, a little more than a quarter of a percentage point, is not big enough by itself to change the |
1174844 | 2000 | 02 | 08 | 8 More Are Freed From Afghan Jet Hijacked to Britain |
Day and night negotiations with gunmen who seized an Afghan jet on a domestic flight and eventually ended up in this suburban London airport succeeded today in gaining the freedom of eight passengers and providing supplies for the 150 still trapped on board.
Assistant Chief Constable Joe Edwards said he was encouraged by the releases but did not expect a speedy resolution to the hostage drama. Negotiation remained the police's ''favored option,'' he said, adding: ''It can be a very protracted technique. It could go on for days.''
| Day and night negotiations with gunmen who seized an Afghan jet on a domestic flight and eventually ended up in this suburban London airport succeeded today in gaining the freedom of eight passengers and providing supplies for the 150 still trapped on board. Assistant Chief Constable Joe Edwards said he was encouraged by the releases but did not expect a speedy resolution to the hostage drama. Negotiation remained the police's ''favored option,'' he said, adding: ''It can be a very protracted technique. It could go on for days.'' The identity of the hijackers and the nature of their demands remained unclear, although reports from the Middle East said their purpose might be to liberate an Afghan fighter jailed by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement that now rules most |
1781348 | 2006 | 08 | 07 | Investors, Including Bono, Buy a Big Piece of Forbes |
SINCE the death in 1990 of the legendary publisher Malcolm S. Forbes, his four sons and a daughter have sold his cherished assets here and there -- his private jet, the collection of Fabergé eggs, a handwritten copy of Lincoln's last address. The father suggested in his memoir that it was only natural and proper that his children do so, but even he might have been taken aback by the most recent divestiture.
On Friday, the family sold a significant minority stake in a newly formed company, Forbes Media, which includes the 89-year-old Forbes magazine started by their grandfather, B. C. Forbes; the Forbes.com Web site; and a number of smaller media properties, to Elevation Partners, a private equity group.
| SINCE the death in 1990 of the legendary publisher Malcolm S. Forbes, his four sons and a daughter have sold his cherished assets here and there -- his private jet, the collection of Fabergé eggs, a handwritten copy of Lincoln's last address. The father suggested in his memoir that it was only natural and proper that his children do so, but even he might have been taken aback by the most recent divestiture. On Friday, the family sold a significant minority stake in a newly formed company, Forbes Media, which includes the 89-year-old Forbes magazine started by their grandfather, B. C. Forbes; the Forbes.com Web site; and a number of smaller media properties, to Elevation Partners, a private equity group. Malcolm Forbes, whose tastes in music ran to |
1334254 | 2001 | 10 | 16 | New Hampshire Senator Faces Challenge From Within Party |
Setting the stage for a bitter campaign, Representative John E. Sununu of New Hampshire announced today that he would run for the Republican nomination for Senate, hoping to unseat the incumbent, Robert C. Smith, who is also a Republican.
With Mr. Smith, a two-term senator, seen by some in his party as too independent and unpredictable, Mr. Sununu had been urged to run for months by many Republicans in New Hampshire and elsewhere. But Mr. Smith is not about to go down without a fight.
| Setting the stage for a bitter campaign, Representative John E. Sununu of New Hampshire announced today that he would run for the Republican nomination for Senate, hoping to unseat the incumbent, Robert C. Smith, who is also a Republican. With Mr. Smith, a two-term senator, seen by some in his party as too independent and unpredictable, Mr. Sununu had been urged to run for months by many Republicans in New Hampshire and elsewhere. But Mr. Smith is not about to go down without a fight. ''My assumption is that it's just going to be an awful race,'' said Dick Bennett, president of the American Research Group, a nonpartisan polling firm based in New Hampshire. With Republicans aching to swing the Senate back to Republican control, the New Hampshire |
1633433 | 2004 | 12 | 09 | Fans Do Care When Players Cheat System |
AS it does annually, the University of Central Florida-based Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport this week released its study of graduation rates for 56 teams preparing for college football bowl games. As usual, the results were sobering and in some cases embarrassing. As always, they reminded us of all that needs to be fixed in big-time collegiate sports.
We react with disgust when cheaters are revealed. No one questions whether Americans want colleges to be accountable and clean, although the business has never been better and there is scant evidence that the fans filling campus arenas and stadiums are going to stop. We never hear the disturbingly common rejoinder to the baseball steroid shame: fans don't care, so what's the big deal?
| AS it does annually, the University of Central Florida-based Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport this week released its study of graduation rates for 56 teams preparing for college football bowl games. As usual, the results were sobering and in some cases embarrassing. As always, they reminded us of all that needs to be fixed in big-time collegiate sports. We react with disgust when cheaters are revealed. No one questions whether Americans want colleges to be accountable and clean, although the business has never been better and there is scant evidence that the fans filling campus arenas and stadiums are going to stop. We never hear the disturbingly common rejoinder to the baseball steroid shame: fans don't care, so what's the big deal? What is this double |
1357517 | 2002 | 01 | 08 | Still Making Films, Still Explaining the Hitler Connection |
Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's cinematic handmaiden, plans to release her first film since 1954, on her 100th birthday, Aug. 22, and she has used the occasion to defend her life once again, in a rare interview published today in Die Welt.
Ms. Riefenstahl's singular career, with its combination of artistic talent, propaganda and studied pretense of naïveté about the Nazis, has long been the center of fierce arguments about the value of art and its pollution by politics.
| Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's cinematic handmaiden, plans to release her first film since 1954, on her 100th birthday, Aug. 22, and she has used the occasion to defend her life once again, in a rare interview published today in Die Welt. Ms. Riefenstahl's singular career, with its combination of artistic talent, propaganda and studied pretense of naïveté about the Nazis, has long been the center of fierce arguments about the value of art and its pollution by politics. Ezra Pound, the American poet entranced by Mussolini, was arrested and committed to a Washington mental hospital for his propaganda broadcasts in support of Italian Fascism. Ms. Riefenstahl, by contrast, was cleared by a court of culpable support for the Nazis, although she was branded a sympathizer. After a period of |
1515274 | 2003 | 08 | 28 | Bombardier To Sell Unit To Cut Debt |
Bombardier Inc., the Canadian aircraft and rail equipment manufacturer, has broken with its rural Quebec roots by selling a unit that makes snowmobiles and other leisure craft for 1.23 billion Canadian dollars ($875 million) in cash. The buyers include Bain Capital of Boston and members of the Bombardier family, who still control the parent company.
The sale is part of a plan to strengthen Bombardier's finances by reducing debt, improving cash flow and raising equity. Paul M. Tellier, who has cut a swath through the company since becoming chief executive in January, told analysts today that the restructuring was nearing completion. ''We are doing what we said we would do,'' Mr. Tellier said.
| Bombardier Inc., the Canadian aircraft and rail equipment manufacturer, has broken with its rural Quebec roots by selling a unit that makes snowmobiles and other leisure craft for 1.23 billion Canadian dollars ($875 million) in cash. The buyers include Bain Capital of Boston and members of the Bombardier family, who still control the parent company. The sale is part of a plan to strengthen Bombardier's finances by reducing debt, improving cash flow and raising equity. Paul M. Tellier, who has cut a swath through the company since becoming chief executive in January, told analysts today that the restructuring was nearing completion. ''We are doing what we said we would do,'' Mr. Tellier said. Steve Laciak, an analyst at National Bank Financial in Toronto, said that ''the balance sheet |
1686671 | 2005 | 07 | 12 | Usually Volatile Mayor Wins Praise for Low-Key Presence |
Ken Livingstone, London's famously loose-lipped mayor, boarded a subway train here this morning as cameras flashed, demonstrating this city's resolve not to be cowed by the terrorist attacks that struck three trains and a bus on Thursday.
''We are going to work, we carry on our lives,'' Mr. Livingstone told reporters before resuming his usual commute to work. ''We don't let a small group of terrorists change the way we live.''
| Ken Livingstone, London's famously loose-lipped mayor, boarded a subway train here this morning as cameras flashed, demonstrating this city's resolve not to be cowed by the terrorist attacks that struck three trains and a bus on Thursday. ''We are going to work, we carry on our lives,'' Mr. Livingstone told reporters before resuming his usual commute to work. ''We don't let a small group of terrorists change the way we live.'' And that was all he said. Mr. Livingstone, 60, has emerged as a sort of anti-Giuliani in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the worst the city has seen. He has made two solemn statements worthy of Winston Churchill but has otherwise kept a remarkably low profile for a man whose quarter-century in politics has been marked |
1830237 | 2007 | 03 | 04 | A Place at the Table |
BECOMING JUDY CHICAGO
A Biography of the Artist.
By Gail Levin.
Illustrated. 485 pp. Harmony Books. $29.95.
| BECOMING JUDY CHICAGO A Biography of the Artist. By Gail Levin. Illustrated. 485 pp. Harmony Books. $29.95. When the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art opens at the Brooklyn Museum later this month, Judy Chicago's ''Dinner Party,'' a multimedia installation celebrating the role of women in Western civilization, will have a permanent home. Conceived by Chicago and executed by hundreds of women working under her direction between 1974 and 1979, ''The Dinner Party'' was seen by more than a million people in the years following its completion. But since 1988 it has spent much of the time in storage. How that could happen to what the critic Arthur Danto has called ''one of the major artistic monuments of the second half of the 20th century'' is revealed |
1578682 | 2004 | 05 | 02 | Funny Cide's Run to Glory Has Reached a Crossroads |
The thrills from a year ago have not subsided. Funny Cide took his 10 everyday owners, a trainer and a jockey on a ride they will never forget with a captivating 2003 Kentucky Derby victory. It was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, but there's plenty left for Funny Cide to accomplish.
Now 4, he may be ready to get his career back on track after a string of disappointments that began when he finished third in the 2003 Belmont Stakes, ending his bid to become racing's first Triple Crown champion since 1978. His next start is scheduled for the Pimlico Special on May 14 at Pimlico, the same track where he romped by nine and three-quarters lengths in the Preakness Stakes.
| The thrills from a year ago have not subsided. Funny Cide took his 10 everyday owners, a trainer and a jockey on a ride they will never forget with a captivating 2003 Kentucky Derby victory. It was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, but there's plenty left for Funny Cide to accomplish. Now 4, he may be ready to get his career back on track after a string of disappointments that began when he finished third in the 2003 Belmont Stakes, ending his bid to become racing's first Triple Crown champion since 1978. His next start is scheduled for the Pimlico Special on May 14 at Pimlico, the same track where he romped by nine and three-quarters lengths in the Preakness Stakes. Jack Knowlton, who heads the Sackatoga Stable syndicate that |
1343795 | 2001 | 11 | 18 | Passages |
FOUR IN ALL
By Nina Payne.
Illustrated by Adam Payne.
Unpaged. Asheville, N.C.:
Front Street. $15.95. (All ages)
TO & FRO, FAST & SLOW
Written and illustrated
by Durga Bernhard.
Unpaged. New York:
Walker & Company. $15.95. (Ages 3 to 7)
| FOUR IN ALL By Nina Payne. Illustrated by Adam Payne. Unpaged. Asheville, N.C.: Front Street. $15.95. (All ages) TO & FRO, FAST & SLOW Written and illustrated by Durga Bernhard. Unpaged. New York: Walker & Company. $15.95. (Ages 3 to 7) HOW shall we remain hopeful in such dark and troubled times? We can tell children that the human impulse to build and create continues, and we can pay close attention to its many and various forms. ''Four in All,'' a modest book in size and appearance, is a big book on just such a theme. Moreover, it is a book that provides a good answer to the child's eternal, unspoken question: Who am I? How will I fit into the world? A little girl takes a dream |
1741311 | 2006 | 02 | 21 | A Vintage Both Sweet and Gritty |
For a string quartet, working together for a quarter-century can be a double-edged sword. The benefit, when everything works as it should, is that the players can read one another so well that a spontaneous moment is unlikely to cause a train wreck. The risk is the possibility that the chemistry can grow stale, or worse. The Auryn Quartet, from Germany, has played together in its current configuration since 1981; judging from its performance on Sunday afternoon at the Frick Collection, the chemistry is working fine.
This ensemble's sound is rich and warmly rounded, and if the players' interpretive impulses have the unity of purpose that longevity fosters, there is still room for the kind of textural variety that can make a performance sound fresh. In Haydn's Quartet in D minor (Op. 76, No. 2), this flexibility was most telling in the Menuetto. After a robust opening Allegro and a light-textured, graceful Andante, the players took the decidedly uncourtly scoring of the Menuetto at face value and played it with a rustic grittiness. The contrast was startling, but that was the point.
| For a string quartet, working together for a quarter-century can be a double-edged sword. The benefit, when everything works as it should, is that the players can read one another so well that a spontaneous moment is unlikely to cause a train wreck. The risk is the possibility that the chemistry can grow stale, or worse. The Auryn Quartet, from Germany, has played together in its current configuration since 1981; judging from its performance on Sunday afternoon at the Frick Collection, the chemistry is working fine. This ensemble's sound is rich and warmly rounded, and if the players' interpretive impulses have the unity of purpose that longevity fosters, there is still room for the kind of textural variety that can make a performance sound fresh. In Haydn's Quartet |
1729326 | 2006 | 01 | 03 | Must Our Schools Rely on Charity? |
To the Editor:
Re ''City's Big Donors Find New Cause: Public Schools'' (front page, Dec. 30):
It is wonderful to hear that the well-heeled are taking a financial interest in the New York City public schools.
| To the Editor: Re ''City's Big Donors Find New Cause: Public Schools'' (front page, Dec. 30): It is wonderful to hear that the well-heeled are taking a financial interest in the New York City public schools. As a new-teacher mentor, I have an opportunity to visit different schools. From what I see, the infusion of this money makes for some very nice-looking schools. In my district, pretty bulletin boards, showy classroom libraries and test-driven curriculums seem to be the result of this largess. The influence of all this cash is like the River Platte, an inch deep and a mile wide. Instead of hobnobbing with the mayor and the chancellor, wouldn't it be something if the rich came down into the trenches with those of us who live |
1511743 | 2003 | 08 | 13 | Liberty Makes Most Of Sun's Late Mistake |
Struggling to gain a playoff spot, the Liberty staged one of its greatest comebacks, scoring a franchise-high 53 points in the second half tonight to beat the Connecticut Sun, 74-73.
