©     Coverage   Help   Search Westlaw   Date: November 22, 2009November 21, 2009November 20, 2009November 19, 2009November 18, 2009November 17, 2009November 16, 2009November 15, 2009November 14, 2009November 13, 2009November 12, 2009November 11, 2009November 10, 2009November 9, 2009November 8, 2009   Section: Front Page, A SectionFront Page, Any SectionAllLegal NewsAntitrustBankruptcyE-CommerceEnvironmental LawEstate Planning and ProbateHealth & MedicineIntellectual PropertyLabor & EmploymentLitigationMergers & Acquisitions Strong Poison RAYMOND CARVER A Writer's Life By Carol Sklenicka Illustrated. 578 pp. Scribner. $35 RAYMOND CARVER Collected Stories Edited by William L. Stull and Maureen P. Carroll 1,019 pp. The Library of America. $40 Raymond Carver, surely.... The Chatter ''The best thing we can say about the labor market right now is that it may be getting worse more slowly.'' Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, who warned last week that high unemployment and a continued reluctance by banks to make l.... Its All About . . . The New Beach Vacation . . . Tokyo Local . . . The Malibu of Tennessee . . . London Shopping . . . Ski Chic. The Mexican coast, a popular spot among travelers looking for more than just sun and surf. PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNE MENKE/TRUNK A.... Higher Tide Like the little black dress, the beach vacation will never go out of style. Indeed, the more uncertain the times, the more necessary it becomes to sun yourself beside a book and a pina colada. Only nowadays, travelers looking to get something extra .... Ski Patrol Whet Your Whistler The hordes won't descend on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains until February, when the 21st Winter Olympic Games get under way. But the event has spurred a renaissance in the British Columbia resort town that the rest of us can enjoy before -- and lo.... Atlas Shrugged Artists have toyed with maps before there's Salvador Dali's Surrealist ''Map of the World'' and Jasper Johns's splotchy sendup of the Lower 48, for starters. But ''The Map as Art'' (Princeton Architectural Press; $45), a new coffee table curiosity b.... Short List Claus Sendlinger With his network of 180 independent lodgings, the founder of Design Hotels (designhotels.com) has created a one-stop shop for savvy travelers on the hunt for cool accommodations. When he's not scouting new members (next up: the Park Hyderabad, India.... Now Ticking Earth Watch When Charles Darwin landed on the Galapagos Islands in 1835, the 19 islands had a few hundred settlers. Today, the 30,000 people who live there pose a threat to its fragile biodiversity. In an effort to help pause time, if not reverse it, the Swiss .... Talk Value/ (val$(4$) y) /n. / A principle or quality that someone holds dear. In the world of travel, ''value'' is often used in its monetary sense (i.e., a good experience at the right price), but increasingly it speaks to an even more important trend:.... Oriole Kooky Barack Obama, microphone in hand, stares off into the distance of a nearly empty room, a bemused grin on his face that seems to say, ''Where is everybody?'' Suddenly, a woman beelinesto the president, climbs to join him on his platform -- there's no.... Duly Noted When I quit my job to work on a novel, my partner, Adam, agreed to support me -- which was great, until his birthday loomed on the horizon. I didn't exactly relish buying him presents with his own money. I'd have to get creative, but my last artsy p.... Evolutionary Road The first person I asked about life in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, was Julia Fesenberg, then an executive with Raffles Hotels. Driving from the airport on a muggy, dark gray afternoon, we passed through miles of grim, crude, cinder block cons.... Miami Social Never mind the beach bunnies and the nightclub nabobs of the mid-'90s, America's tropical party town has become a serious player in the worlds of design, fashion, food and culture. That doesn't mean the thrill is gone, of course. South Beach still s.... Cuba Libre Nowhere in Miami is the Latino flavor as strong as in Little Havana. The long, sometimes chaotic Calle Ocho (SW Eighth Street) is the neighborhood's heart and not for the unprepared. Here's a primer: The Music Wednesday through Sunday nights a.... Prep School BOOKS ''Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth, and Power -- A Dispatch From the Beach,'' by Gerald Posner (Simon & Schuster, 2009). An in-depth history of one of the weirdest cities in the world. ''Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess.... Pros and Condos With real estate prices at 2003 levels, snowbirds and beachcombers from the Northeast who used to fantasize about owning their own little piece of sunshine are starting to smell deals. (They don't call this the sixth borough for nothing.) The Realto.... Water Works Drinking and dining with a water view is a basic right of all Miamians -- whether it's at haute cuisine hideaways or hole-in-the-wall saloons. Il Gabbiano The founders of New York's Il Mulino co-own this modern Italian spot in a primo space tuc.... Resort Ware THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2009 ARTWORK BY KATRIN SCHACKE PHOTO Bask Country They'd been sleeping on Pirate's Bay beach for three days. About a dozen of them -- white guys with dreadlocks, their bikinied girlfriends and a golden retriever. They had come from Tobago's busy south end, where they lived, to this quiet corner of .... Cocina Confidential On a night swaddled in humidity, I made my way down to La Boca, an Italian working-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires. My guide for the evening was the prominent Argentine writer Uki Goni, and as our cab crawled along, half lost, we peered out at me.... U.S. Two-Man Bobsled Teams Finish 1-2 in World Cup Event John Napier led a 1-2 finish for the United States in the two-man bobsled competition at a World Cup event Saturday at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. Napier and the brakeman Charles Berkeley beat the sled of Steven Holcomb and the br.... Rochette Wins Skate Canada Joannie Rochette, the world silver medalist, won her second straight Skate Canada women's title in Kitchener, Ontario, and booked her ticket to the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo. Jeremy Abbott, the reigning United States and Grand Prix Final champ.... Mets Will Nod to Their Past With Images Outside Park Mets fans had a lot to complain about during their team's first season at Citi Field, the sloppy play on the field and the high prices in the stands most prominently. Some fans were especially angry that more was not done to commemorate the team's p.... Pirates Drop Karstens The Pittsburgh Pirates designated the right-hander Jeff Karstens for assignment and claimed the right-hander Chris Jakubauskas off waivers from Seattle. Karstens, acquired in 2008 from the Yankees, was 4-6 with a 5.42 earned run average. Jakubauskas.... California's Late Stand Spoils Stanford's Pac-10 Title Hopes STANFORD, Calif. Without waiting to see whether Oregon would beat Arizona in the desert, No. 14 Stanford took itself out of the Rose Bowl race. One of the more entertaining games in the recent history of this 112-game rivalry ended when Cal lin.... For Drivers Who Can't Resist Calling, A High-Tech Nanny to Cut Off Phones Dede Haskins's cellphone has been her constant companion for more than a decade. And she has always considered herself a careful driver -- even using a hands-free set so she could keep both hands on the wheel. But after missing one too many ex.... Health Care Overhaul Bill Passes Crucial Senate Test WASHINGTON The Senate voted on Saturday to begin full debate on major health care legislation, propelling President Obama's top domestic initiative over a crucial, preliminary hurdle in a formidable display of muscle-flexing by the Democratic majori.... Wall St. Finds Profits Again, Now by Reducing Mortgages As millions of Americans struggle to hold on to their homes, Wall Street has found a way to make money from the mortgage mess. Investment funds are buying billions of dollars' worth of home loans, discounted from the loans' original value. Then.... Afghan Militias Battle Taliban With Aid of U.S. ACHIN, Afghanistan American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against.... Best