Favorite Books

  • Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
    (1813) "'Then,' observed Elizabeth, 'you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.'"
  • George H. Mayer: The Republican Party: 1854 - 1966
    (1964) The late Prof. Mayer taught (he would have said 'attempted to teach') me history in college, and I went with him to the NWF province of Pakistan in 1972 to climb -- well, attempt to climb -- Tirich Mir.
  • Eric Newby: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
    (1958) "Far away to the east-north-east was the great snow-covered mountain we had seen from the wall of the east glacier, Tirich Mir, the 25,000-foot giant on the Chitral border . . . ." (The main summit of the Tirich Mir massif is 7,706m, or 25,283f.)

Favorite Films

  • Dead Again (1991)
    Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, directed by Branagh. A genuinely weird film.
  • K2 (1992)
    Michael Biehn, Matt Craven, directed by Franc Roddam. Why am I the only person who thinks this is a great film? The first 10 minutes alone are worth the ticket price.
  • Two for the Road (1967)
    Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney, directed by Stanley Donen. I saw Two for the Road for the first time stretched out on a grassy hill at Neve Eitan. I can't recall if there were Hebrew subtitles, but once or twice I laughed and the Israelis didn't. Then, always on the lookout for some new American idiom, they turned to me and demanded an explanation of the joke.
  • How to Steal a Million (1966)
    Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, directed by William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn in a yellow E-type roadster? Then, of course, there're the closet scenes with Hepburn & O'Toole.

Favorite Web Sites

« New York Times Letter 2-27-04 | Main | The Great Influenza »

City Room

Arthur Gelb's City Room is 600-plus pages. Where was his editor? Gelb is a great journalist, and his stories are delightful -- especially his run-in with William Shawn, the 'Iron Mouse' (Lucette Lagnado had a good piece about this in the Wall St. Journal) -- but 600 pages? One great story is that a press agent once complained to George S. Kaufman 'How am I expected to get the name of the actress I represent into The Times?' "Shoot her," Kaufman suggested.

Friday, March 05, 2004 |

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