The victory put the Liberty (13-15) a half-game back of Connecticut for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association. The Liberty has six games left, three at Madison Square Garden. Connecticut will play at the Garden on Saturday.
| Struggling to gain a playoff spot, the Liberty staged one of its greatest comebacks, scoring a franchise-high 53 points in the second half tonight to beat the Connecticut Sun, 74-73. The victory put the Liberty (13-15) a half-game back of Connecticut for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association. The Liberty has six games left, three at Madison Square Garden. Connecticut will play at the Garden on Saturday. Before tonight's game, at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Liberty Coach Richie Adubato figured his team was due a little luck after more than its share of close road losses. What better place than a casino, where fortunes can change at the turn of a quarter. With 2.1 seconds remaining and the |
1801712 | 2006 | 11 | 02 | Arts, Briefly; City Ballet's Choreographer May Not Renew Contract |
Christopher Wheeldon, one of the world's leading young choreographers of classical ballets and an important creative force at New York City Ballet, is unlikely to renew his company contract when it expires in 2008. Peter Martins, the balletmaster in chief, said Mr. Wheeldon, the company's resident choreographer since 2001, felt the need to ''fly off'' and work on his own. ''He loved having been here,'' Mr. Martins said. ''He kept saying, 'I hope that you'll invite me back.' I said, 'The door is always open to you.' I don't see this as a split. I was young once myself.'' Mr. Wheeldon said he felt no ill will toward the company, according to Mr. Martins. ''The intent for me was that he would be here not temporarily, so of course I was upset,'' Mr. Martins said. ''I feel we've invested in him. I like to be wise about this, and say to myself, let him go fly a little bit.'' The company said Mr. Wheeldon would move ahead with commissions for next spring and winter 2008.
Mr. Wheeldon was named New York City Ballet's first artist in residence, for the 2000-1 season and the next season became its first resident choreographer. He has created at least a dozen dances for the company, including ''Morphoses'' and ''Carousel (A Dance)'' in 2002; ''Carnival of the Animals'' and ''Liturgy'' in 2003; ''Shambards'' in 2004; and ''After the Rain'' last year. His breakthrough ballet was considered to be ''Polyphonia,'' from 2001.
| Christopher Wheeldon, one of the world's leading young choreographers of classical ballets and an important creative force at New York City Ballet, is unlikely to renew his company contract when it expires in 2008. Peter Martins, the balletmaster in chief, said Mr. Wheeldon, the company's resident choreographer since 2001, felt the need to ''fly off'' and work on his own. ''He loved having been here,'' Mr. Martins said. ''He kept saying, 'I hope that you'll invite me back.' I said, 'The door is always open to you.' I don't see this as a split. I was young once myself.'' Mr. Wheeldon said he felt no ill will toward the company, according to Mr. Martins. ''The intent for me was that he would be here not temporarily, so of |
1658551 | 2005 | 03 | 20 | What? They Never Heard Of WorldCom? |
WHAT a week.
Bernard J. Ebbers, founder of WorldCom, got to add felon to his already colorful curriculum vitae. Maurice R. Greenberg, dictator in chief at American International Group, the global insurance giant, was toppled after almost 40 years at his post. The Federal Reserve told Citigroup it could not make any major acquisitions until it cleaned up its compliance act. And General Motors laid a big, scary earnings egg.
| WHAT a week. Bernard J. Ebbers, founder of WorldCom, got to add felon to his already colorful curriculum vitae. Maurice R. Greenberg, dictator in chief at American International Group, the global insurance giant, was toppled after almost 40 years at his post. The Federal Reserve told Citigroup it could not make any major acquisitions until it cleaned up its compliance act. And General Motors laid a big, scary earnings egg. Isn't it nice to know these incidents are anomalies and that most American companies are chugging along, reporting good solid earnings? Sure would be. But contrary to popular belief, the quality of corporate earnings is on the slide again and, as a result, Richard Bernstein, chief United States strategist at Merrill Lynch, is advising investors to tread carefully. |
1308430 | 2001 | 07 | 11 | F.A.A. Denies Airline Plea on Pilot Rest |
The Federal Aviation Administration yesterday denied a request from major airlines to suspend its enforcement of the rule limiting how many hours each day a commercial pilot can work.
In a letter to the Air Transport Association, the industry's principal lobbying group, the agency said the ''flying public would be harmed'' if the government honored the industry request.
| The Federal Aviation Administration yesterday denied a request from major airlines to suspend its enforcement of the rule limiting how many hours each day a commercial pilot can work. In a letter to the Air Transport Association, the industry's principal lobbying group, the agency said the ''flying public would be harmed'' if the government honored the industry request. The association said it was reviewing the Federal Aviation Administration letter and was likely to seek a court-ordered stay. Pilots are limited to working 16 hours a day. But airlines have long interpreted the rule to be flexible if air traffic delays or weather extend a pilot's duty time beyond the limit. Last November, in response to a request from an American Airlines pilot, the F.A.A. said that the rule |
1514480 | 2003 | 08 | 24 | Pennington Fractures Wrist and Jet Hopes |
Quarterback Chad Pennington, the linchpin of the Jets' offense since he took over the starting job after four games last season, fractured and dislocated his left wrist in tonight's 15-14 victory against the Giants and had surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.
The injury is to Pennington's nonthrowing hand, and the Jets did not initially announce how long he would be out, but he will definitely miss the season opener in 12 days against Washington and perhaps much longer. Standard guidelines call for an injury like this to take six to eight weeks to heal, but that is for a nonathlete. Because the injury is not to Pennington's throwing hand, it seems unlikely that it would end his season.
| Quarterback Chad Pennington, the linchpin of the Jets' offense since he took over the starting job after four games last season, fractured and dislocated his left wrist in tonight's 15-14 victory against the Giants and had surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. The injury is to Pennington's nonthrowing hand, and the Jets did not initially announce how long he would be out, but he will definitely miss the season opener in 12 days against Washington and perhaps much longer. Standard guidelines call for an injury like this to take six to eight weeks to heal, but that is for a nonathlete. Because the injury is not to Pennington's throwing hand, it seems unlikely that it would end his season. The Jets now turn to Vinny Testaverde, 39, who lost |
1575519 | 2004 | 04 | 20 | Studios Rush To Cash In On DVD Boom; Swelling Demand for Disks Alters Hollywood's Arithmetic |
The other day the chairman of 20th Century Fox, Jim Gianopulos, said he got a call from a lawyer friend. The friend said it was an anniversary of the firm and asked where he could get 100 DVD copies of the cult Fox movie ''Office Space.'' The film made only $10 million at the box office but has become a hit on DVD. No one at Fox pretends to know why, but the film's success is another big drop in the river of DVD cash now flowing into Hollywood's coffers.
Not since the advent of the videocassette in the mid-1980's has the movie industry enjoyed such a windfall from a new product. And just as video caused a seismic shift two decades ago, the success of the DVD is altering priorities and the balance of power in the making of popular culture. And industry players, starting with the Writers Guild, are lining up to claim their share.
| The other day the chairman of 20th Century Fox, Jim Gianopulos, said he got a call from a lawyer friend. The friend said it was an anniversary of the firm and asked where he could get 100 DVD copies of the cult Fox movie ''Office Space.'' The film made only $10 million at the box office but has become a hit on DVD. No one at Fox pretends to know why, but the film's success is another big drop in the river of DVD cash now flowing into Hollywood's coffers. Not since the advent of the videocassette in the mid-1980's has the movie industry enjoyed such a windfall from a new product. And just as video caused a seismic shift two decades ago, the success of the DVD |
1726519 | 2005 | 12 | 21 | Academy Set to Keep Training Program for School Principals |
The New York City Leadership Academy, a nearly $70 million principal training program that was one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's signature education efforts, will continue to exist as a private nonprofit group, its board announced yesterday.
The Department of Education, however, will pick up its single largest cost: the salaries and benefits of its principal trainees.
| The New York City Leadership Academy, a nearly $70 million principal training program that was one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's signature education efforts, will continue to exist as a private nonprofit group, its board announced yesterday. The Department of Education, however, will pick up its single largest cost: the salaries and benefits of its principal trainees. While the extent of public financing was not clear, the shift would signal the next stage for the program, which was started as a three-year, privately financed experiment for training new principals. Mr. Bloomberg had originally planned on sustaining the academy with money from a court order mandating billions of additional dollars in state education aid for the city schools. But the state has appealed the ruling. Private donors indicated that |
1318775 | 2001 | 08 | 20 | TALKING POLITICS: Greenwich Village and SoHo; Concerns About Maintaining Successes of the Giuliani Era |
Richard Fitzgerald, a 49-year-old chauffeur who lives in Greenwich Village, was settled on a bench on a hot and muggy morning in Washington Square Park the other day. A police officer on a horse clip-clopped up a path to the side. Children crowded a playground, while dog owners ran their unleashed pets through a fenced-in field.
And there was barely a drug dealer or homeless person in sight, an absence that Mr. Fitzgerald, who has been spending afternoons in the park since he was a teenager, noted with fresh approval and lingering astonishment.
| Richard Fitzgerald, a 49-year-old chauffeur who lives in Greenwich Village, was settled on a bench on a hot and muggy morning in Washington Square Park the other day. A police officer on a horse clip-clopped up a path to the side. Children crowded a playground, while dog owners ran their unleashed pets through a fenced-in field. And there was barely a drug dealer or homeless person in sight, an absence that Mr. Fitzgerald, who has been spending afternoons in the park since he was a teenager, noted with fresh approval and lingering astonishment. ''Oh, God, there is almost no way to measure how much improvement he has done,'' Mr. Fitzgerald said, the unnamed ''he'' being the city's soon-to-depart mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani. ''I've lived here for 30 years, |
1266379 | 2001 | 01 | 28 | Light Is on DiFrancesco Now, And McGreevey Is in Shadow |
With Governor Whitman packing her bags and preparing to leave office, The Shadow in New Jersey politics is about to shift.
The state constitution concentrates so much power in the office of governor that whoever occupies it eclipses everything and everyone else on the political horizon.
| With Governor Whitman packing her bags and preparing to leave office, The Shadow in New Jersey politics is about to shift. The state constitution concentrates so much power in the office of governor that whoever occupies it eclipses everything and everyone else on the political horizon. So when Mrs. Whitman leaves here for Washington, where she is to become the new head of the Environmental Protection Administration -- as early as this week -- Senate President Donald T. DiFrancesco will move to center stage and at last have the chance to cast a shadow of his own. That's bad news for Jim McGreevey, the Democratic mayor of Woodbridge who hopes to knock Mr. DiFrancesco out of the governor's office in November. For the next 11 months Mr. DiFrancesco |
1575806 | 2004 | 04 | 21 | Bush, Powell and the Rush to War |
To the Editor:
I, too, wish that Colin L. Powell's cautionary view had prevailed (editorial, April 20), but it is unfair to characterize his purported actions and statements in the path to war as politically motivated ambivalence or as self-serving behavior just because he was unable to sway the hard-line hawks.
As a general, Mr. Powell epitomized the traditions and spirit of the Army, including the chain of command. All good soldiers should speak their mind, but once the general makes the call, all dissent must stop.
| To the Editor: I, too, wish that Colin L. Powell's cautionary view had prevailed (editorial, April 20), but it is unfair to characterize his purported actions and statements in the path to war as politically motivated ambivalence or as self-serving behavior just because he was unable to sway the hard-line hawks. As a general, Mr. Powell epitomized the traditions and spirit of the Army, including the chain of command. All good soldiers should speak their mind, but once the general makes the call, all dissent must stop. Once the decision was made to go to war, Mr. Powell had no choice but to support the war as best he could; otherwise, he would have violated his military training. It is too late to focus on the rightness or |
1208845 | 2000 | 06 | 20 | Sound Ruling on School Prayer |
The Supreme Court performs a valuable if sometimes under-appreciated public service when it rises above politics and popular opinion to prevent harmful erosion of the First Amendment's wall between church and state. Yesterday the court admirably fulfilled that mission in refusing to permit organized student-led prayers before public high school football games.
The 6-to-3 ruling, the court's most important school prayer decision in almost a decade, came in a closely watched case from Texas. It arose when a Mormon family and a Catholic family brought a lawsuit objecting to the Christian prayers offered by chaplains at school events. Trying to get around the constitutional bar on officially organized prayers, the district shifted it policies to have a student selected by a schoolwide election deliver a pregame ''message or invocation'' of his or her own choosing.
| The Supreme Court performs a valuable if sometimes under-appreciated public service when it rises above politics and popular opinion to prevent harmful erosion of the First Amendment's wall between church and state. Yesterday the court admirably fulfilled that mission in refusing to permit organized student-led prayers before public high school football games. The 6-to-3 ruling, the court's most important school prayer decision in almost a decade, came in a closely watched case from Texas. It arose when a Mormon family and a Catholic family brought a lawsuit objecting to the Christian prayers offered by chaplains at school events. Trying to get around the constitutional bar on officially organized prayers, the district shifted it policies to have a student selected by a schoolwide election deliver a pregame ''message or |
1445314 | 2002 | 12 | 02 | More campaigns for holiday shopping have themes other than Christmas. |
ADVERTISERS are increasingly recognizing that not everyone celebrates the holiday season with a Christmas tree.