Soup Ever? Suits Over Ads Demand Proof A diamond is forever? Prove it. Companies that were once content to fight in grocery-store aisles and on television commercials are now choosing a different route -- filing lawsuits and other formal grievances challenging their competitors' cla.... A Terror Suspect With Feet in East and West PHILADELPHIA The trip from a strict Pakistani boarding school to a bohemian bar in Philadelphia has defined David Headley's life, according to those who know the middle-age man at the center of a global terrorism investigation. Raised by his fa.... Medvedev Says Backwardness in His Own Party Undermines Elections MOSCOW President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia accused the governing party, United Russia, of ''backwardness'' on Saturday, warning its leaders that they must learn to win elections honestly if it is to survive. Mr. Medvedev's remarks, at the p.... Italy Holds 2 In Financing Of Attacks In Mumbai ROME The Italian police on Saturday arrested two Pakistani men accused of helping to send money to finance the terrorist attacks that killed 163 in Mumbai last November. The police in Brescia, in northern Italy, arrested a father and son and co.... Sri Lanka Plans to Let Tamils Leave Camps MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka plans to release the remaining 136,000 Tamil refugees still in the squalid and overrun government camps where they have been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, a top official said Saturday. .... Iran Plans Drills to Guard Nuclear Sites TEHRAN Iran is set to begin air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from possible attack, Gen. Ahmad Mighani of the Iranian Air Force said Saturday. The drills reflect the country's concern that Israel could make good on thr.... Italian Prosecutors Ask for Life Sentence in Trial of U.S. Student ROME Prosecutors in Perugia, Italy, asked Saturday for life in prison, Italy's stiffest sentence, for an American college student and her Italian former boyfriend accused in the death of her British housemate in 2007. In closing arguments, pros.... Benedict Woos Artists, Urging 'Quest for Beauty' VATICAN CITY In 1512, Raphael finished his ruminative portrait of Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In 1999, the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan produced ''The Ninth Hour,'' a wax sculptur.... Chavez Offers Public Defense Of 'the Jackal' CARACAS, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is heaping praise on Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan better known as Carlos the Jackal and implicated in hijackings and terror attacks across Europe in the 1970s and '80s, describing him in a speech her.... Survey of Pakistan's Young Predicts 'Disaster' if Their Needs Aren't Addressed LAHORE, Pakistan Pakistan will face a ''demographic disaster'' if it does not address the needs of its young generation, the largest in the country's history, whose views reflect a deep disillusionment with government and democracy, according to a r.... Inside the Times International IN TURKEY, TRIAL CASTS WIDE NET OF MISTRUST The trial of 194 people -- accused of belonging to an underground, ultrasecular group and planning a coup -- has brought into relief strains in Turkey between a secular elite and a g.... After Years of Development, Miami Ponders Whether the Good Outweighs the Bad MIAMI The office of Mayor Manny Diaz smelled of fresh paint and departure. He had only a few hours left before term limits pushed him out, but when the city's planning director mentioned a development by a large Spanish bank, the mayor's eyes lit up.... Enthusiasm for Palin, and Echoes of 2008 Divide FORT WAYNE, Ind. When tickets to see Sarah Palin in Michigan ran out, people drove to her appearance here, three hours away. Thousands had lined up overnight, starting nearly 24 hours before she was to begin signing books, camping out in 39-deg.... Riot at Kentucky Prison Is Attributed to Lockdown, Not Food FRANKFORT, Ky. Despite previous assertions, investigators said Friday that bad food was not the primary cause of a riot at a central Kentucky prison. The inmates at Northpoint Training Center were instead reacting to a partial lockdown and to p.... Pundit Stakes Out a More Activist Role in Politics Glenn Beck, the popular and outspoken Fox News host, says he wants to go beyond broadcasting his opinions and start rallying his political base -- formerly known as his audience -- to take action. To do so, Mr. Beck is styling himself as a poli.... Survey Finds Hard Times Preceded Recession Even before the recession, more than one in five Americans needed help from family, friends or outsiders to pay for basic needs, according to a survey by the Census Bureau. In addition, 14 percent of all Americans and 26 percent of blacks who .... After Katrina, Struggle for High Ground In her dream, Jennifer Hero is walking down the same sunny New Orleans street. It is not until she reaches St. Charles Avenue that she realizes the city is destroyed, and she is walking among ruins. ''Everyone's family was gone, their social n.... The Prudence Of Mixing Eggnog And Advocacy The Senate debate on health care, set to begin the week after Thanksgiving, is now on course to collide with the holiday season. One question for advocacy groups on all sides will be whether to keep up their barrage of pointed commercials, even as c.... Senator, Clout Rising, Cements Role at Heart of Debate WASHINGTON No sooner had Senator Blanche Lincoln promised to deliver one crucial vote in support of a health care overhaul than she threatened to withhold the next one. Her clear warning that she would oppose the Democratic plan in its current .... Quotation of the Day What we are talking about is a local, spontaneous and indigenous response to the Taliban. The Afghans are saying, 'We are willing and determined and capable to defend our country; just give us the resources.' HANIF ATMAR, the Afghan interior ministe.... Sept. 11 Defendant Seeks A Trial, and a Platform The five men the Justice Department has said will be charged in the attacks of Sept. 11 intend to plead not guilty so they can express their political and religious views during a trial, the lawyer for one of the men said on Saturday. The lawye.... Man Charged With Killing Wife and Son A Queens man was charged with killing his wife and 14-year-old son on Saturday after their bodies were found with their throats cut in a closet of the family's three-room apartment, the authorities said. ''They were wrapped in black plastic,'' .... Army Psychiatrist Will Be Confined Until Trial, Judge Says The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in a mass shooting this month will be confined until his military trial, a magistrate ruled on Saturday, The Associated Press reported. In the first court proceeding for th.... Thomas J. Graff, 65, an Expert on West Coast Water Use SAN FRANCISCO Thomas J. Graff, a leading environmentalist who championed the idea of offering financial incentives for environmentally friendly behavior, an approach that had far-reaching impact on state and federal policies, especially on water use.... Despite a New Top Player, An Old Champ Is a Winner Like some professional sports, chess seems to be in a state of parity. It has not always been this way. Bobby Fischer's decisive victory over Boris Spassky in the 1972 world championship match confirmed what many people assumed: that he had lo.... Robert Cameron, High-Flying 'Above' Photographer, 98 One of Robert Cameron's thousands of vibrant color aerial photographs zeroes virtually straight down from above the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge to its anchorage, the reddish hue of the majestic structure glowing in a setting sun. Ano.... Elisabeth Soderstrom, Revered Swedish Soprano, Dies at 82 Elisabeth Soderstrom, the Swedish soprano acclaimed for the plangent richness and intelligence of her singing and for her wide-ranging repertory, including influential portrayals of leading roles in the operas of Janacek, died on Friday in Stockholm.... Paul Wendkos, Director of 'Gidget' Surfer Movies, Is Dead at 84 Paul Wendkos, a movie and television director best known for the frothy surfer film ''Gidget,'' but whose other productions ranged from thrillers to historical dramas, died Nov. 12 