This morning, I was reading the print version of The New York Times when a thin, one-column story in the city section caught my eye: "When Panhandlers Need a Wordsmith's Touch". In the story, the writer uses a first-person voice to describe how he was walking to the bank and wound up talking to panh...

This morning, I was reading the print version of The New York Times when a thin, one-column story in the city section caught my eye: "When Panhandlers Need a Wordsmith's Touch". In the story, the writer uses a first-person voice to describe how he was walking to the bank and wound up talking to panh...

The Oscars are like dividend statements from Bernie Madoff. You know they’re coming, you expect the worst, but you open the envelopes anyway, with your fingers crossed, hoping this year will be better. It never is, but despite rock-bottom ratings, and dwindling interest in too many nominees nobody...

At the Taleses’ annual Christmas Eve dinner party tomorrow night, Nan Talese will be serving her favorite: Francis Ford Coppola’s Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot to compliment the white-wine-and-lemon chicken and tender filet mignon. Until 2001, the couple attended an annual holiday party on East 64t...

After Clay Felker passed away Tuesday morning in Manhattan, The Observer spoke to some who knew him well.   Robert Benton The first time I ever screamed “fuckâ€� in front of a room full of women was when I got mad at Clay at the Esquire offices. We were having this argument that went up and d...

Not so much a documentary as a laser blast of rapidly changing images, "Sex: The Revolution" harks nostalgically back to the days of Times Square porno shops, high jinks in a place called Haight-Ashbury, nudity as a political statement and an obscure late-'60s magazine that advertised itself with th...

At around 7:45 p.m. on Monday, April 28, writer Carl Bernstein was mingling at the cocktail hour before the PEN Literary Awards at the Museum of Natural History, Coca Cola in hand, looking very healthy. “I ride a bike and listen to a lot of music,� he said. “I mostly listen to classical but al...

Be forwarned, youngsters: the magazine industry has no room for you any more. Also, it can't find you! You're all out there working on the blogs and not learning how to do real journalism. Which makes you suck! "These people don't leave their fucking laptops," says elderly writer Gay Talese. "It use...