The Postal Service is offering stamps that celebrate Ramadan and Kwanzaa. J. C. Penney's holiday television commercial features young girls celebrating Hanukkah, as well as scenes of Kwanzaa festivities. Stop and Shop Supermarket's print advertising featured Ramadan wishes last month, and Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa ads are planned for this month. And Orbitz's ads on the World Wide Web urge users to ''spin the dreidel'' for savings on air fares.
| ADVERTISERS are increasingly recognizing that not everyone celebrates the holiday season with a Christmas tree. The Postal Service is offering stamps that celebrate Ramadan and Kwanzaa. J. C. Penney's holiday television commercial features young girls celebrating Hanukkah, as well as scenes of Kwanzaa festivities. Stop and Shop Supermarket's print advertising featured Ramadan wishes last month, and Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa ads are planned for this month. And Orbitz's ads on the World Wide Web urge users to ''spin the dreidel'' for savings on air fares. ''It wasn't that long ago that every holiday commercial was all about Christmas,'' said Mike Rogers, president and executive creative director for the New York office of the Wolf Group. ''Now, clients are more aware of the ethnic and racial makeup of our |
1244935 | 2000 | 11 | 05 | Dinner Recipes for All-at-Once Roasting |
CONVENIENCE food on a Sunday night doesn't have to be Chinese takeout or something in the microwave. It can be a meal that's baking in the oven while you watch a movie or a ballgame.
The following dinner takes little time to prepare, and it all cooks at once. It's a simple family meal that appeals to all ages: roast chicken with roast vegetables and baked apples and ice cream for dessert.
| CONVENIENCE food on a Sunday night doesn't have to be Chinese takeout or something in the microwave. It can be a meal that's baking in the oven while you watch a movie or a ballgame. The following dinner takes little time to prepare, and it all cooks at once. It's a simple family meal that appeals to all ages: roast chicken with roast vegetables and baked apples and ice cream for dessert. Organic chickens have the most flavor, and they are worth the extra few dollars they cost. I like to slip herbs under the breast skin: tarragon leaves in the spring, rosemary in fall and winter. Duck or goose fat rubbed on the bird will give you the crispiest skin, but a fruity olive oil is also |
1619824 | 2004 | 10 | 17 | The Poster Child for Fix Albany |
ON Wednesday night, Marsha Shulroff is having a party. As one of the two Nassau County Democratic Party leaders for the 13th Assembly District, Ms. Shulroff has invited local campaign organizers -- Democratic committee members, electoral district leaders -- and community activists to meet their candidate, Charles D. Lavine.
It might seem a little out of the ordinary that less than two weeks before the election, in a district with nearly 36,000 registered Democrats, local organizers are meeting the man they plan to send to the State Assembly. But this is not an ordinary election. Mr. Lavine's victory against the incumbent David S. Sidikman in the Democratic primary was the first -- and so far, only -- victory for Fix Albany, the political committee that Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau county executive, founded to push for state government reform.
| ON Wednesday night, Marsha Shulroff is having a party. As one of the two Nassau County Democratic Party leaders for the 13th Assembly District, Ms. Shulroff has invited local campaign organizers -- Democratic committee members, electoral district leaders -- and community activists to meet their candidate, Charles D. Lavine. It might seem a little out of the ordinary that less than two weeks before the election, in a district with nearly 36,000 registered Democrats, local organizers are meeting the man they plan to send to the State Assembly. But this is not an ordinary election. Mr. Lavine's victory against the incumbent David S. Sidikman in the Democratic primary was the first -- and so far, only -- victory for Fix Albany, the political committee that Thomas R. Suozzi, |
1359978 | 2002 | 01 | 17 | Recorders For Those Blessed With A Silver Tongue |
It's not particularly surprising that the two latest digital voice recorders from Olympus are smaller and cheaper and record longer than previous models. But they offer another innovation: the VN-900 and VN-1800 include a third, higher fidelity recording mode that an Olympus spokeswoman, Karen Thomas, called ''broadcast quality.''
Memo takers, after all, need not like the sound of their own voices in order to understand what they had recorded. However, the new high-quality recording mode on the Olympus is not for the long-winded. In its lowest-quality mode, the VN-1800, $80, will record for three hours; when set to the new mode, its capacity drops to just 45 minutes. The VN-90, $60, has half the capacity of the more expensive model in all recording modes.
| It's not particularly surprising that the two latest digital voice recorders from Olympus are smaller and cheaper and record longer than previous models. But they offer another innovation: the VN-900 and VN-1800 include a third, higher fidelity recording mode that an Olympus spokeswoman, Karen Thomas, called ''broadcast quality.'' Memo takers, after all, need not like the sound of their own voices in order to understand what they had recorded. However, the new high-quality recording mode on the Olympus is not for the long-winded. In its lowest-quality mode, the VN-1800, $80, will record for three hours; when set to the new mode, its capacity drops to just 45 minutes. The VN-90, $60, has half the capacity of the more expensive model in all recording modes. Olympus describes the new |
1752726 | 2006 | 04 | 07 | Deadlines for the Iraqis, and for Us |
To the Editor:
Re ''Two Deadlines and an Exit'' (Op-Ed, April 5) :
| To the Editor: Re ''Two Deadlines and an Exit'' (Op-Ed, April 5) : I concur with Senator John F. Kerry that new deadlines should be given to the Iraqi leaders for forming an effective government. Everyone now knows that America invaded Iraq without a proper plan to deal with the situation arising after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration thought that there would be nothing to obstruct bringing effective democratic rule to Iraq. But democracy cannot be easily imposed on people who are not prepared to accept it. Hard-core insurgents, with the support of neighboring countries like Iran, would like to see American purpose defeated at any cost. If they thought about it, I think that everyone in the administration, including President Bush, would agree that |
1851007 | 2007 | 05 | 31 | Working Hard to Make the Old Numbers, Familiar and Otherwise, Sound New |
When jazz is played well enough, it becomes conceptual art without really trying. There's so much there: the idea of improvisation; the idea of what a song is; the idea of (in some cases) an American style, and the disappearance or persistence thereof; repertory versus imagination; received wisdom versus innovation; concision versus the big statement.
All this emerged during the first set by the pianist Bill Charlap's trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola on Tuesday. But the music wasn't programmatic: None of these ideas were out on stalks, and the set, 10 songs in a little more than an hour, didn't feel like a lecture.
| When jazz is played well enough, it becomes conceptual art without really trying. There's so much there: the idea of improvisation; the idea of what a song is; the idea of (in some cases) an American style, and the disappearance or persistence thereof; repertory versus imagination; received wisdom versus innovation; concision versus the big statement. All this emerged during the first set by the pianist Bill Charlap's trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola on Tuesday. But the music wasn't programmatic: None of these ideas were out on stalks, and the set, 10 songs in a little more than an hour, didn't feel like a lecture. Mr. Charlap started with two bebop tunes from the 1950s that, generally speaking, you never hear: ''Odd Number,'' by Hank Jones, and ''Simplicity,'' by |
1676421 | 2005 | 05 | 30 | LOOKING AHEAD |
UNFRIENDLY SKIES -- A bankruptcy court hearing in Chicago may determine the next step in the continuing battle between United Airlines and its machinists' union. If they fail to reach a deal, the judge could allow United to terminate the old contract and impose terms. If that happens, the union has told its members to be prepared to strike. (Tuesday)
BIG DEDUCTIBLE -- American International Group will release its much-delayed financial results for 2004. The market is anxiously awaiting the final tally on how much past transactions, deemed to be improperly accounted for by the company, will affect A.I.G.'s value. At the beginning of May, the company said its net worth would be reduced by $2.7 billion, but added a credit of $2.4 billion derived from accounting for derivatives. A.I.G.'s stock has fallen about 26 percent since it said it was the target of various inquiries. (Tuesday)
| UNFRIENDLY SKIES -- A bankruptcy court hearing in Chicago may determine the next step in the continuing battle between United Airlines and its machinists' union. If they fail to reach a deal, the judge could allow United to terminate the old contract and impose terms. If that happens, the union has told its members to be prepared to strike. (Tuesday) BIG DEDUCTIBLE -- American International Group will release its much-delayed financial results for 2004. The market is anxiously awaiting the final tally on how much past transactions, deemed to be improperly accounted for by the company, will affect A.I.G.'s value. At the beginning of May, the company said its net worth would be reduced by $2.7 billion, but added a credit of $2.4 billion derived from accounting for |
1628127 | 2004 | 11 | 18 | Afghan Artifacts, Feared Lost, Are Discovered Safe in Storage |
Thousands of valuable artifacts from Afghanistan's National Museum, long feared destroyed or stolen, survived two decades of war hidden away in storage, the museum's director and the minister of information and culture said Wednesday.
''They are intact,'' said the minister, Sayed Makhdum Raheen. ''They have been packed away since the Russian times,'' referring to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980's.
| Thousands of valuable artifacts from Afghanistan's National Museum, long feared destroyed or stolen, survived two decades of war hidden away in storage, the museum's director and the minister of information and culture said Wednesday. ''They are intact,'' said the minister, Sayed Makhdum Raheen. ''They have been packed away since the Russian times,'' referring to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980's. Museum staff and experts from the National Geographic Society recently completed an inventory of dozens of crates and boxes containing 22,513 items that spent the past 16 years in vaults, through the civil war and the rise of the Taliban movement in the 1990's. In a conference call from Washington, Frederik Hiebert, an archaeologist and research fellow with the National Geographic Society, said it was |
1542205 | 2003 | 12 | 11 | A Dream Comes True, Even if It's 4-9 |
An hour after he had led the Giants in practice on Wednesday for the first time in his career, quarterback Jesse Palmer still glowed, a player realizing his dream.
Granted, he was leading the Giants (4-9), who take on the New Orleans Saints (6-7) on Sunday night. That did not matter to Palmer.
| An hour after he had led the Giants in practice on Wednesday for the first time in his career, quarterback Jesse Palmer still glowed, a player realizing his dream. Granted, he was leading the Giants (4-9), who take on the New Orleans Saints (6-7) on Sunday night. That did not matter to Palmer. ''There's no way to put it in words,'' said Palmer, 25. ''I've been dreaming about it since I was 7 years old.'' The dream is coming true because one of the most durable players in Giants history, quarterback Kerry Collins, has a high sprain of his left ankle and will be sitting out his first game since 1999, a streak of 67 games. Although Collins is officially listed as doubtful, Coach Jim Fassel conceded on |
1676308 | 2005 | 05 | 29 | Ishii Stays Ahead of Marlins, and So Do Mets |
Rick Peterson, the Mets' pitching coach, acknowledges that much work needs to be done with the 31-year-old left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii, perhaps the wildest pitcher in the major leagues in recent years. Yet Peterson seems certain that nothing is wrong with Ishii's pitching mechanics.
''It's not an issue,'' said Peterson, who is more concerned about Ishii's loss of focus during portions of games. ''You take for granted that a pitcher of his experience knows a lot about pitching. Then you realize it's a whole educational process. It takes awhile.''
| Rick Peterson, the Mets' pitching coach, acknowledges that much work needs to be done with the 31-year-old left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii, perhaps the wildest pitcher in the major leagues in recent years. Yet Peterson seems certain that nothing is wrong with Ishii's pitching mechanics. ''It's not an issue,'' said Peterson, who is more concerned about Ishii's loss of focus during portions of games. ''You take for granted that a pitcher of his experience knows a lot about pitching. Then you realize it's a whole educational process. It takes awhile.'' Peterson saw a little sunshine in the process Saturday night as Ishii helped the Mets to their third straight victory over the Florida Marlins, 6-1, before a crowd of 35,223 at Dolphins Stadium. Ishii walked three batters in six and |
1436969 | 2002 | 11 | 02 | Dartmouth Men's Team Wins Heptagonal Title |
Tom McArdle of Dartmouth, the defending champion, and Jarrod Shoemaker, his teammate, were side by side two yards from the finish line in the Heptagonal Games Association championships yesterday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
As McArdle shouted, ''You take it,'' Shoemaker did. He crossed first, completing the five-mile race in 24 minutes 36.3 seconds. McArdle was a tenth of a second slower.
| Tom McArdle of Dartmouth, the defending champion, and Jarrod Shoemaker, his teammate, were side by side two yards from the finish line in the Heptagonal Games Association championships yesterday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. As McArdle shouted, ''You take it,'' Shoemaker did. He crossed first, completing the five-mile race in 24 minutes 36.3 seconds. McArdle was a tenth of a second slower. ''It's really Tom's victory,'' said Shoemaker, a junior from Sudbury, Mass. ''He pulled me along.'' McArdle, a senior from Brookline, Mass., said: ''He's my teammate, why shouldn't I let him win? It's a big breakthrough for him. I won this last year and my focus is elsewhere.'' That focus is the N.C.A.A. championships on Nov. 25 in Terre Haute, Ind. Led by McArdle and |
1489051 | 2003 | 05 | 15 | Residents of Compound Weigh Cost of Staying |
Outside a group of villas with their walls blown away, bulldozers cleared away rubble today from the explosions that wrecked the Al Hamra residential compound this week. A couple of teenagers collected small black pieces of metal, souvenirs of what they thought was the car bomb that caused the disaster.