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 84. The cause was complica.... At Work in Washington, At Home in Manny's Deli In a Loop restaurant, David Axelrod smiles when shown a photo of the two of us as long-haired reporters hovering near a fur-coated female who resembles a polar bear with blond hair during a rough Chicago winter. ''Jane Byrne. The 1979 mayoral c.... High-Wire Act, Above the Clouds For Damian Cooksey, a walk on Mount Tamalpais is a barefoot balancing act. Mr. Cooksey, 32, the owner of Bridges Rock Gym in El Cerrito, has broken world records in slacklining -- a sport developed by rock climbers that resembles tightrope walking, .... The Pulse Bensenville, the suburban enclave near O'Hare International Airport, long opposed plans by Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago to expand O'Hare. No more, though. Last April, the suburb elected a new leader, Frank Soto, and he has decided to make.... Police Struggle to Navigate New Gang Landscape Almost a year from the day the Chicago Police Department unleashed a sweeping crackdown on gangs, its efforts crashed into stark reality Wednesday in a gritty area of the South Side that many in the neighborhood call ''Kill Town.'' Luis Garcia.... Medical Marijuana: No Longer Just for Adults At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol, the wares on display include dried marijuana -- featuring brands like Kryptonite, Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck -- and medicinal cookies arrayed below a sign saying, ''Keep Out of Reach of Your M.... An Accidental Reformer Takes On the Constitution Jim Wunderman hardly seems like someone you would peg to be a founding father of a new California. He is not a politician or a lawyer or a scholar, but the staff leader for a Bay Area business group. Mr. Wunderman, a native New Yorker with a he.... In Chant, Listening And Singing Become One Chant, the practice of intoning sounds or words rhythmically and repetitively, has been a staple of spiritual systems for millenniums. Owing to the popularity of recordings like the 1993 album ''Chant'' by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de S.... SPORTS: Bears' New Identity Is Unrecognizable In 2006, when his Chicago Bears were riding a stout defense and strong running game to a surprise Super Bowl appearance, Coach Lovie Smith disdained comparisons to the Bears' 1985 forebears, almost scornfully. It was time, he suggested, for the fran.... In Turkey, Trial Casts Wide Net Of Mistrust ISTANBUL Few here doubt that the case began with something threatening: in June 2007, 27 hand grenades and fuses were found in the attic of a house in an Istanbul slum. Investigators claimed they were stashed there by an ultranationalist retired off.... Scholarly Cleric Wields Religion to Pierce the Foundation of Iran's Theocracy CAIRO For years, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri criticized Iran's supreme leader and argued that the country was not the Islamic democracy it claimed to be, but his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Now many Iranians, including some former g.... Name That Decade To the Editor: In answer to the question posed by ''Naming the '00s'' (Week in Review, Nov. 15), if you drop just one letter and do not change the pronunciation at all, you get the ''Era of Oughts.'' A decade of things we ought to have done th.... Goldman's Response to Questions About A.I.G. This memo from a Goldman Sachs spokesman, Lucas van Praag, was sent to Gretchen Morgenson, a business columnist for The New York Times, in response to questions she asked about the report issued Nov. 17 by the special inspector general for the Troub.... Legislative Pileup Looms in the Senate WASHINGTON When Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, heard a few weeks ago that the House took less than an hour to approve an unemployment bill that had languished for a month in the Senate, aides said he did not know whether to laugh or cry..... At Least 87 Die in Chinese Mine Explosion HONG KONG A gas explosion at a coal mine in northeastern China early Saturday morning killed at least 87 people and left 21 more trapped in the shaft, China's worst mine disaster in nearly two years, Chinese official media said Sunday morning. .... Man Fatally Stabbed on D Train in Manhattan A passenger aboard a northbound D train in Midtown Manhattan was stabbed to death early Saturday after arguing with another man over a seat in the subway car, the authorities said. The victim, who was not immediately identified, was pronounced .... 3 Suspected Militants Blow Themselves Up in Pakistani Kashmir ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Three suspected militants blew themselves up on Saturday as police officers chased them in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, government officials said. The police launched a hunt in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-contro.... Queens Man Accused of Killing His Wife and Son A Queens man was charged with killing his wife and 14-year-old son on Saturday after their bodies were found in a closet of the family's three-room apartment with their throats cut, the authorities said. ''They were wrapped in black plastic,'' .... Opening Wide His (Repaired) Heart IT was nearly midnight in an upscale Atlanta hotel room, and Robin Williams was decompressing after a show at the nearby Fox Theater. Reclining in his dimly lighted suite, he was weary but in good spirits; the mechanical key hidden in his back was w.... Two Films, Two Routes From Poverty AN African-American teenager, overweight and undereducated, a survivor of poverty and abuse, is rescued by the benevolent intervention of strangers. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of ''Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire,'' which has a.... 'Fela!' Broadway? Dance! ''MOVE!'' Bill T. Jones commanded. ''Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm!'' He was airborne, being lifted and carried across the stage of the Eugene O'Neill Theater by four dancers, perfecting their timing in a climactic ritual scene. It was hands-on choreograph.... Citizen Welles As Myth In the Making RICHARD LINKLATER is keen to point out that his new film, ''Me and Orson Welles,'' is not a biopic. For starters, he said in a recent phone interview: ''Biopics are the lamest genre. No one should attempt them anymore.'' What's more, when it .... The House Of Tolstoy, In His Winter ''I FEEL that the attitude of people toward me is no longer an attitude toward a man but towards a celebrity,'' Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary. ''Either complete devotion and confidence, or, on the contrary, repudiation and hatred.'' Tolstoy's harri.... ALSO OUT THIS WEEK ANGELS AND DEMONSTom Hanks returns as the dashing symbologist Robert Langdon, this time on the trail of the Illuminati, a secret organization at war with the Roman Catholic Church. With Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgard; Ron Howard directed. A. O..... Advance Troops of Cinema, Marching Through Time IT'S about time that someone came up with a more accurate and evocative term than avant-garde, particularly because it refers to a vast and widely varied tradition of films that fall outside the norms of feature-length narrative filmmaking. Me.... Serving Up Rockers, Out of Their Shells OWEN PALLETT, who makes music under the name Final Fantasy, has eaten brain stew in Morocco, vegan country-fried steak in Atlanta and bibimbap in more places than he can remember. ''If you do your research, you can eat really well,'' Mr. Pallett sai.... Familiar Faces Chasing Perps and Plots IN the old days, the career path for a certain brand of celebrity, the kind who is more than a flash in the pan but less than a national treasure, had these three steps: Be a big star for a while. Spend a few years on ''Hollywood Squares.''.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Theater Ben Brantley It's been only a few years since they flashed their sequins on movie screens. But working on the prevalent assumption that familiarity breeds fondness, the title characters of ''DREAMGIRLS,''the Supremes-style song trio.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Art Robin Pogrebin Man Ray is perhaps best known for his avant-garde photography; for his association with modernists like Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp; and as one of the fathers of Dada and Surrealism. Less well known is that he was bor.