December 11, 2009

Save on holiday books from Columbia University Press

From food history and the science of the oven to birds and baseball, click HERE for some holiday gift suggestions from Columbia University Press. All books are available online or at your local bookstore. Happy Holidays! SAVE 30% on these...

December 10, 2009

Experimenting with Herve This

Below is a video of a lecture Herve This recently gave at Imperial College entitled “Molecular Cooking is Cooking: Molecular Gastronomy is a Scientific Activity.” However, don’t let the word “lecture” scare you off, This’s talks, which include several experiments...

December 9, 2009

Steven Cohen on weatherizing New York City

“In the end, all the forward-looking policies articulated in Washington and in Copenhagen will have meaning only when a landlord in New York City decides to sign up a contractor this summer to weatherize his pre-World War II apartment building.”—...

December 8, 2009

On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor — A post by Greg Robinson

The following post is by Greg Robinson, author of A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America. December 7 remains, as Franklin Roosevelt predicted, a date that lives in infamy. It merits this title, though, not just as the...

December 7, 2009

James Igoe Walsh takes the page 99 test

Taking Ford Maddox Ford’s suggestion to heart (“Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you”), The Page 99 Test asks authors to focus in on this particular page. Recently...

December 4, 2009

Best films of the decade

Since it is 2009 we are seeing both best-of-the-year and best-of-the-decade lists. While many of these lists seemingly serve to reinforce critical consensus, the same cannot be said of the Toronto International Film Festival’s list of the best movies from...

December 3, 2009

Kelly Oliver takes The Page 99 Test

Taking Ford Maddox Ford’s suggestion to heart (“Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you”), The Page 99 Test asks authors to focus in on this particular page. Recently,...

December 2, 2009

Views on Afghanistan and the Taliban

Last night, President Obama articulated his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, which is now in its eighth year. Needless to say, the complicated nature of Afghan politics, which is characterized by both change and chaos as well as...

December 1, 2009

Bertolucci called us a kind of wild cinema university — Toby Talbot in Rorotoko

* There will be a discussion and reception with Toby Talbot for her new book on Thursday, December 3rd at 7:00 pm at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas at 1886 Broadway (at 62nd Street) Peter Bogdanovich says the New Yorker Theater is...

November 30, 2009

Animal, Vegetable, Miserable — An op-ed by Gary Steiner

Now that the Thanksgiving meal has been eaten and people have moved on to Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we thought it appropriate to mention Gary Steiner’s much-discussed New York Times op-ed from last week, Animal, Vegetable, Miserable. In the...

November 25, 2009

Andrew Smith exposes the truth about Thanksgiving!

In the chapter “Giving Thanks” from his book Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, Andrew Smith reveals that “the whole idea that the Pilgrims were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving in America was, in fact...

November 24, 2009

Interview with Elliot R. Wolfson on his new book "Open Secret"