But inside the shattered dwellings, the dazed residents of Al Hamra, one of three residential compounds for foreigners struck on Monday night, were cleaning up their homes and sorting out their lives, wondering if it was time to leave. The United States Embassy urged families to go, but some were clearly reluctant.
| Outside a group of villas with their walls blown away, bulldozers cleared away rubble today from the explosions that wrecked the Al Hamra residential compound this week. A couple of teenagers collected small black pieces of metal, souvenirs of what they thought was the car bomb that caused the disaster. But inside the shattered dwellings, the dazed residents of Al Hamra, one of three residential compounds for foreigners struck on Monday night, were cleaning up their homes and sorting out their lives, wondering if it was time to leave. The United States Embassy urged families to go, but some were clearly reluctant. ''It's about 50-50,'' said Tim Young, a businessman from Dalton, Ga., when asked whether the blasts would cause people to move out. ''If the government seems |
1556845 | 2004 | 02 | 07 | The Big Run-Up to Reality As It's Lived Under the Tents |
At the obvious risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw from ''Sex and the City,'' Kenneth Cole yesterday composed an interesting aphorism. ''Reality TV is now the most popular way to escape reality (not drugs),'' read a caption that shimmered across a screen at the foot of Mr. Cole's runway in Bryant Park, an observation even more apt than Mr. Cole's socially aware slogans typically are.
The facts about the fashion cycle are these. For the next four weeks a select group of high-priced human clothes racks will clock the equivalent of the earth's diameter strutting catwalks. An equally small collection of well-ornamented editors will make minutely calibrated judgments on what the clothes racks are wearing.
| At the obvious risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw from ''Sex and the City,'' Kenneth Cole yesterday composed an interesting aphorism. ''Reality TV is now the most popular way to escape reality (not drugs),'' read a caption that shimmered across a screen at the foot of Mr. Cole's runway in Bryant Park, an observation even more apt than Mr. Cole's socially aware slogans typically are. The facts about the fashion cycle are these. For the next four weeks a select group of high-priced human clothes racks will clock the equivalent of the earth's diameter strutting catwalks. An equally small collection of well-ornamented editors will make minutely calibrated judgments on what the clothes racks are wearing. These transactions will be recorded with a lavishness rarely directed at natural catastrophes |
1272944 | 2001 | 02 | 23 | The Big City; Just Forgive, And Forget The Big Bucks |
I'M disappointed, too.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and I are not always soul mates, but I share her emotion at yesterday's news conference. No matter how much the reporters hectored, no matter how often she was asked to condemn her husband's pardons or her brother's sins, she went back to the word of the day.
| I'M disappointed, too. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and I are not always soul mates, but I share her emotion at yesterday's news conference. No matter how much the reporters hectored, no matter how often she was asked to condemn her husband's pardons or her brother's sins, she went back to the word of the day. ''I'm disappointed,'' she said. Sometimes she was ''very disappointed,'' sometimes ''just extremely disappointed,'' but by her 10th use of the word (plus one use of ''disappointing'') it was pretty clear how she felt. She refused to be goaded by a reporter who asked if she felt ''betrayed'' by her brother. ''Well, let me use my own words,'' she said, ''and my own words are that I'm disappointed.'' It was the perfect word for |
1298747 | 2001 | 06 | 03 | Tax Cuts and Political Shift Threaten Bush's Plans for Military |
Powerful political and economic forces are threatening President Bush's pledge to design a ''new architecture for the defense of America and our allies.'' While some of these forces were unleashed by the administration itself, Mr. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld seem in some ways to have been caught off guard.
The president entered office with a broad and ambitious agenda for the military, vowing to pare back ''uncertain'' peacekeeping missions overseas, swiftly deploy a ballistic missile shield and transform the forces with futuristic weapons that would make them lighter, faster and more lethal.
| Powerful political and economic forces are threatening President Bush's pledge to design a ''new architecture for the defense of America and our allies.'' While some of these forces were unleashed by the administration itself, Mr. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld seem in some ways to have been caught off guard. The president entered office with a broad and ambitious agenda for the military, vowing to pare back ''uncertain'' peacekeeping missions overseas, swiftly deploy a ballistic missile shield and transform the forces with futuristic weapons that would make them lighter, faster and more lethal. Mr. Bush was expected to begin announcing some of those potentially radical changes at a graduation speech before the United States Naval Academy last week. But those plans were postponed, in what |
1499216 | 2003 | 06 | 23 | Chinatown Jewelry District to Lose a Longtime Hub |
Jeffrey Liebross stood behind his showcases of diamond rings, pendants and earrings on a recent day at the Paramount Diamond Exchange and spoke of his family's three-generation history at the exchange -- a Chinatown jewelry mall whose demise is coming after nearly 70 years.
''My grandfather came into the building in 1935,'' Mr. Liebross said. ''My father came in in 1951. I came in in 1976.''
| Jeffrey Liebross stood behind his showcases of diamond rings, pendants and earrings on a recent day at the Paramount Diamond Exchange and spoke of his family's three-generation history at the exchange -- a Chinatown jewelry mall whose demise is coming after nearly 70 years. ''My grandfather came into the building in 1935,'' Mr. Liebross said. ''My father came in in 1951. I came in in 1976.'' By early next year, Liebross Jewelry and the 32 other jewelry merchants whose stalls fill the ground floor of the two-story exchange building will be scattered elsewhere. Or, if they cannot find space that they can afford or that suits them, they will be out of business. As a result, anxiety, sadness and a sense of looming loss coexist with the commerce |
1192826 | 2000 | 04 | 18 | Coach Says Knicks May Feel Lakers Are Invincible |
Coach Jeff Van Gundy has told the Knicks that they may not make it out of the first round of the playoffs if they do not play with more intensity, and he suggested today that they might be conceding this year's National Basketball Association title to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers, whose 67-13 record in their first season under Phil Jackson is nine games better than the next closest team, have beaten the Knicks twice this season.
| Coach Jeff Van Gundy has told the Knicks that they may not make it out of the first round of the playoffs if they do not play with more intensity, and he suggested today that they might be conceding this year's National Basketball Association title to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers, whose 67-13 record in their first season under Phil Jackson is nine games better than the next closest team, have beaten the Knicks twice this season. ''I think there's certainly a form of intimidation by them,'' Van Gundy said when asked if teams were playing for second best this season. ''I know when we played them, we didn't have that same belief we have against a lot of teams.'' It was the same when the Knicks |
1473069 | 2003 | 03 | 17 | Barnes & Noble and Book Magazine Try a New Tack |
Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book retailing chain, does not usually do things on a small scale. But the chain's sobering experience as a co-owner of Book magazine has prompted it to embrace, at least in this case, the less-is-more school of publishing economics.
Book, a magazine filled with book reviews, author interviews and effusive features like ''Anita Shreve's Secret Passions'' and ''Hype! Hype! Hype! Wild Publicity Stunts,'' grew so fast under Barnes & Noble's patronage that production costs soon overwhelmed any added revenues.
| Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book retailing chain, does not usually do things on a small scale. But the chain's sobering experience as a co-owner of Book magazine has prompted it to embrace, at least in this case, the less-is-more school of publishing economics. Book, a magazine filled with book reviews, author interviews and effusive features like ''Anita Shreve's Secret Passions'' and ''Hype! Hype! Hype! Wild Publicity Stunts,'' grew so fast under Barnes & Noble's patronage that production costs soon overwhelmed any added revenues. Now, Book and Barnes & Noble have restructured their partnership to cut costs and more closely integrate the magazine with the chain. Starting with the May/June issue, the magazine will be called Barnes & Noble Presents Book. The circulation promised advertisers will be |
1647691 | 2005 | 02 | 06 | Modern Marrakesh |
To the Editor: Regarding ''In an Ancient Desert, a Modern Oasis Beckons'' (Jan. 23): Yes, Edith Wharton shopped in the souks of Marrakesh, and her 1920 book ''In Morocco'' suggests she enjoyed their hustle and bustle. But I doubt she'd be pleased to learn that ''Marrakesh has become another St.-Tropez,'' replete with ''spas, cocktail lounges, fashionable boutiques.''
| To the Editor: Regarding ''In an Ancient Desert, a Modern Oasis Beckons'' (Jan. 23): Yes, Edith Wharton shopped in the souks of Marrakesh, and her 1920 book ''In Morocco'' suggests she enjoyed their hustle and bustle. But I doubt she'd be pleased to learn that ''Marrakesh has become another St.-Tropez,'' replete with ''spas, cocktail lounges, fashionable boutiques.'' And she would surely wonder whether anyone still seeks out quieter beauties such as she found in the Bahia: ''A long court enclosed in pale-green trellis-work, where pigeons plume themselves about a great tank and the dripping tiles glitter with refracted sunlight, leads to the fresh gloom of a cypress garden, or under jasmine tunnels bordered with running water; and these again open on arcaded apartments faced with tiles and stucco-work, |
1709722 | 2005 | 10 | 15 | Picking Up the Pieces; The Fall of Refco Is Providing a Test for Wall Street |
Two weeks ago, the chairman of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and a banker from HSBC went to visit Phillip R. Bennett, the chief executive of Refco, one of the largest commodities and futures trading firms, at its offices in the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan.
Mr. Bennett, smartly dressed and in good spirits, sat and chatted about the paintings on the office walls and the options that Refco had for moving when its lease came up at the end of the year. In riding a worldwide boom in the trading of commodities and derivatives, Refco was on top of its game: the company had successfully gone public in August, selling $583 million in stock and making Mr. Bennett and other top executives very rich men.
| Two weeks ago, the chairman of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and a banker from HSBC went to visit Phillip R. Bennett, the chief executive of Refco, one of the largest commodities and futures trading firms, at its offices in the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan. Mr. Bennett, smartly dressed and in good spirits, sat and chatted about the paintings on the office walls and the options that Refco had for moving when its lease came up at the end of the year. In riding a worldwide boom in the trading of commodities and derivatives, Refco was on top of its game: the company had successfully gone public in August, selling $583 million in stock and making Mr. Bennett and other top executives very rich men. ''He didn't |
1231591 | 2000 | 09 | 18 | Faltering TV Show Hits Stride on Web |
So what if it is only so-so as a TV show? On the Web, it just may have found a new life.
Bigbrother2000.com, the official Web address of the CBS television show ''Big Brother,'' was hailed last week as the top newcomer site in July in Media Metrix's monthly ratings. The company said that 4.25 million unique visitors logged onto the site during the month, where they were able to vote on which housemate should be dismissed or catch up on any episodes they may have missed.
| So what if it is only so-so as a TV show? On the Web, it just may have found a new life. Bigbrother2000.com, the official Web address of the CBS television show ''Big Brother,'' was hailed last week as the top newcomer site in July in Media Metrix's monthly ratings. The company said that 4.25 million unique visitors logged onto the site during the month, where they were able to vote on which housemate should be dismissed or catch up on any episodes they may have missed. And that is even without CBS claiming the more obvious domain name, www.bigbrother.com. That Web site, unrelated to the CBS show, offers visitors the opportunity to view a collection of Webcams. Not surprisingly, this site has also experienced a surge in |
1368490 | 2002 | 02 | 17 | When Push Comes to Shove, Only Some Tax Cuts Add Up |
A month ago, Gov. James E. McGreevey tried to shake off doubts about whether he could carry off his campaign promise not to raise taxes. What he meant, in a ''clarification'' that sounded artful but still in the realm of the possible, was that he would leave sales and income taxes alone.
Surely there would be ways to skirt the commandment, which could be named after Jim Florio, that taxes shall not be raised. There are user fees, excise taxes and other revenue-raisers. Whatever you call them, they could be tapped, no?
| A month ago, Gov. James E. McGreevey tried to shake off doubts about whether he could carry off his campaign promise not to raise taxes. What he meant, in a ''clarification'' that sounded artful but still in the realm of the possible, was that he would leave sales and income taxes alone. Surely there would be ways to skirt the commandment, which could be named after Jim Florio, that taxes shall not be raised. There are user fees, excise taxes and other revenue-raisers. Whatever you call them, they could be tapped, no? But while he spoke, the January numbers were adding up, and in the end they make a point about the governor's options. The state collected $1.7 billion in January, of which $1.5 billion came from the |
1232251 | 2000 | 09 | 20 | Armstrong to Race After Injury |
Lance Armstrong said today that he was largely recovered from a cracked neck vertebra he sustained when he was hit by a car three weeks ago while cycling in Nice, France, and would race next week in the 148.4-mile Olympic road race and 29-mile individual time trial.
''The neck is still a slight problem,'' he said. ''It's a little stiff, but it's 90 percent, which is enough.'' He added: ''It's not a risky fracture. I'm not at risk by riding with it.'' He said the injury would affect his preparation for the road race more than for the time trial.
| Lance Armstrong said today that he was largely recovered from a cracked neck vertebra he sustained when he was hit by a car three weeks ago while cycling in Nice, France, and would race next week in the 148.4-mile Olympic road race and 29-mile individual time trial. ''The neck is still a slight problem,'' he said. ''It's a little stiff, but it's 90 percent, which is enough.'' He added: ''It's not a risky fracture. I'm not at risk by riding with it.'' He said the injury would affect his preparation for the road race more than for the time trial. He said he was reassured by his victory last Saturday at the Grand Prix of Nations in France. ''I did a 70-kilometer time trial at 50k per hour,'' |
1583489 | 2004 | 05 | 22 | Testimony From Abu Ghraib Prisoners Describes a Center of Violence and Fear |
It was one night in November when the guards came another time for Amjed Isail Waleed. He was in Room 1, he recalled later, when ''they told me to lay down on my stomach and they were jumping on me from the bed onto my back and my legs.''