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Dance Roslyn Sulcas There are many reasons to rush off to the David H. Koch Theater on Tuesday night to see theNEW YORK CITY BALLET open its winter season with a gala program. No. 1: It is your first and last chance before January to see Ci.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Pop Ben Sisario It's becoming pretty difficult to get excited when a band announces it will be performing one of its old albums in concert from beginning to end. Once a novel idea -- flattering the artist as creator of a ''classic'' but.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Classical Anthony Tommasini The Finnish composer KAIJA SAARIAHO, who has long been a resident of Paris, has come to wide public attention in the last decade for her unconventional operas: ''L'Amour de Loin,'' a medieval story of an idealize.... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Film Mike Hale The recent incursion of Chekov's plays in New York -- five major, movie-star-studded productions in the last two years -- finds its on-screen corollary in CELEBRATING CHEKHOV, a series beginning Friday from the Film Society o.... Comment of the Week If anybody still has the delusion that life is fair, just think of these two. To be paid big bucks for having so much fun, for so long. The only smidgen of justice is that we get to watch, listen -- and laugh. -- Lowell D. Thompson of Chicago,.... Kristen Stewart: Dodging the Limelight To the Editor Re ''Media Vampires, Beware'' by Brooks Barnes [Nov. 15]: I was amused yet not amused by the type above a large photo of a reclining Kristen Stewart: ''For Kristen Stewart, Life Is Not Easy as a Teen Idol, But She Has Learned .... Cameron Carpenter: Capturing a Musician To the Editor: Re ''In Concert: Talent, Style And Sequins'' by Vivien Schweitzer [Nov. 15]: Steward Noack deserves a special mention for his lovely photo of Cameron Carpenter at the organ. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then sur.... Nicolas Cage: 'Maximalist' at His Best To the Editor: Re ''Madness or Method? Tough to Tell'' by Manohla Dargis [Nov. 15]: In examining Nicolas Cage's varied, sometimes wayward film career, Ms. Dargis somehow failed to mention what many might consider his greatest performance: .... THE WEEK AHEAD NOV. 22 - NOV. 29 Television Mike Hale The fervent competition between Nickelodeon and Disney for domination in the 9-to-14-year-old tween demographic has produced a batch of funny, harmlessly diverting shows -- ''Wizards of Waverly Place'' and ''The Suite .... Worlds Rural, Urban, Midlife, Teenage Juelz Santana & YelaWolf In 1986 Bob Dylan collaborated with Kurtis Blow on ''Street Rock,'' undoubtedly sending both hip-hop fans and Dylanologists lunging for the fast-forward button. Both parties will be relieved to know that Mr. Dylan has n.... A New Musical Marriage in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES A DAY before a Nov. 5 performance of Verdi's Requiem by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall here, the orchestra's new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, was striving for clarity in a rocketing downward string passage.... The Magic Pen: Mozart Operas Up Close SCHOLARS wishing to examine the manuscripts of the masters must expect to go out of their way, but since World War II several Mozart operas have required more effort than many other such treasures. Of the principal scores only two have come down in.... Fairy Tales, But Strictly Adults-Only THINK of the artist Paul McCarthy, and it's hard not to imagine him the way he has appeared in countless videos and performances through the years -- stuffing a bunch of mayonnaise-and-ketchup-slathered hot dogs in his mouth, as he did, say, in ''Ho.... Glitter And Be Essential A WARNING to sticklers for strict narrative: this column is a blatant mashup. Contemporary pop fans will understand the terminology, but for others -- say, those more likely to attend to the musings of theater critics -- some explanation might .... A Dancer's Fresh Move: Choreographer LAST month Peter Martins sat in a conference room surrounded by 11 shining faces, all participants in the Student Choreography Workshop of the School of American Ballet. Mr. Martins, the artistic director of the school and the ballet master of.... Challenging the Laws of Physics MONTICELLO, N.Y. THE BMW bites into the track at the Monticello Motor Club, hurtling down the straights and exploding out of every tricky rain-dampened corner. The scene is the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge, where a handful of journalists and priv.... Volt's No. 1 Question: How's Life After 40? Milford, Mich. SITTING behind the wheel of a 2011 Chevrolet Volt prototype on Wednesday, I found myself confronting what may be the greatest fear that future owners of electric vehicles will face: a battery-charge indicator showing just a few mile.... A Rear Axle Pitches In to Steer ENGINES, transmissions, chassis controls and cockpit infotainment systems have all had their turns as the must-have features that brought shoppers into showrooms. Could it now be time for the lowly differential -- a vital drivetrain part seen by few.... Flashback! The Fastback Is Back ROOFLINES, as important for car designers as necklines and hemlines are for fashion designers, are suddenly changing. The hottest new style did not show up simply on a whim. Rather, the parallel and sometimes conflicting efforts to improve aero.... Museum's Gems Go for a Spin PHILADELPHIA ON a Saturday afternoon some 75 years after it finished fourth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a weathered green MG K3 Magnette huffed to life, pushing out tiny clouds of gray exhaust. Many cameras in the crowd of onlookers were pointed a.... Wheels HERE are highlights of other items published in the Wheels blog last week: Aptera's High-Flying Plans Are Temporarily Grounded Toyota Says Safety Report Is Misleading After Sale, Saab Promises to Refill Inventory 101-Year-Old Man Buys a 426.... 50 Years Ago, the Last Edsel IT was 50 years ago Thursday that Ford announced it was ending production of the Edsel. (Insert joke here.) The Edsel was the original Yugo. The first Aztec. It was the colossal failure to which all future failures would be compared. But th.... A Smaller Ford in Your Future? DISARM the Patek Philippe. Park the Bugatti. Drain the last drops of Cristal. The party's over. That, at least, is what Ford's futurists are thinking. ''Our view is, the era of excess has reached a tipping point,'' George Pipas, the company's s.... Hate of the Game OPEN An Autobiography By Andre Agassi Illustrated. 386 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $28.95 Even those not convinced that Andre Agassi was the best tennis player of his time will readily admit he outdid all others in attracting attention, begi.... Word Made Flesh READING JESUS A Writer's Encounter With the Gospels By Mary Gordon 205 pp. Pantheon Books. $24.95 Mary Gordon's ''Reading Jesus'' -- a book of questions for, quibbles with and tributes to the sometimes inscrutable protagonist of the G.... Disturbing the Comfortable THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOR'S BABY Scary Fairy Tales By Ludmilla Petrushevskaya Selected and translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers 206 pp. Penguin Books. Paper, $15 What can you remember from ''The.... My True Story MEMOIR A History By Ben Yagoda 291 pp. Riverhead Books. $25.95 Finally, on the second-to-last page of his history of memoir, a tale packed from beginning to end with scandals, liars and cheats, Ben Yagoda asks the question we've been .... Taking No Prisoners DEVIL'S DREAM By Madison Smartt Bell 335 pp. Pantheon Books. $26.95 Civil War generals usually come easily packaged: the brilliant, well-mannered Robert E. Lee, stoically erect, boots polished, a model of Southern manhood and elegant sav.... Return to Progress OBAMANOS! The Birth of a New Political Era By Hendrik Hertzberg 341 pp. The Penguin Press. $25.95 In August Barack Obama sought to reassure his supporters as they contemplated a plunge in the opinion polls, a possible defeat on health.... The Pain That Binds TWISTED TREE By Kent Meyers 289 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $24 Twisted Tree, Kent Meyers's fictional small town, is in rodeo country, somewhere on the eastern perimeter of the Black Hills in South Dakota, where the ''creased and brok.... A Jaundiced View LIVER A Fictional Organ With a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes By Will Self 277 pp. Bloomsbury. $26 Is life worth living? The corny old answer, that it all depends on the liver, is one that Will Self, in this smart, beguiling and occasi.... Into the West A COUNTRY OF VAST DESIGNS James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent By Robert W. Merry Illustrated. 