The assault was only beginning. He was already naked, and his hands were bound and tied to a cell door. One guard urinated on him and laughed. Two women hit his penis with a sponge ball. One -- ''with blond hair, she is white'' -- fondled him, he said.
| It was one night in November when the guards came another time for Amjed Isail Waleed. He was in Room 1, he recalled later, when ''they told me to lay down on my stomach and they were jumping on me from the bed onto my back and my legs.'' The assault was only beginning. He was already naked, and his hands were bound and tied to a cell door. One guard urinated on him and laughed. Two women hit his penis with a sponge ball. One -- ''with blond hair, she is white'' -- fondled him, he said. At some point in the night, the guards broke a phosphorescent light stick -- ''the glowing finger,'' he called it -- and poured its liquid on his body ''until I |
1632330 | 2004 | 12 | 05 | As Even Pompoms Are Outsourced, A Fixture in the Field Bears Up |
John Jones's hands are wide and strong, suited for using a sledgehammer or a welding torch. But since 1952, those calloused fingers have occupied themselves with far more delicate tasks. They have coaxed hair-thin threads and brightly colored yarns into tassels, cording and especially pompoms that have adorned everything from the elephants at the Barnum & Bailey Circus to the costumes of Broadway stars, and, natch, the hands of cheerleaders.
Mr. Jones, the ultimate niche entrepreneur, is the owner of Novelty Pom Pom, a factory on West 37th Street, and the other day he could be found bending over a card table covered with braided gold cord twisted into bows and strung with glass beads as big as marbles.
| John Jones's hands are wide and strong, suited for using a sledgehammer or a welding torch. But since 1952, those calloused fingers have occupied themselves with far more delicate tasks. They have coaxed hair-thin threads and brightly colored yarns into tassels, cording and especially pompoms that have adorned everything from the elephants at the Barnum & Bailey Circus to the costumes of Broadway stars, and, natch, the hands of cheerleaders. Mr. Jones, the ultimate niche entrepreneur, is the owner of Novelty Pom Pom, a factory on West 37th Street, and the other day he could be found bending over a card table covered with braided gold cord twisted into bows and strung with glass beads as big as marbles. ''These are napkin rings for a fancy dinner party,'' |
1842673 | 2007 | 04 | 24 | World Briefing | United Nations: New U.S. Ambassador Starts Job |
It was Zalmay Khalilzad's first day on the job as the American permanent representative to the United Nations. Mr. Khalilzad, the former ambassador to Iraq who replaced John R. Bolton after he resigned the United Nations post in December when he failed to obtain Senate confirmation, will travel immediately, joining a Security Council mission departing New York today for Serbia and Kosovo. The United States supports a United Nations plan for granting near-independence to Kosovo, but Russia, a veto-bearing member of the Council, is seeking to renegotiate it and called for the trip so ambassadors could see conditions on the ground. Mr. Khalilzad will become head of the Council for May, when the United States occupies the rotating presidency of the 15-member body. Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman for the American mission, quoted Mr. Khalilzad as saying his priorities would be Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and United Nations reform.
WARREN HOGE
| It was Zalmay Khalilzad's first day on the job as the American permanent representative to the United Nations. Mr. Khalilzad, the former ambassador to Iraq who replaced John R. Bolton after he resigned the United Nations post in December when he failed to obtain Senate confirmation, will travel immediately, joining a Security Council mission departing New York today for Serbia and Kosovo. The United States supports a United Nations plan for granting near-independence to Kosovo, but Russia, a veto-bearing member of the Council, is seeking to renegotiate it and called for the trip so ambassadors could see conditions on the ground. Mr. Khalilzad will become head of the Council for May, when the United States occupies the rotating presidency of the 15-member body. Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman |
1266254 | 2001 | 01 | 28 | Florida Theme Parks Break the $50 Mark |
One-day adult admission prices to major theme parks in Orlando and Tampa have broken the $50 mark. The theme parks have been raising prices by a couple of dollars on average each year for the last decade.
The first park to announce the price increases this month was Busch Gardens in Tampa. On Jan. 3, its adult admission price (for age 10 to 55) increased to $51.18 with tax, from $48.76; the price for children (age 3 to 9) went to $41.57, up from $39.22. How ever, Busch Gardens is the only theme park that allows paying guests to return free as often as they want during 2001 (except for eight blackout days), if they request the Florida Fun Card.
| One-day adult admission prices to major theme parks in Orlando and Tampa have broken the $50 mark. The theme parks have been raising prices by a couple of dollars on average each year for the last decade. The first park to announce the price increases this month was Busch Gardens in Tampa. On Jan. 3, its adult admission price (for age 10 to 55) increased to $51.18 with tax, from $48.76; the price for children (age 3 to 9) went to $41.57, up from $39.22. How ever, Busch Gardens is the only theme park that allows paying guests to return free as often as they want during 2001 (except for eight blackout days), if they request the Florida Fun Card. Busch Gardens operates a second attraction in Tampa, |
1529581 | 2003 | 10 | 24 | FAMILY FARE |
Just One Of Those Days
Most parents would tell their children that it's wrong to delight in another person's misery. But if that person is Alexander, they usually make an exception.
| Just One Of Those Days Most parents would tell their children that it's wrong to delight in another person's misery. But if that person is Alexander, they usually make an exception. He's the hero of ''Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,'' Judith Viorst's picture-book classic about the trials of an elementary school pupil. Fictional pain is a legitimate source of laughter, and that's a relief, because Ms. Viorst has turned her story into a musical (she wrote the book and lyrics; Shelly Markham, the score), and the results are even funnier onstage. The book's fans will recall that everything goes wrong for Alexander, from the gum in his hair in the morning to his broken nightlight at bedtime. The show, directed by J. Brandon |
1479888 | 2003 | 04 | 11 | A World Upside Down |
A large, angry mob was squaring off in the center of Basra against tense British troops backed by tanks and heavy machine guns, so I asked the Iraqis what they were doing.
''We're here to rob the banks,'' one man explained cheerfully.
| A large, angry mob was squaring off in the center of Basra against tense British troops backed by tanks and heavy machine guns, so I asked the Iraqis what they were doing. ''We're here to rob the banks,'' one man explained cheerfully. I must have looked surprised because another man explained that mobs had already used rocket-propelled grenades to break into several banks, but that the safes inside were still intact. ''So we've come to rob the banks, but those British soldiers won't let us in,'' he said indignantly. ''We're very upset.'' Iraq today is at once exuberant and upset -- and caught in a vacuum of authority. Now that we've overthrown the tyrant of the Tigris, our big challenge is to move immediately to fill this vacuum |
1292403 | 2001 | 05 | 11 | 'Remnant' |
The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College 68th Street and Lexington Avenue Through May 20
A wackily transformative spirit pervades this show. Each of its eight artists has taken an existing object -- in some cases a work of art -- or elements from it to produce quite another work that at the same time is a remnant of things past.
| The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College 68th Street and Lexington Avenue Through May 20 A wackily transformative spirit pervades this show. Each of its eight artists has taken an existing object -- in some cases a work of art -- or elements from it to produce quite another work that at the same time is a remnant of things past. Shauna McMullan, for example, cuts skinny route lines out of maps, presenting the tangled strands as beardlike wall hangings. She also guts newspapers of letters, sentences and pictures, leaving tattered relics that hang like old banners. Kenneth Goldsmith rifles well-known literary works, like Joyce's ''Finnegans Wake'' and Shakespeare's sonnets, for their punctuation only, scattering commas, periods and quotation marks randomly on sheets of paper |
1489276 | 2003 | 05 | 16 | Blair Says He'll Tell Nation in June About Policy on Euro |
Sidestepping critics' demands to state its intentions on whether to adopt the euro, the British government said today that it would announce its plans next month and seemed to distance itself from news reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair had already given up the idea of a referendum on the contentious issue.
The official maneuvers heightened a sense that the decision, now set for June 9, will represent a pivotal choice for this nation, whose relations with its major European partners are still bruised by Mr. Blair's support for the American-led war in Iraq.
| Sidestepping critics' demands to state its intentions on whether to adopt the euro, the British government said today that it would announce its plans next month and seemed to distance itself from news reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair had already given up the idea of a referendum on the contentious issue. The official maneuvers heightened a sense that the decision, now set for June 9, will represent a pivotal choice for this nation, whose relations with its major European partners are still bruised by Mr. Blair's support for the American-led war in Iraq. Many economists and others expect that the announcement will include a postponement of a referendum to before or after the next national election, which must be held by 2006. But the volume of discussion |
1397559 | 2002 | 06 | 03 | Small Catches, Low Prices and Imports Bedevil Louisiana Shrimpers |
The shrimp season was just a week old, but it might as well have ended already.
Kirk Williams, 38, a fifth-generation fisherman, had been out for six days on the briny bayous, bays and old oil-field canals that tint the map of Lafourche Parish a watery blue. He returned with just 7,800 pounds of shrimp in the hold of his 55-foot trawler.
| The shrimp season was just a week old, but it might as well have ended already. Kirk Williams, 38, a fifth-generation fisherman, had been out for six days on the briny bayous, bays and old oil-field canals that tint the map of Lafourche Parish a watery blue. He returned with just 7,800 pounds of shrimp in the hold of his 55-foot trawler. Last year, he caught 17,000 pounds on opening day alone -- and prices have plummeted to about half what they were then. His buddy Michael Gros, 43, gave up after hauling in just 3,700 pounds of shrimp, then kept his catch on ice for three days, hoping the market price would rise at least to a subsistence level. It did not. ''I don't know why I'm |
1407258 | 2002 | 07 | 11 | A 'Mouse' for Organizers Makes the Stylus Dispensable |
With more than 10 million hand-held computers sold each year, it is only reasonable to suppose that plenty of users never master Graffiti -- the Palm operating system's handwriting recognition program -- and that many enter information solely by synchronizing the organizer with a computer. What if some of those people want a mouse, not a stylus?
For such users, Targus has created the PDA Mouse, a stick-on that covers the graffiti writing area of a Palm-based organizer. Functions that are normally activated with the stylus, like the calculator, can be called up by tapping on the corresponding icon on the PDA Mouse. The PDA mouse also has an oval finger wheel that can be used to move the cursor around within any application. A button next to the mouse control acts as the left button of a regular mouse and can start a program.
| With more than 10 million hand-held computers sold each year, it is only reasonable to suppose that plenty of users never master Graffiti -- the Palm operating system's handwriting recognition program -- and that many enter information solely by synchronizing the organizer with a computer. What if some of those people want a mouse, not a stylus? For such users, Targus has created the PDA Mouse, a stick-on that covers the graffiti writing area of a Palm-based organizer. Functions that are normally activated with the stylus, like the calculator, can be called up by tapping on the corresponding icon on the PDA Mouse. The PDA mouse also has an oval finger wheel that can be used to move the cursor around within any application. A button next to |
1324970 | 2001 | 09 | 14 | U.S. Force vs. Terrorists: From Reactive to Active |
If the terrorist attacks this week, as George W. Bush says, mark the first war of the 21st century, waging that fight will require new military thinking and bolder tactics, allied experts say.
For the last decade, the use of American might has been shaped by several principles: emphasizing air power and long-range precision arms, avoiding ground combat whenever possible and using overwhelming ground forces when it is not.
| If the terrorist attacks this week, as George W. Bush says, mark the first war of the 21st century, waging that fight will require new military thinking and bolder tactics, allied experts say. For the last decade, the use of American might has been shaped by several principles: emphasizing air power and long-range precision arms, avoiding ground combat whenever possible and using overwhelming ground forces when it is not. The use of American military force has also been reactive. Pre-emptive action was ruled out, partly because American law prohibits assassination as state policy. The United States waited to be hit before striking back, and American casualties were to be avoided at all costs. All of those principles were at work when the Clinton administration struck at Osama bin |
1539134 | 2003 | 11 | 30 | Credits |
Page 71: Main photograph of Selfridges by Norbert Schoerner. NatWest: Richard Davies. Rabanne dress: Orban Thierry/Corbis Sygma. Snakeskin: Corbis. Church facade from Future Systems. Small exterior detail photographs of Selfridges: Soren Aagaard/Future Systems. Sketch by Future Systems.
Page 72: Inset photograph of boy with popsicle by Bob Krist/Corbis. Photographs of girls with popsicle by Reinhard Hunger for The New York Times. All others from Eisb* r-Eis GmbH.
| Page 71: Main photograph of Selfridges by Norbert Schoerner. NatWest: Richard Davies. Rabanne dress: Orban Thierry/Corbis Sygma. Snakeskin: Corbis. Church facade from Future Systems. Small exterior detail photographs of Selfridges: Soren Aagaard/Future Systems. Sketch by Future Systems. Page 72: Inset photograph of boy with popsicle by Bob Krist/Corbis. Photographs of girls with popsicle by Reinhard Hunger for The New York Times. All others from Eisb* r-Eis GmbH. Page 73: Marine biology institute: Stephen Hillenburg. Ocean, Aloha postcard, Polynesian fabric, lobster claw, starfish and squid: Corbis. Sponge: KarlssonWilker. Pee-wee Herman, Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy by Everett Collection. All drawings by Stephen Hillenburg. Page 74: New $20 bill: Mikako Koyama for The New York Times. Historical bills and entrance to where the bills are designed: Bureau of Engraving and |
1847390 | 2007 | 05 | 14 | Music in Review |
Musicians From Marlboro Metropolitan Museum of Art
When the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont first sent its performers on tour under the Musicians From Marlboro banner in 1965, one of the participants was the violinist Arnold Steinhardt. A year earlier, Mr. Steinhardt had co-founded the Guarneri String Quartet, now one of chamber music's most enduring ensembles. The quartet regularly plays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but when Mr. Steinhardt appeared there on Friday night, it was as mentor to a current crop of young Marlboro musicians.
| Musicians From Marlboro Metropolitan Museum of Art When the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont first sent its performers on tour under the Musicians From Marlboro banner in 1965, one of the participants was the violinist Arnold Steinhardt. A year earlier, Mr. Steinhardt had co-founded the Guarneri String Quartet, now one of chamber music's most enduring ensembles. The quartet regularly plays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but when Mr. Steinhardt appeared there on Friday night, it was as mentor to a current crop of young Marlboro musicians. Mr. Steinhardt played second violin in a memorable account of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8. Playing first violin, the position that carries much of the narrative impetus in this moody, occasionally tormented piece of musical autobiography, was Lily Francis, whose graceful |
1372855 | 2002 | 03 | 04 | Argentine Estates Decay With Economy |
As a child growing up in the 1940's, Carlos Emilio Lamas always thought that his grandfather's 12,000-acre estate here on the pampas was a magical place. There were hundreds of horses and thousands of cattle, and on weekends a steady stream of visiting relatives and friends.
''Life was very comfortable for us then,'' he recalled recently. ''We would play polo in the morning, go hunting for partridges in the afternoon, and in the evening, the dining room was always full, never with less than 15 people.''
| As a child growing up in the 1940's, Carlos Emilio Lamas always thought that his grandfather's 12,000-acre estate here on the pampas was a magical place. There were hundreds of horses and thousands of cattle, and on weekends a steady stream of visiting relatives and friends. ''Life was very comfortable for us then,'' he recalled recently. ''We would play polo in the morning, go hunting for partridges in the afternoon, and in the evening, the dining room was always full, never with less than 15 people.'' Today, Mr. Lamas, now 60, is the owner of the estate, the Estancia Delsel -- or rather, the little that remains. Less than a tenth of the original acreage is still in his hands, and the cost of maintaining the stately 7,200-square-foot |
1571394 | 2004 | 04 | 04 | DeMille's Commandment: Honor Thy Dancing Girls |
SAY what you like about ''The Passion of the Christ'' -- and I'll bet you have -- one line of discussion has gone unexplored. Although a good many viewers have criticized Mel Gibson's literalist approach to the Gospels, or have painstakingly scrutinized his claim of scriptural fidelity, no one has spoken up for the Hollywood tradition that he would seem to supplant. No one challenges ''The Passion of the Christ'' by advocating a return to the old days, when a Mary Magdalene clothed in little more than a headdress would set off in a chariot to meet her savior, having first ordered her servants to ''Harness my zebras.''
You will not hear a defense of this tradition from me, either. Those who want to revisit it will nevertheless have ample opportunity this week, when Turner Classic Movies shows a new two-part documentary titled ''Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic'' (tomorrow and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Eastern) and eight of his films. ''The King of Kings'' (1927), with its zebra-driving Magdalene, is on the schedule. So are two more of DeMille's achievements in boffo box-office reverence: ''The Sign of the Cross'' (1932) and ''The Crusades'' (1935). Not glutted yet? You may catch DeMille's ''Ten Commandments'' (1956) tonight on ABC (evidently broadcast in response to the success of ''The Passion'') or visit the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens for a big-screen series of DeMille's movies (beginning on Saturday), succinctly titled ''Sin and Salvation.''
| SAY what you like about ''The Passion of the Christ'' -- and I'll bet you have -- one line of discussion has gone unexplored. Although a good many viewers have criticized Mel Gibson's literalist approach to the Gospels, or have painstakingly scrutinized his claim of scriptural fidelity, no one has spoken up for the Hollywood tradition that he would seem to supplant. No one challenges ''The Passion of the Christ'' by advocating a return to the old days, when a Mary Magdalene clothed in little more than a headdress would set off in a chariot to meet her savior, having first ordered her servants to ''Harness my zebras.'' You will not hear a defense of this tradition from me, either. Those who want to revisit it will nevertheless |
1741490 | 2006 | 02 | 22 | A Most Familiar Tale, Told in a New Mix of Sounds |
The composer Osvaldo Golijov fervently believes that a ''new era of integration in music is beginning,'' as he writes in the program note to the festival of his works that Lincoln Center has been presenting. He sees an overdue dialogue taking place between the past and the present, the popular and the serious, and, most important, between disparate international cultures. He has been an admirable instigator of that dialogue.
This conviction infuses all of his works, none more so than the one that brought him international attention at its premiere in Germany in 2000, ''La Pasión Según San Marcos.'' Lincoln Center's festival is concluding with two performances of that work, the first of which took place Monday night at the Rose Theater. Robert Spano, who believes in this score and conducts it masterfully, presided over a mesmerizing roster of vocal soloists, the exuberant Schola Cantorum de Caracas from Venezuela, the Orquesta La Pasión (the ensemble of percussionists, brass players and other instrumentalists assembled for this performance) and members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
| The composer Osvaldo Golijov fervently believes that a ''new era of integration in music is beginning,'' as he writes in the program note to the festival of his works that Lincoln Center has been presenting. He sees an overdue dialogue taking place between the past and the present, the popular and the serious, and, most important, between disparate international cultures. He has been an admirable instigator of that dialogue. This conviction infuses all of his works, none more so than the one that brought him international attention at its premiere in Germany in 2000, ''La Pasión Según San Marcos.'' Lincoln Center's festival is concluding with two performances of that work, the first of which took place Monday night at the Rose Theater. Robert Spano, who believes in this |
1266126 | 2001 | 01 | 27 | Jets Showed Ravens Are Vulnerable |
Like a soaring symphony, it was all in the rhythm. When the Jets ran up 524 yards of offense in a loss to the Ravens in their regular season finale -- the most yardage allowed by Baltimore all season -- they exposed perhaps the only plan to wear away at the Ravens' top-flight defense with bombast and theatrics.
''It's Football 101,'' the Jets' offensive line coach, Bill Muir, said. ''It's having a feel for when you have been in the no-huddle too long, when you have got too much mileage out of the run and play-action and now it's time to go back to the no-huddle. I wouldn't look necessarily at what we did so much as the rhythm with which we did it.''
| Like a soaring symphony, it was all in the rhythm. When the Jets ran up 524 yards of offense in a loss to the Ravens in their regular season finale -- the most yardage allowed by Baltimore all season -- they exposed perhaps the only plan to wear away at the Ravens' top-flight defense with bombast and theatrics. ''It's Football 101,'' the Jets' offensive line coach, Bill Muir, said. ''It's having a feel for when you have been in the no-huddle too long, when you have got too much mileage out of the run and play-action and now it's time to go back to the no-huddle. I wouldn't look necessarily at what we did so much as the rhythm with which we did it.'' The Giants have surely |
1654682 | 2005 | 03 | 06 | A Gentleman Comes to Call |
By the end of this year, Josh Lucas will have starred in two big-budget Hollywood films -- ''Stealth,'' which Lucas describes as ''Top Gun'' meets ''2001,'' and ''Glory Road,'' the story of Don Haskins, the Texas Western coach who won the 1966 N.C.A.A. championship with all black starters. ''The heat off these movies is huge,'' Lucas said as he drank a glass of red wine at Mayrose diner in Manhattan. ''Everyone in L.A. is saying, 'What do you want?' '' His smile suggested a kind of sexy willfulness. ''And that's why I'm doing Broadway. Why not run from all this pressure and be on the stage in 'The Glass Menagerie' for the next five months?''
Lucas, who is 33, has flirted with fame before -- in 2002, he was the only interesting thing about ''Sweet Home Alabama,'' and he played fascinating villains in ''The Hulk'' and ''The Deep End.'' But he does not have the sort of signature persona that guarantees stardom. He is classically handsome, with bright blue eyes and dirty blond hair, and yet, until recently, he never gravitated toward the kind of roles his looks would suggest. ''I always saw myself as a gritty character actor,'' he said. ''You look at the greats, like Pacino and De Niro and Sean Penn, they all approached their work like character actors. They are men, not personalities.'' He stared intently. ''Men. I think that's what's missing in the movies right now.''
| By the end of this year, Josh Lucas will have starred in two big-budget Hollywood films -- ''Stealth,'' which Lucas describes as ''Top Gun'' meets ''2001,'' and ''Glory Road,'' the story of Don Haskins, the Texas Western coach who won the 1966 N.C.A.A. championship with all black starters. ''The heat off these movies is huge,'' Lucas said as he drank a glass of red wine at Mayrose diner in Manhattan. ''Everyone in L.A. is saying, 'What do you want?' '' His smile suggested a kind of sexy willfulness. ''And that's why I'm doing Broadway. Why not run from all this pressure and be on the stage in 'The Glass Menagerie' for the next five months?'' Lucas, who is 33, has flirted with fame before -- in 2002, he |
1350228 | 2001 | 12 | 10 | Noting 'Shortcomings,' Pentagon Says It Will Remove Some Obstacles to Covering War |
Under pressure from news organizations unhappy with Pentagon restrictions placed on journalists trying to cover the fighting in Afghanistan, the Defense Department is promising to be more helpful.
It has also apologized for past obstacles to coverage. Whether that translates into better access for journalists to troops and battle information remains to be seen, news executives said.
| Under pressure from news organizations unhappy with Pentagon restrictions placed on journalists trying to cover the fighting in Afghanistan, the Defense Department is promising to be more helpful. It has also apologized for past obstacles to coverage. Whether that translates into better access for journalists to troops and battle information remains to be seen, news executives said. ''We owe you an apology,'' Victoria Clarke, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, wrote Thursday in a letter to the Washington bureau chiefs of major news organizations. ''The last several days have revealed severe shortcomings in our preparedness to support news organizations in their efforts to cover U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.'' From the earliest days of the war, journalists have complained about a severe information drought at the |
1527206 | 2003 | 10 | 14 | You, Too, Could End Up In the Presidential Suite |
In a recent commercial for Lexus car dealers, a desk clerk tells a weary traveler his room is not available because the hotel is overbooked, but he can have one on another floor at the same rate. When the guest opens the door, he finds himself in the presidential suite, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows, a piano, ice sculpture and hors d'oeuvres, the last two obsequiously delivered by the clerk who checked him in.
Getting an upgrade to the presidential suite isn't so easy these days. Hotel loyalty programs are less generous than they were a few years ago, while hotels are more likely to give special treatment to a small class of executives like meeting planners, corporate travel managers and chief executives as a way to woo or retain their business. Even so, it can happen to you, if you play your cards right and get lucky.
| In a recent commercial for Lexus car dealers, a desk clerk tells a weary traveler his room is not available because the hotel is overbooked, but he can have one on another floor at the same rate. When the guest opens the door, he finds himself in the presidential suite, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows, a piano, ice sculpture and hors d'oeuvres, the last two obsequiously delivered by the clerk who checked him in. Getting an upgrade to the presidential suite isn't so easy these days. Hotel loyalty programs are less generous than they were a few years ago, while hotels are more likely to give special treatment to a small class of executives like meeting planners, corporate travel managers and chief executives as a way to woo or |
1197026 | 2000 | 05 | 05 | Spain Asks Dutch to Reduce Stake in KPN |
As talks between Telefonica of Spain and Royal KPN of the Netherlands on a possible merger continued, the Spanish government called today for the Dutch government to reduce its stake in Royal KPN.
Both companies are former state-owned phone monopolies. While shares in both are now traded publicly, the Spanish and Dutch governments still control major stakes.
| As talks between Telefonica of Spain and Royal KPN of the Netherlands on a possible merger continued, the Spanish government called today for the Dutch government to reduce its stake in Royal KPN. Both companies are former state-owned phone monopolies. While shares in both are now traded publicly, the Spanish and Dutch governments still control major stakes. Telefonica's board met today to consider its options, including a full merger of operations with Royal KPN. Executives close to the talks said that Telefonica was considering paying about $54 billion for the Dutch concern. The meeting adjourned late today without a decision and will resume on Friday. Earlier, Spain's finance minister, Rodrigo Rato Figaredo, wrote his Dutch counterpart, Gerrit Zalm, saying, ''In order for a deal to be carried out, |
1273825 | 2001 | 02 | 26 | School Privatization Foes Say Chosen Company Unfairly Gets Board's Help With Vote |
Opponents of a plan by Schools Chancellor Harold O. Levy to let a private company manage five low-performing public schools are accusing the Board of Education of unfairly skewing the process because the private company, Edison Schools Inc., is being given board resources to try to persuade parents to support the plan.