576 pp. Simon & Schuster. $30 President James K. Polk has languished in obscurity long enough to have.... Editors' Choice WHAT THE DOG SAW: And Other Adventures, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) This selection of articles from The New Yorker offers plenty of the indefatigably curious Gladwell's stock in trade: counterintuitive findings from little-known ex.... Inside the List PRESEASON'S GREETINGS: It's not even Thanksgiving, and some Christmas-related books are already creeping up the list, like genetically modified mutant mistletoe. Mike Huckabee's ''Simple Christmas'' enters the hardcover nonfiction extended list at N.... A Soldier's Story THE REMAINS OF COMPANY D A Story of the Great War By James Carl Nelson Illustrated. 363 pp. St. Martin's Press. $25.99 As he explains more than once in ''The Remains of Company D,'' James Carl Nelson is ''haunted,'' haunted by the exp.... Paperback Row THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS, (Vintage, $17.)French's biography, one of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2008, is ''fully worthy of its subject, with all the dramatic pacing, the insight and the pathos of a first-rate novel,'' our reviewer, George Pack.... Fiction Chronicle MOONLIGHT IN ODESSA By Janet Skeslien Charles. Bloomsbury, $25. Daria, the gutsy heroine of Charles's first novel, speaks impeccable English and earns 10 times the pay of the average Ukrainian citizen by working as a secretary for an Israeli impo.... How Can We Help? The number of bleeding hearts has soared exponentially over the last decade. Celebrities embraced Africa, while conservatives went from showing disdain for humanitarian aid (''money down a rat hole'') to displaying leadership in the fight against AI.... Online Video A conversation with Andre Agassi about his autobiography, ''Open.'' Podcast Scheduled to appear this week are Stephen King on Raymond Carver's life and collected stories; Andre Agassi on his autobiography; Motoko Rich with notes from the .... Up Front Stephen King, who reviews Carol Sklenicka's biography of Raymond Carver and Carver's ''Collected Stories'' on this week's cover, had read most of those stories by the mid-1990s. ''His fiction wasn't an influence on me at the time,'' King said i.... The Other He Who Must Not Be Named To the Editor: Thank you for not comparing any children's fantasy novel in the children's books issue (Nov. 8) to the Harry Potter series. More than three-quarters of the paperbacks I own have quotes on the back cover from The Times or some oth.... Styron And the Bomb To the Editor: I would like to add to the story described in Elizabeth D. Samet's review of ''The Suicide Run: Five Tales of the Marine Corps,'' by William Styron (Oct. 11). For several years, I was a personal assistant to Rose Styron, and on o.... 'Wasp' Marches On To the Editor: Here's another entry in the debate about the origin of the term WASP for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (set off by the Sept. 27 review of Tad Friend's memoir ''Cheerful Money''). I first heard it in 1943 from my Midwestern supervi.... Singing Praises To the Editor: ''What is there / like fortitude!'' Marianne Moore exclaimed in her poem ''Nevertheless.'' ''What sap / went through that little thread / to make the cherry red!'' The enthusiasms of Hanna Rosin, Liesl Schillinger, David Kirby an.... Distress With Benefits To the Editor: The review of ''Bright-Sided'' (Nov. 8) cheers on Barbara Ehrenreich for her sour take on the ickier side of positive thinking. I like to think I'm as cranky as anyone, and as a two-time breast cancer patient, I could have done w.... Prisoner of Tehran MY PRISON, MY HOME One Woman's Story of Captivity in Iran By Haleh Esfandiari Illustrated. 230 pp. Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers. $25.99 In 2007, Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle Ea.... Double Agency TYPHOON By Charles Cumming 397 pp. St. Martin's Press. $25.99 The British edition of ''Typhoon'' came out one year ago. I was living in China then and ordered a copy from London. It never arrived, though the Royal Mail's tracking system .... At a Software Powerhouse, The Good Life Is Under Siege CARY, N.C. A TOUR of its carefully tended, 300-acre corporate campus here leaves little doubt why surveys, year after year, rate the SAS Institute, the world's largest private software company, among the best places to work. There is the subs.... Revisiting A Fed Waltz With A.I.G. A RAY of sunlight broke through the Washington fog last week when Neil M. Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, published his office's report on the government bailout last year of the American International Grou.... Go Ahead and Yell. He's Everyone's Punching Bag. ESTERO, Fla. Norman J. Radow brings out the worst in some people. They scream at him. They sue him. He has even been punched in the face. What has he done to deserve this? In a word: workouts. As founder of Radco Development Solutions, Mr..... The Business Must Go On I'm one of nine sisters. My parents were dairy farmers in Wisconsin. My father didn't believe in girls doing farm work. Girls did housework, and he hired young men to do farm work. I would have preferred to be outside. When I was 9, we moved to.... Expecting a Baby, But Not the Stereotypes Q. You recently became pregnant and expect to continue working through the pregnancy and after maternity leave. Although the initial reaction has been positive, is it possible you will face negative repercussions in the office? A. It is possib.... A Break For Builders To the Editor: Re ''Home Builders (You Heard That Right) Get a Gift'' (Fair Game, Nov. 15), in which Gretchen Morgenson described a new tax break for builders: The column said that ''once again, at the front of the government assistance line.... Examining Doctors' Pay To the Editor: Re ''Maybe a New Day for Doctors' Pay'' (Economic View, Nov. 8), which looked at paying doctors by salary instead of using the fee-for-service model: The column didn't mention that most doctors who order medical procedures are.... When a Coin Doesn't Pull Its Own Weight Pennies are constantly proving their symbolic value. They are watched, pinched, exchanged for thoughts, and they keep our widely admired 16th president in view. But as they weigh down our purses and pockets, pennies are not pulling their weight.... 68 Rules? No, Just 3 Are Enough This interview withWilliam D. Green, chairman and C.E.O. of Accenture, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Tell me about important leadership lessons you've learned? A. I'm a proud plumber's son from Western Massachusetts. In my f.... From the Lab, a New Weapon Against Cholesterol The particles that ferry cholesterol through the bloodstream are popularly known as ''bad'' or ''good'': bad if they deposit cholesterol on vessel walls, potentially clogging them; good if they carry the cholesterol on to the liver for excretion. .... A Friend's Tweet Could Be An Ad Tuesday was another typical day for John Chow, blogger and Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Chow treated his 50,000 Twitter followers to a photograph of his lunch (barbecued chicken and French fries), discussed the weather i.... The Forest, the Trees And Your Portfolio Buy low and sell high. It sounds simple. But if it's that easy, why don't more investors do it? Many try -- and most fail, numerous studies show. In last year's chaotic market, for example, the average mutual fund investor bought and sold at th.... What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head? Beyond fiscal stimulus and government bailouts, the economic recovery that appears under way may be based on little more than self-fulfilling prophecy. Consider this possibility: after all these months, people start to think it's time for the .... Ad Budget Tight? Call the P.R. Machine LOS ANGELES Hobbled by a depressed DVD market and drooping sales of movies to foreign television networks, Hollywood studios are finally reining in runaway marketing budgets. Lionsgate, already one of the leaner operations, boasted that it cut mar.... The Great Unknowns of Credit Card Bills Three years ago, the Haggler's credit card bill seemed to stop showing up in the mail. Another month went by -- no bill. The month after that, still nothing. Each month, the Haggler would call the issuer, Bank of America, and pay over the phone, the.... Connecticut Comedy HARTFORD Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts ''Luna's Kings vs. Queens of Comedy,'' stand-up. Wednesday at 8 p.m. $18.50 to $35. Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, 166 Capitol Avenue. (860) 987-5900; bushnell.org. WALLINGF.... Cornucopia of Baked Goodies Like the plastic ficus by the door, the 11 multitiered wedding cakes in the front windows of Chimirri's Pastry Shop look a bit like stage props. Yet wedding cakes are as much a part of the bakery's business as its giant fruitcakes, which serve more .... Down the Stairs, Latin With a Twist THERE are no windows at Ola, a Nuevo Latino restaurant that opened quietly about two years ago in Orange, and the place does not look promising from the outside. The front door opens onto one of those unfortunate strip malls that line Route 1 south .... The Nature Of Time, Ever Passing By my count, it has been more than six years since the curators at the Yale University Art Gallery organized a show of contemporary art in all media. That is difficult to understand, given that the museum collects in this area and primarily serves s.... Finding Early Success On New Haven Streets Using a federal grant, the New Haven Police Department has installed a ShotSpotter system in a one-square-mile area in the neighborhoods of Dixwell and Newhallville. According to Officer Joseph Avery, a spokesman for the department, the bulk of the .... A Thai Offshoot With Ancestral Heat SRIPRAPHAI in Williston Park is an offshoot of a place by the same name in Woodside, Queens, that has a reputation as one of the best Thai restaurants in New York City. Since the debut of the Williston Park restaurant in October, the place has been .... Holiday Meals, Ghostwritten Whether you are cooking Thanksgiving dinner or looking for someone to cook it for you, Christina's Epicure in East Norwich is a handy place to know. With 24 hours' notice, the store can assemble a meal for 8 to 10 people from the prepared foods sect.... Studio in Stony Brook, Heart in the Desert For more than three decades, Mel Pekarsky has devoted himself to painting the desert. This is especially interesting given that he lives in Port Jefferson Station and has his studio in Stony Brook, where for 35 years he was a professor of art at Sto.... Rock Songs and Rubber Ducks The Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City exists to enchant children, not the grown-ups who escort them. But that is not to say the occasional adult doesn't come under its spell. ''To me, it's just this magical place,'' said Bari Koral,.... Long Island Comedy BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts ''A One Man Show Wit' 2 Guys,'' featuring John Joseph with Johnny B at 8 p.m. Friday. $25 to $45. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard, C.W. Post Campus, Long Isla.... Tackling Gun Violence Many Ways on L.I. On Long Island, one county said yes, and the other said no. Nassau County said yes. Its police commissioner, Lawrence W. Mulvey, began focusing on increased gun violence in pockets of the county after assuming the job in 2007. ''It's a ver.... Nastia Liukin High Flier Watching the gymnast Nastia Liukin dismount the uneven bars, you're almost too busy counting the flips -- was that five? -- to notice her daintily perfect landing. Raised in Texas by two Soviet gymnasts, Liukin, 20, dominated Beijing last year, wher.... Must Haves Power Puff Chanel bag, $1,295. Go to chanel.com. Moncler fur trim gloves, $725. Go to moncler.com. PHOTOS: (PHOTOGRAPHS BY SET STYLIST: ANNA LEVAK. FASHION EDITOR: MELISSA VENTOSA MARTIN. FASHION ASSISTANT: LINDSEY GATHRIGHT) Frisco Feast In the 1990s, boutiques and bars popped up between the Latino watering holes in San Francisco's Mission District. Now the neighborhood is experiencing another surge, as a handful of Italian restaurants are bringing culinary sophistication to an area.... Boho Tokyo STYLE MAP DAIKANYAMA While Tokyo's Aoyoma district is the place for supercharged shopping (Prada! Comme des Garcons! Gucci!) and Harajuku is devoted to fast fashion (H&M, Topshop), this hilly neighborhood offers a more mellow experience, with smalle.... Right Anglo Camden Passage, a narrow, stone-paved street in London's Islington neighborhood, was once one of the city's main antiques hubs, home to more than 350 shops. But in 2001, ''trading in antiques hit a wall,'' as one local proprietor put it, and busines.... Gentry Points IN-STORE F. M. ALLEN Those in the know call Franklin, Tenn., just outside Nashville, the ''Malibu of Tennessee.'' A small city with a lot of spending power -- thanks to locals with names like Keith, Nicole and Wynonna -- Franklin recently got a boos.... Bavarian Rhapsody In 1914, The New York Times reported that Mary Portman, a freewheeling English aristocrat living in Germany, faced prison in Munich for unpaid debt on a lavish Arts and Crafts house in the Bavarian countryside. (British wartime laws prevented her fr.... White Party It was a frigid Boxing Day in the harbor village of Harlingen, and for a week, as the temperature sidled toward zero, I noticed a curious inverse relationship between the falling mercury and the smiles growing on people's faces. The logic proceeds t.... Show Time The culturati swoop in every December for Art Basel Miami Beach, but what of the arts beyond the fair? MUSIC Michael Tilson Thomas takes the podium and piano for the New World Symphony's ''MTT Plays Mozart'' program, playing and conducting the .... Brand New Heavies In addition to real-estate-market chaos, Miami's construction boom also ushered in nine important new hotels. From boutique to behemoth, these new properties all have one thing in common: vacancies. Fontainebleau Miami Beach (1) 4441 Collins A.... The Late Show If New York is the city that never sleeps, then Miami just disco-naps. Whatever your idea of a party, there's a spot to boogie or imbibe right through to breakfast. DANCE CLUB LIV, the Fontainebleau's 18,000-square-foot, spare-no-expense dance.... Chino Latino A host of high-end Asian restaurants have opened around town in recent months -- almost as many as the city's dozens of divey but delicious Latino-food joints. Here, a dish-by-dish comparison of Miami's two great international cuisines, and where to.... Street Smart Chalk it up to rising rents in the Miami Design District, or the proximity to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), but the stretch of NE 125th Street between NE Seventh and Ninth Avenues has emerged as the latest hub for collectible midcentury des.... Contributors KEVIN GRAY ''I do a lot of jailhouse interviews,'' says the journalist Kevin Gray, who took time off from grilling psychopaths and serial killers to explore the small Norwegian ski town of Geilo (''Cold Rush,'' Page 98). ''I don't consider myse.... Body of Work Call them shallow, but for Miami's ladies (and more than a few gents), looking good requires a regular top-to-toe battery of treaments. BLOWOUT The only thing Miami likes flat is its hair. The stylists at the Gansevoort South Beach's Cutler Sa.... Chic Magnet It took a lot longer than the city had hoped, but the Miami Design District has finally boomed. Established businesses of all stripes have relocated here from South Beach, and with them have come international players like Marni, Y-3, Tomas Maier, M.... Cold Rush I didn't want to be famous, but the Norwegians insisted. The smiling weatherwoman, the thumbs-up cameraman standing in the snow, even the delighted caterer, who really should not have cared one way or the other, each wanted me to sit on a half log d.... High-Tech 'Ears' Listen for Shots BANG! The shot rang out after midnight, sending revelers who had spilled from a house