The privatization plan was first promoted by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. In December, Chancellor Levy announced that he had selected Edison, which manages more than 100 public schools in 45 cities, to convert three schools in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx to charter schools, which would free them from many state and local regulations and allow Edison to use its own curriculum and teaching methods.
| Opponents of a plan by Schools Chancellor Harold O. Levy to let a private company manage five low-performing public schools are accusing the Board of Education of unfairly skewing the process because the private company, Edison Schools Inc., is being given board resources to try to persuade parents to support the plan. The privatization plan was first promoted by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. In December, Chancellor Levy announced that he had selected Edison, which manages more than 100 public schools in 45 cities, to convert three schools in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx to charter schools, which would free them from many state and local regulations and allow Edison to use its own curriculum and teaching methods. But to convert a school to charter |
1276955 | 2001 | 03 | 11 | An Ugly Start for the Enchanting Begonia |
THERE is no doubt about it. A begonia tuber is an ugly thing. A healthy one is between two and six inches wide and resembles a small cowpat. A ragged mass of desiccated roots clings to one rounded side; the other side may have a slight indentation and, occasionally, the nub of an emerging sprout. This unpromising appearance gives absolutely no indication of the glories hidden within.
Tuberous begonias are true diamonds in the rough. Native to South America, they are big bold plants that provide all the color that shade gardeners perpetually crave. Most hybrid types grow to be between 12 to 18 inches tall, with strong dark green leaves and big flowers in an array of shades so luminous that they look almost unreal in catalog pictures. The cascading varieties can provide the same glorious displays in hanging baskets.
| THERE is no doubt about it. A begonia tuber is an ugly thing. A healthy one is between two and six inches wide and resembles a small cowpat. A ragged mass of desiccated roots clings to one rounded side; the other side may have a slight indentation and, occasionally, the nub of an emerging sprout. This unpromising appearance gives absolutely no indication of the glories hidden within. Tuberous begonias are true diamonds in the rough. Native to South America, they are big bold plants that provide all the color that shade gardeners perpetually crave. Most hybrid types grow to be between 12 to 18 inches tall, with strong dark green leaves and big flowers in an array of shades so luminous that they look almost unreal in catalog |
1521347 | 2003 | 09 | 21 | With a Big Victory, Japanese Premier Gains Momentum |
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was re-elected leader of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party today in a decisive victory that could give him renewed momentum to push through reforms in the world's second largest economy and to keep nudging the country toward a more muscular role internationally.
Buoyed by his personal popularity, Mr. Koizumi was chosen in the first round by party lawmakers and members, many of whom disagree with his reformist policies but need him as a standard-bearer in general elections. The prime minister, who won with more than 60 percent of the votes against three other challengers, said he would reshuffle his cabinet on Monday.
| Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was re-elected leader of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party today in a decisive victory that could give him renewed momentum to push through reforms in the world's second largest economy and to keep nudging the country toward a more muscular role internationally. Buoyed by his personal popularity, Mr. Koizumi was chosen in the first round by party lawmakers and members, many of whom disagree with his reformist policies but need him as a standard-bearer in general elections. The prime minister, who won with more than 60 percent of the votes against three other challengers, said he would reshuffle his cabinet on Monday. With the party's grip on Parliament, the victory almost certainly means Mr. Koizumi will win a second term as prime minister, in |
1196318 | 2000 | 05 | 02 | Newspaper Circulation on the Rise |
Circulation among the country's largest daily newspapers increased slightly during the fall and winter, helping slow the trend of declining circulation that has afflicted the industry for 16 years, according to the latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The report, covering the period from Oct. 1, 1999, through March 31, 2000, shows that USA Today, the nation's top-selling newspaper, still holds a 25,000-copy lead over The Wall Street Journal in daily circulation.
| Circulation among the country's largest daily newspapers increased slightly during the fall and winter, helping slow the trend of declining circulation that has afflicted the industry for 16 years, according to the latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The report, covering the period from Oct. 1, 1999, through March 31, 2000, shows that USA Today, the nation's top-selling newspaper, still holds a 25,000-copy lead over The Wall Street Journal in daily circulation. Among the top 10 newspapers, 9 showed gains, with the circulation of the No. 3-ranked Los Angeles Times jumping by an eye-catching 5 percent, in part thanks to its new program of distributing the newspaper in partnership with Spanish- and Korean-language dailies in the Los Angeles area. The New York Times's daily circulation increased |
1280508 | 2001 | 03 | 25 | Oh Say, Can You Sing? |
The Newark Bears minor-league baseball team has 72 home dates plus the Atlantic League all-star game on the schedule this season, with the home opener on May 11.
That means 73 ''Star Spangled Banners.'' The team is looking for singers, and is holding auditions next Saturday at 10:30 at Riverfront Stadium. ''The first requirement will be to get through it,'' said Greg King, the team's spokesman and also its on-field announcer. Beyond that, ''If they're good, we'll book them.'' Better singers will be assigned weekend dates, and one of the best will get the all-star gig. And unless 73 good-enough singers show up, some will get repeat appearances. At the same time, the team will hold try-outs for a paid announcer for on-field contests.
| The Newark Bears minor-league baseball team has 72 home dates plus the Atlantic League all-star game on the schedule this season, with the home opener on May 11. That means 73 ''Star Spangled Banners.'' The team is looking for singers, and is holding auditions next Saturday at 10:30 at Riverfront Stadium. ''The first requirement will be to get through it,'' said Greg King, the team's spokesman and also its on-field announcer. Beyond that, ''If they're good, we'll book them.'' Better singers will be assigned weekend dates, and one of the best will get the all-star gig. And unless 73 good-enough singers show up, some will get repeat appearances. At the same time, the team will hold try-outs for a paid announcer for on-field contests. The announcer should have |
1624810 | 2004 | 11 | 05 | Learning From the Election, and Looking Ahead |
To the Editor:
The alienation from the rest of the nation that Democrats feel is a product of their unwillingness to take Christian morality seriously. If you are a devout, traditional Christian, it is not obvious, as a social liberal would hold, that gays should be able to marry. John Kerry made a profound statement in the second debate when he said that although he is a Catholic, he would not legislate his morality on the nation.
| To the Editor: The alienation from the rest of the nation that Democrats feel is a product of their unwillingness to take Christian morality seriously. If you are a devout, traditional Christian, it is not obvious, as a social liberal would hold, that gays should be able to marry. John Kerry made a profound statement in the second debate when he said that although he is a Catholic, he would not legislate his morality on the nation. It is difficult to change a Christian's mind about morality using a secular argument, so Democrats must seize the lever of tolerance and diversity and use it to force apart church and state. Few Christians would support coercing Buddhists, Muslims and Jews to embrace a new faith, because they know you |
1766775 | 2006 | 06 | 04 | Border Patrol Draws Increased Scrutiny as President Proposes an Expanded Role |
With a proposed major expansion, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training difficulties, and several agents face accusations of misconduct.
In response to concerns, the inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it would audit the agency's recruitment, hiring and training practices to determine if it can handle the rapid expansion. A spokeswoman, Tamara Faulkner, said the review could begin this month.
| With a proposed major expansion, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training difficulties, and several agents face accusations of misconduct. In response to concerns, the inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it would audit the agency's recruitment, hiring and training practices to determine if it can handle the rapid expansion. A spokeswoman, Tamara Faulkner, said the review could begin this month. David V. Aguilar, the chief of the Border Patrol, told Congress last week that the extraordinary growth was vital to national security, particularly as the authorities seek to clamp down on illegal crossings along the Mexican border. |
1228756 | 2000 | 09 | 08 | Low-Profile Consumer Protection |
The offices at the decaying headquarters of the government consumer protection agency here are threadbare and sparsely furnished, and the elevators do not always work. The concept of class-action suits does not exist in the local legal code, and even if it did, there is no network of consumer advocacy groups or lawyers to promote them.
Tire failures and rollovers involving Bridgestone/Firestone and the Ford Motor Company have emerged as the biggest product liability controversy in years, and Venezuela as one of the scandal's main focal points. But neither the legal system nor the government regulatory structure here is prepared for a case of this magnitude, experts here agree.
| The offices at the decaying headquarters of the government consumer protection agency here are threadbare and sparsely furnished, and the elevators do not always work. The concept of class-action suits does not exist in the local legal code, and even if it did, there is no network of consumer advocacy groups or lawyers to promote them. Tire failures and rollovers involving Bridgestone/Firestone and the Ford Motor Company have emerged as the biggest product liability controversy in years, and Venezuela as one of the scandal's main focal points. But neither the legal system nor the government regulatory structure here is prepared for a case of this magnitude, experts here agree. ''In North America, the theme of consumer protection is constantly on the agenda, to the point that you even |
1218619 | 2000 | 07 | 30 | Treasures Of a Past Glowing With Hope |
THE tip of this Trylon was perfect. Not a chip or a bend. The Perisphere was pristine, unscratched, unspotted, its surface gleaming after 60 years. Whoever owned these brass-plated pot-metal bookends had treated them with the reverence they deserved.
I entered my high bid in this Internet auction, under my nom de guerre, WF39, but as I surveyed the user ID's of the other bidders, I foresaw trouble. Here were my nemeses; the well-named ''Fairfiend,'' ''GroverW'' and especially ''exNY1940''; men and women possessed of pockets so deep and passions so large that seconds before the end of an auction, trigger finger on their mouse, they would make off with my Trylon and Peri sphere trophy, slamming my bid with a higher one, leaving me stunned and defeated.
| THE tip of this Trylon was perfect. Not a chip or a bend. The Perisphere was pristine, unscratched, unspotted, its surface gleaming after 60 years. Whoever owned these brass-plated pot-metal bookends had treated them with the reverence they deserved. I entered my high bid in this Internet auction, under my nom de guerre, WF39, but as I surveyed the user ID's of the other bidders, I foresaw trouble. Here were my nemeses; the well-named ''Fairfiend,'' ''GroverW'' and especially ''exNY1940''; men and women possessed of pockets so deep and passions so large that seconds before the end of an auction, trigger finger on their mouse, they would make off with my Trylon and Peri sphere trophy, slamming my bid with a higher one, leaving me stunned and defeated. It |
1728339 | 2005 | 12 | 30 | Hard Choices (And Work) Revive Burke |
OWNING a ski area has never been easy. It's labor-intensive. You need natural and financial resources. Poor economic times shrink your client base. There are liability issues.
And that was before global warming.
| OWNING a ski area has never been easy. It's labor-intensive. You need natural and financial resources. Poor economic times shrink your client base. There are liability issues. And that was before global warming. So maybe this isn't a great time to buy into the ski market. But some people are jumping into the ski business anyway, despite the potential pitfalls. That's good news for us in the snow-sliding tribe. In its 50-year existence, Burke Mountain in northeastern Vermont has seen everything the ski business has to dish out, and then some. Today, Burke Mountain, which was bankrupt and sold at auction just five years ago, is poised to see something else: a rebirth. It is a Cinderella story for all the lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path ski areas out there. The |
1626781 | 2004 | 11 | 13 | Using Courts in Brazil to Strengthen an Indian Identity |
ON all her official papers, she is known as Joênia Batista de Carvalho. But that is not the real name of the first Indian woman to become a lawyer in Brazil, just a name a clerk randomly selected when her parents were first brought from their Amazon village to have their births registered.
Whether her preoccupation with issues of cultural identity and autonomy stems from that incident, Ms. Batista is not sure. Still, when she went to the United States earlier this year to receive a Reebok Prize for her human rights work, she chose to accept the award as Joênia Wapixana, using the name of the tribe to which she belongs.
| ON all her official papers, she is known as Joênia Batista de Carvalho. But that is not the real name of the first Indian woman to become a lawyer in Brazil, just a name a clerk randomly selected when her parents were first brought from their Amazon village to have their births registered. Whether her preoccupation with issues of cultural identity and autonomy stems from that incident, Ms. Batista is not sure. Still, when she went to the United States earlier this year to receive a Reebok Prize for her human rights work, she chose to accept the award as Joênia Wapixana, using the name of the tribe to which she belongs. ''Everything I do is aimed at focusing attention on our community, so that others, outside, can |
1828450 | 2007 | 02 | 24 | A Developing Story |
THE developer Bruce Ratner broke ground this week on his Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, despite an eminent domain suit over property he must raze to build a basketball arena for the Nets. This ''preparatory work'' is Mr. Ratner's latest maneuver in a maddeningly effective campaign to make his instant city -- a 22-acre swarm of 16 residential skyscrapers (and a 20,500-seat arena) that would create the densest population swath in the United States -- look and feel like a foregone conclusion.
To supporters, anyone who opposes Atlantic Yards must be doing so for selfish reasons. The project, these proponents claim, is a boon for Brooklyn: it will connect neighborhoods long cleaved by the Long Island Rail Road yards; provide jobs, tax revenue and urgently needed affordable housing; supply acres of public green space; and showcase bold designs by Frank Gehry.
| THE developer Bruce Ratner broke ground this week on his Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, despite an eminent domain suit over property he must raze to build a basketball arena for the Nets. This ''preparatory work'' is Mr. Ratner's latest maneuver in a maddeningly effective campaign to make his instant city -- a 22-acre swarm of 16 residential skyscrapers (and a 20,500-seat arena) that would create the densest population swath in the United States -- look and feel like a foregone conclusion. To supporters, anyone who opposes Atlantic Yards must be doing so for selfish reasons. The project, these proponents claim, is a boon for Brooklyn: it will connect neighborhoods long cleaved by the Long Island Rail Road yards; provide jobs, tax revenue and urgently needed affordable housing; |
1850999 | 2007 | 05 | 31 | McKim, Mead & White, Reinterpreted by Haas |
No canvas is too big for Richard Haas, a Manhattan-based artist whose trompe l'oeil murals embellish the urban landscape from New York to California. Mr. Haas's latest project is a 12-story mural at 110 Livingston Street in downtown Brooklyn, a building that once housed the New York City Board of Education. Two Trees Management, which is converting the 1926 McKim, Mead & White building into a 300-unit condominium, asked Mr. Haas to dress up the walls of the courtyard in back. Mr. Haas, left, obliged by extending the ornate vocabulary of the facade, creating faux cornices, columns, trellises and a pediment with a giant clock and two sculptural figures, above. But residents should be forewarned: Legend has it that at another building with a Haas mural, a woman walked straight into a wall. 110 Livingston (Court Street), Brooklyn, (718) 222-4110, 110livingston.com.
ROBERTA HERSHENSON
| No canvas is too big for Richard Haas, a Manhattan-based artist whose trompe l'oeil murals embellish the urban landscape from New York to California. Mr. Haas's latest project is a 12-story mural at 110 Livingston Street in downtown Brooklyn, a building that once housed the New York City Board of Education. Two Trees Management, which is converting the 1926 McKim, Mead & White building into a 300-unit condominium, asked Mr. Haas to dress up the walls of the courtyard in back. Mr. Haas, left, obliged by extending the ornate vocabulary of the facade, creating faux cornices, columns, trellises and a pediment with a giant clock and two sculptural figures, above. But residents should be forewarned: Legend has it that at another building with a Haas mural, a woman |
1459537 | 2003 | 01 | 26 | Las Vegas and Pro Football Are Perfect Together |
ON a rental-car journey through the Strip, with the windows down for the cultural safari, it's impossible to tell the difference between this decadent kingdom in the sand and the National Football League.
Vegas can claim the glittering Mirage hotel; the N.F.L. claims it seeks racial diversity (another type of mirage). One boasts Elvis impersonators; the other has the owner Al Davis.
| ON a rental-car journey through the Strip, with the windows down for the cultural safari, it's impossible to tell the difference between this decadent kingdom in the sand and the National Football League. Vegas can claim the glittering Mirage hotel; the N.F.L. claims it seeks racial diversity (another type of mirage). One boasts Elvis impersonators; the other has the owner Al Davis. In Vegas, there is $9.99 Prime Rib Night. In the N.F.L., there is the U.S.D.A.-approved offensive lineman. Las Vegas has fine shopping; the N.F.L. has free agency. One is the scene of bawdy lounge acts; the other is a display case for Jeremy Shockey's act. More important, Las Vegas bookies take legal bets on football games, while the N.F.L.'s TV ratings profit from the gambling interest. |
1575376 | 2004 | 04 | 19 | Weapons Moving Out, Wildlife Moving In |
Ernie Maurer was 20 in the summer of 1942 when the United States Army took his family's farm, along with dozens of others, to create the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a 27-square-mile chemical weapons complex that became notorious for the deep scars of pollution that were left on the land.
On Saturday Mr. Maurer was back, watching as an Army official signed over title on nearly 5,000 acres of arsenal land to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to create America's newest national wildlife refuge. Mr. Maurer, now 82, pointed to where he picnicked as a child, and where the bomb factories once stood.
| Ernie Maurer was 20 in the summer of 1942 when the United States Army took his family's farm, along with dozens of others, to create the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a 27-square-mile chemical weapons complex that became notorious for the deep scars of pollution that were left on the land. On Saturday Mr. Maurer was back, watching as an Army official signed over title on nearly 5,000 acres of arsenal land to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to create America's newest national wildlife refuge. Mr. Maurer, now 82, pointed to where he picnicked as a child, and where the bomb factories once stood. ''It's quite amazing the way things developed,'' he said. Environmentalists like to say that nature bats last. But the continuing story of the arsenal suggests |
1734607 | 2006 | 01 | 25 | TRANSACTIONS |
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
American League BALTIMORE ORIOLES--Agreed to terms with OF Jay Gibbons on a four-year contract. BOSTON RED SOX--Named Theo Epstein executive vice president and general manager, Jed Hoyer assistant general manager and Ben Cherington vice president of player personnel. MINNESOTA TWINS--Agreed to terms with 2B Nick Punto on a one-year contract. YANKEES--Agreed to terms with RHP Aaron Small on a one-year contract. TORONTO BLUE JAYS--Agreed to terms with RHP James Baldwin on a minor league contract.
National League LOS ANGELES DODGERS--Named Steve Yeager coach and Ken Howell pitching coach for Las Vegas of the PCL, Mike Easler hitting coach and Danny Darwin pitching coach for Jacksonville of the Southern League, Lance Parrish manager for Ogden of the Pioneer League, Richie Lewis pitching coach for Columbus of the South Atlantic League, Bill Robinson minor league hitting coordinator, and Tarrik Brock coach of the Dodgers of the Gulf Coast League. METS--Agreed to terms with C Bobby Estalella, RHP Jeremi Gonzalez and RHP Jose Santiago on minor league contracts.
N.F.L.
ATLANTA FALCONS--Named Bill Musgrave quarterbacks coach. BUFFALO BILLS--Named Bill Kollar defensive line coach. MIAMI DOLPHINS--Named Dom Capers special assistant to coach Nick Saban. MINNESOTA VIKINGS--Named Fred Pagac linebackers coach and Joe Woods secondary coach. PITTSBURGH STEELERS--Signed LB Arnold Harrison from their practice squad. Signed DT Grant Bowman to the practice squad. ST. LOUIS RAMS--Named Jim Haslett defensive coordinator and Greg Olson offensive coordinator.
N.H.L.
ATLANTA THRASHERS--Activated RW Peter Bondra from injured reserve. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS--Activated F Manny Malhotra and D Luke Richardson from injured reserve. DALLAS STARS--Recalled D Patrick Traverse from Iowa of the AHL. MONTREAL CANADIENS--Recalled F Raitis Ivanans from Hamilton of the AHL. Assigned F Jonathan Ferland to Hamilton. NASHVILLE PREDATORS--Recalled F Scottie Upshall from Milwaukee of the AHL. DEVILS--Recalled LW Jason Ryznar from Albany of the AHL. PHOENIX COYOTES--Traded LW Martin Sonneberg to the New York Rangers for C Jeff Taffe. Assigned Taffe to San Antonio of the AHL. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS--Announced the retirement of C Mario Lemieux. WASHINGTON CAPITALS--Assigned F Colin Forbes to Hershey of the AHL.
COLLEGE
ST. JOHN'S, N.Y.--Announced sophomore basketball F Dexter Gray withdrew from school and plans to transfer.
| MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL American League BALTIMORE ORIOLES--Agreed to terms with OF Jay Gibbons on a four-year contract. BOSTON RED SOX--Named Theo Epstein executive vice president and general manager, Jed Hoyer assistant general manager and Ben Cherington vice president of player personnel. MINNESOTA TWINS--Agreed to terms with 2B Nick Punto on a one-year contract. YANKEES--Agreed to terms with RHP Aaron Small on a one-year contract. TORONTO BLUE JAYS--Agreed to terms with RHP James Baldwin on a minor league contract. National League LOS ANGELES DODGERS--Named Steve Yeager coach and Ken Howell pitching coach for Las Vegas of the PCL, Mike Easler hitting coach and Danny Darwin pitching coach for Jacksonville of the Southern League, Lance Parrish manager for Ogden of the Pioneer League, Richie Lewis pitching coach for Columbus of |
1799814 | 2006 | 10 | 26 | Who Cares About Issues: Is That Botox? |
WHEN John Spencer, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New York, was reported to have made disparaging remarks about the appearance of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, the reaction was overheated, intense and conciliatory.
And that was just from Mr. Spencer, who rushed to clarify his remarks and the circumstances in which they were said.
| WHEN John Spencer, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New York, was reported to have made disparaging remarks about the appearance of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, the reaction was overheated, intense and conciliatory. And that was just from Mr. Spencer, who rushed to clarify his remarks and the circumstances in which they were said. From all the denials, it appeared that Mr. Spencer recognized that criticizing a candidate for her looks was beyond the pale, even in a campaign in which a challenger is lagging in the polls by more than 30 percentage points and is in desperate need of some attention. But looks have always mattered in politics, and in an age of 24-hour television news, it has become even more relevant. What |
1840771 | 2007 | 04 | 16 | DiPietro Is Reason for Optimism, and Yashin for Concern |
The Islanders held an optional practice Sunday, and goaltender Rick DiPietro was the first player on the ice. Soon, he was firing pucks, either into a net or at the glass, just to arouse a few quiet spectators.
DiPietro has certainly awakened the Islanders. Twenty days after he was sidelined with a concussion, he returned to the lineup Saturday night to help the Islanders beat the heavily favored Buffalo Sabres, 3-2. Their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round playoff series is tied at 1-1.
| The Islanders held an optional practice Sunday, and goaltender Rick DiPietro was the first player on the ice. Soon, he was firing pucks, either into a net or at the glass, just to arouse a few quiet spectators. DiPietro has certainly awakened the Islanders. Twenty days after he was sidelined with a concussion, he returned to the lineup Saturday night to help the Islanders beat the heavily favored Buffalo Sabres, 3-2. Their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round playoff series is tied at 1-1. ''Things worked out better than I expected,'' he said. DiPietro made 32 saves, some of them spectacular. More important, he said he did not have any symptoms of a concussion, during the game or afterward. The Sabres bumped into him a few times, he said, but |
1769036 | 2006 | 06 | 14 | Hockey Team Owner Indicted In Inquiry Into Trash Hauling |
James Galante named his hockey team the Danbury Trashers to reflect his empire, one built on garbage collection. But federal agents say Mr. Galante committed fraud by putting some players as well as some players' wives and others on the payrolls of his companies.
Mr. Galante also padded his players' salaries, in violation of league regulations, and submitted false reports to hide those violations, according to an indictment that accuses him of running the team as a corrupt enterprise.
| James Galante named his hockey team the Danbury Trashers to reflect his empire, one built on garbage collection. But federal agents say Mr. Galante committed fraud by putting some players as well as some players' wives and others on the payrolls of his companies. Mr. Galante also padded his players' salaries, in violation of league regulations, and submitted false reports to hide those violations, according to an indictment that accuses him of running the team as a corrupt enterprise. Mr. Galante and 28 other people were indicted on Friday as part of a federal investigation into Connecticut's trash-hauling industry. On Monday, the United Hockey League, which regulates the Trashers and 13 other teams, announced that the Trashers would not play when the season resumes in October. Although the |
1398983 | 2002 | 06 | 09 | Learning to Work on Both Sides of the Camera |
FOR the past two months, 150 youngsters holding digital video cameras or trailed by film crews have ranged far and wide over the South Fork. They have visited cemeteries and abandoned barns, wandered over dunes and shot scenes in a film studio and in their own homes.
On Saturday, the results of these activities -- 17 5- to 8-minute films -- will be shown at a benefit in Sagaponack for the proposed Children's Museum of the East End. The films will be seen on giant screens in two tents on Montauk Highway near Poxabogue Lane.
| FOR the past two months, 150 youngsters holding digital video cameras or trailed by film crews have ranged far and wide over the South Fork. They have visited cemeteries and abandoned barns, wandered over dunes and shot scenes in a film studio and in their own homes. On Saturday, the results of these activities -- 17 5- to 8-minute films -- will be shown at a benefit in Sagaponack for the proposed Children's Museum of the East End. The films will be seen on giant screens in two tents on Montauk Highway near Poxabogue Lane. Because it has been unable to build on land in Bridgehampton that was donated by Alan and Arlene Alda because the endangered tiger salamander lives in its wetlands, the museum is looking for |
1595052 | 2004 | 07 | 08 | Getting Close to the Action, With a Touch of Adventure |
New Yorkers have so many chances to hear classical music in free outdoor concerts that it would be easy to take such programs for granted. But the Washington Square Music Festival in Greenwich Village, which opened its 46th season with a substantive and unusual chamber orchestra program on Tuesday night in Washington Square Park, routinely draws audiences who truly care about these concerts, which was clear from the large, attentive and appreciative crowd that turned up on a balmy night for this one.
Of course the music comes through an amplification system, and street noise is closer than it is when the New York Philharmonic performs on the Great Lawn in Central Park.
| New Yorkers have so many chances to hear classical music in free outdoor concerts that it would be easy to take such programs for granted. But the Washington Square Music Festival in Greenwich Village, which opened its 46th season with a substantive and unusual chamber orchestra program on Tuesday night in Washington Square Park, routinely draws audiences who truly care about these concerts, which was clear from the large, attentive and appreciative crowd that turned up on a balmy night for this one. Of course the music comes through an amplification system, and street noise is closer than it is when the New York Philharmonic performs on the Great Lawn in Central Park. But the intimate setting of the Washington Square Park concerts -- between the central fountain, |
1829398 | 2007 | 02 | 28 | Setting a Reflective Mood, A Timeless Voice Ruminates |
''I don't want you to be happy, because if you're happy, you won't remember me,'' the Welsh singer-songwriter Judith Owen said on Monday evening at the Living Room. ''I want to be the girl who devastated you and left you unable to walk home without a bottle of vodka inside you.''
Actually, Ms. Owen was only three-quarters joking. She has the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering. The young Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones come to mind, as does the Irish singer Katell Keineg. Her naturally jazzy fluency coincides with a melodic songwriting style that at times suggests Burt Bacharach.
| ''I don't want you to be happy, because if you're happy, you won't remember me,'' the Welsh singer-songwriter Judith Owen said on Monday evening at the Living Room. ''I want to be the girl who devastated you and left you unable to walk home without a bottle of vodka inside you.'' Actually, Ms. Owen was only three-quarters joking. She has the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering. The young Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones come to mind, as does the Irish singer Katell Keineg. Her naturally jazzy fluency coincides with a melodic songwriting style that at times suggests Burt Bacharach. After singing her original ballad ''You and the Moon,'' whose Bacharach lilt recalls ''What |