party screaming and running down a scrappy Long Island street. Four miles away, in a concrete bunker 25 feet below ground, an emergency dispatcher jumped at the so.... Let's Take It Outside IT all started pleasantly enough: Boy meets Girl. Girl visits Boy's apartment in Greenwich Village, near New York University, where they are students. Boy and Girl hang out on his fire escape one night, enjoying a smoke and solving the world's.... Citizen Bruno, Unbound Too much about Albany can make a stone of the heart. But wait. Joseph L. Bruno ran the State Senate for 14 years and, by one count, dispensed $100 million a year to keep it going. The public paid for fancy vans and television studios and print.... The True Price of Admission THIS is college application season for a lot of teenagers, an apt time to pose questions to Sandy Baum, a former professor at Skidmore College and an economist at the College Board. She is the lead author of the College Board's closely followed annu.... One in 8 Million: New York Characters in Sound and Images Since the late 1980s, Lolita Wolf has been an active participant in New York's B.D.S.M. scene. (B.D.S.M., she explained, stands for ''bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism.'') Ms. Wolf, 53, gives private lessons and .... For the Soul A FEW truths existed in my house growing up: baseball games were worth watching only when the Yankees won, lateness was inexcusable, and the chicken soup from Second Avenue Deli was the best cure for a cold. This last had the most staying power.... What's On Sunday 9 P.M. (HBO) CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM Cue laughter: Larry (Larry David) misses out on some quality time with Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) when he returns a favor in this Season 7 finale, in which the stars of ''Seinfeld'' -- Jerry Seinfeld (above right), Jason.... Mostly, It's About Recovering From 'S.N.L.' Seth Meyers, 35, is in his ninth season on ''Saturday Night Live,'' his fourth as head writer as well as the snide anchor of Weekend Update, the irreverent, unrepentant mock news report. The co-writer of Tina Fey's spot-on impersonations of Sarah Pa.... Spots of Tranquillity Amid the Bustle Emerge from the No. 7 train at Main Street in Flushing, and you will land on busy, jam-packed Chinatown streets with lots of colorful signs. You won't find much English, written or spoken, but you will find an oasis of great food and -- odd, given a.... Warm Intentions, Meet Cold Reality What is the sound of one eye rolling? Call Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, and tell him you want to engage in that wonderful holiday tradition of volunteering on a soup line in the third week of November..... For Now, New Yorkers Are the Gunfire Sensors There are no immediate plans to install gunshot listening sensors on New York City's decreasingly mean streets, according to Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for the Police Department. This is not because New York is safer than ever, he said, but rather .... Guests With Issues HAVING friends over for dinner used to involve a minimal and fairly unremarkable to-do list: There were groceries to buy, along with flowers and a couple of bottles of semi-respectable wine. I would put out some guest towels and a collection of fanc.... Construction Sights Construction Sights Q.When I was younger, and a big building was going up, I used to watch workers through a peephole in the safety fence. What happened to the peepholes? A. Viewing panels, as the city calls them, are still legal, but they .... Chronicle of a Changing City BOOK CULTURE, on Broadway and 114th Street, across from Columbia University, is the latest in a long line of independent bookstores at this busy corner location. Preceded by Morningside Books, and by Papyrus before that, this store departs from thei.... House Call A first-term congressman from New Orleans, you are the one and only Republican in the House who voted in favor of the Democrats' health care plan. Have you been scolded by the Republicans for breaking rank? Not my party leadership, but only by Repu.... Stress Relief Researchers at Princeton University recently made a remarkable discovery about the brains of rats that exercise. Some of their neurons respond differently to stress than the neurons of slothful rats. Scientists have known for some time that exercise.... What to Do With the Boat Friends staying at our lakeside house found a small paddle boat washed up on our property and, thinking it was ours, tied it to our dock. It is not. We posted an announcement about it on the community bulletin board, but no one responded. The boat i.... The Needle Nexus Of all the mysteries posed by AIDS, perhaps the deepest and most damaging is a human one: why have we failed so utterly to stop its transmission? Most people with H.I.V. in the world, including a vast majority of the 22 million who are infected in s.... ER Call it a vast linguistic conspiracy: proponents of the major conspiracy theories of the day -- the truthers, the birthers, the deathers -- share a suffix that makes them all sound like whackdoodles. ''It looks like conspiracy theorists might acquir.... THE CHEAT: PUTTIN' ON THE BISQUE ''Which is the right life?'' asks the Cole Porter song. ''The simple or the night life? When, pray, should one rise, at sunset or at sunrise? Which should be upper, my breakfast or my supper? Which is the right life, which?'' If you've spent an.... THE PRISONER Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once his country's richest man, has resided in ''gulag lite,'' as he calls the Russian penal system under Vladimir Putin, for six years. Since the spring, on most working days he is roused at 6:45 in the morning, surrounded by .... Losing Fatherhood I. It was in July 2007 when Mike L. asked the Pennsylvania courts to declare that he was no longer the father of his daughter. For four years, Mike had known that the girl he had rocked to sleep and danced with across the living-room floor was.... AGRO-IMPERIALISM? Dr. Robert Zeigler, an eminent American botanist, flew to Saudi Arabia in March for a series of high-level discussions about the future of the kingdom's food supply. Saudi leaders were frightened: heavily dependent on imports, they had seen the pric.... Is This Bishop Catholic? I take issue with some of the statements made in Deborah Solomon's interview with Robert Duncan. First, the name of Duncan's organization, the Anglican Church in North America, may confuse some readers. The organization is not a part of the Anglican.... Dr. James Will Make It Better To be sure, as David Leonhardt describes, Intermountain HealthCare's model of using evidence-based medicine, led by Dr. Brent James, offers much to improve our current medical-care system and is in part an answer to our health care crisis. What must.... How My Father Looked I think I have a way of finding out what my father looked like. Yes, finally! Excuse my excitement. My father died when I was very young, and to this day, I have never seen a picture of him. My search for his face goes back to when I lived in a refu.... Leveraging the Obama Brand Earlier this month, almost a year from the day when Barack Obama rode the wave of history into Grant Park, he had one of those weeks that makes his presidency seem, at times, so confounding. First Obama endured an electoral embarrassment, watching h.... Where to Fill Up the Table Dearborn Market is on a commercial stretch of Route 35 in Holmdel, but this food store and garden center has a country feel, complete with its setting in a red barn-style building. Those cooking for Thanksgiving can find fresh turkeys and a produce .... Speaking to a Big Crowd, With a Greek Accent WHEN I first heard about Erini, a restaurant along the Delaware owned by a Greek family, I started craving taramosalata and octopus, moussaka and spanakopita. So it was a letdown when I arrived and found the menu consisted mostly of the typical upsc.... Sailors and Mates, at Liberty Were the women in ''On the Town'' always so brazen? Two are voraciously man-hungry, and the third is a cooch dancer -- but only to pay for her singing lessons. Female lasciviousness hasn't been this entertaining since ''Sex and the City'' went off t.... New Jersey Comedy MORRISTOWN Mayo Center for the Performing Arts Manhattan Comedy Night, with rising stand-up performers. Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. $25. The Capitol Steps, political satire troupe. Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. $27 to $52. Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, .... Raw Theater, Aimed at a Younger Crowd Bars have no problem attracting 20-something crowds, but theaters sometimes do. ''Our audiences tend to be in their 40s and 50s,'' said John Pietrowski, artistic director of Playwrights Theater of New Jersey in Madison, by way of explaining ho.... In Trenton, on the Scene 'Within a Minute' Five cities and townships in New Jersey have installed ShotSpotter, according to the company, and Trenton is the most recent. The system went live at the beginning of October, covering 1.1 square miles of the city's northern section, a crime hot spo.... Start Small and Think Long-Term: Saving Energy NEW YORKERS get to feel smug about a lot of things. We have great food, arts and culture, the Yankees. We can also feel good about our relatively low use of energy, thanks to public transportation and our small living spaces. But sometimes -- someti.... Where Laughter Pays the Rent CAROLITA JOHNSON, 44, an illustrator, model and New Yorker cartoonist, has lived in some appalling places in her lifetime. During a 15-year sojourn in Paris, she occupied garrets with no toilet, no heat, no hot water and no shower (she used the.... Lots to Spend, Little to Buy PITY the long-suffering brokers of luxury Manhattan real estate. They endured a lonely spell, waiting for the phone to ring. Few properties sold and few buyers were even looking. Now with the Wall Street bonus season about to begin, they are sufferi.... A Partly Cloudy Resolution MUCH has been said about buyers at glassy new condominiums who signed contracts when the sun was shining on the market but demanded their deposits back when the weather turned. Many filed applications with the state attorney general's office t.... Princess Prevails in Duplex Wrangle AFTER years of legal wrangling, Princess Firyal of Jordan has gained control of the huge duplex apartment owned by the late Lionel Pincus, the financier, on the 30th and 31st floors of the Pierre Hotel, facing Central Park at East 61st Street. .... ON THE MARKET CHELSEA ONE-BEDROOM $599,000 MANHATTAN: 225 West 25th Street (between Seventh and Eighth Avenues), #1J A one-bedroom one-bath co-op in a prewar elevator building. Damon Powell, Halstead Property (212) 521-5729; www.halstead.com. MAINT.... ON THE MARKET BLACK ROCK CAPE $475,000 CONNECTICUT: 15 Pearsall Way, Bridgeport A four-bedroom two-bath Cape with formal living and dining rooms, a fireplace, a combination kitchen and family room, a screened sun porch, and an attached two-car garage.... ON THE MARKET MONTCLAIR VICTORIAN $799,900 NEW JERSEY: 716 Valley Road A thoroughly renovated three-story house that is more than 100 years old, with four bedrooms, three and a half baths, a cook's kitchen, a master suite, a family room and a two-car .... ON THE MARKET FORT GREENE CO-OP $475,000 BROOKLYN: 135 Ashland Place (between Willoughby and Myrtle Avenues), #14D A three-bedroom corner unit with one and a half baths, an L-shaped living-dining room and a galley kitchen in a 1950's complex with 24-h.... ON THE MARKET UPPER WEST SIDE CO-OP $1,395,000 MANHATTAN: 40 West 67th Street (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue), #8C A two-bedroom two-and-half-bath co-op with a fireplace, a storage bin and a free laundry in the basement in a prewar bui.... Residential Sales Around the Region Upper West Side . . . . . . . . $335,000 52 Riverside Drive (77th St.) r 1 f 1 h 0 o 4 weeks 600-sq.-ft. co-op in a prewar building; 24-hr. doormen, kitchen window, high ceilings, h/w floors, 2 exposures; maintenance $988, 47% tax deductible; listed.... ON THE MARKET PHOTOS: 31-35 31ST STREET, #708: A three-bedroom two-bath new penthouse condo with a terrace, listed for $783,125. (646) 772-8282; 25-47 23RD STREET, #2R: A one-bedroom one-bath condo built in 2007, listed for $349,900.; (917) 297-5178 23-66 32ND ST.... Reaching Out to Condo Buyers CONDOMINIUM buyers in the New York area often paid little mind to Federal Housing Administration mortgages, either because these government-backed loans had relatively low dollar limits or because federal rules put them beyond the reach of most cond.... Everyone's Invited to This Block Party IF one wanted to encapsulate everything that defines Queens into a single neighborhood -- and who wouldn't, really -- the result might very well be Astoria. Ensconced in the northwest corner of the borough and bigger than some small towns, it u.... Shifting Priorities FOR more than five years, Jack Wu and his wife, Chiyomi Uchino Wu, lived rent-free in a two-family house owned by Mr. Wu's parents in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. It was ''the perfect way to save money,'' Mr. Wu said. But the commute ''was killing .... A Walk Among Vanished Guideposts IN the middle of fourth grade, the spring of 1960, my mother allowed me to walk home from the Browning School at 62nd Street and Park Avenue to our apartment house at 56th and Sutton Place. While most of my classmates traveled north up Park or .... K. Thomas Elghanayan Q. Are you O.K. with the way the assets were divided up? A. Yes, it worked out fine; the methodology was very fair. We ended up with two-thirds of the assets and the staff, and Henry ended up with one-third, as he should. We have 11 operatin.... Q & A When Co-op Units Are in Poor Condition Q If an apartment in a co-op building has fallen into serious disrepair, should a prospective buyer worry that there are other such apartments in the building? A That is not an unreasonable concern. .... When Is a Big House Too Big? GUILFORD THE ''big house'' phenomenon that has for at least a decade roiled neighborhoods the length of the Fairfield County shoreline is now stirring up towns to the east, including this coastal community near New Haven. The shoehorning of s.... Starting Anew, Going Awry Perhaps the clearest indicator of the state of the Cleveland Browns came from the sign a fan carried at their Monday night game last week. ''Hey Baltimore,'' it read, ''can you take this team too?'' Not likely. After all, Baltimore has the.... A New Generation of Statistics Redefines Baseball As Zack Greinke's magical season rolled along, another Kansas City Royals pitcher, Brian Bannister, excitedly tracked his teammate's progress. With the Royals long out of the pennant race, it did not matter to Bannister how many victories Greinke co.... Newly Able Knicks Repel Nets In the Battle of the Basement EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Cartoon characters filled the Izod Center on Saturday afternoon, with painted-on smiles that not even two bad basketball teams could erase. Dora the Explorer sang the national anthem. Elmo, in the form of a stray balloon, .... Latest Loss Leaves Weis Hanging by a Thread SOUTH BEND, Ind. There was no blue-gray sky to provide the backdrop. No horseman, never mind four of them, to come to the rescue. There was no cosmic channeling of karma from Touchdown Jesus or a touch of luck from Fighting Irish legends like Knute,.... Giving It a Second Thought A college soccer player retaliates against an opponent by pulling her down by the ponytail. A tennis champion has a tantrum on the court, costing her a shot at winning another major title. An all-star catcher throws an elbow, touching off a brawl th.... CHATTER BOX 'Bill obviously has more faith in the ability of his offense to get a yard than for his defense to keep Manning and the Colts from orchestrating a two-minute drive. No one knows his team better than Bill. I do wonder what message it sends to the def.... Violent Plays Have No Gender Barriers To the Sports Editor: Re ''Those Soccer Plays, in Context,'' Nov. 18: The New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert has not yet come to grips with her unsportsmanlike behavior. She tries to blame competitiveness and being a woman to explain he.... OUTBOX The five most e-mailed articles from nytimes.com/sports for Nov. 14 to Nov. 20. 1. THOSE SOCCER PLAYS, IN CONTEXT Elizabeth Lambert said she regretted the violent incident that led to her suspension from the New Mexico soccer team. But other mo.... Steps to Counter Weekend Binges To the Sports Editor: Re ''After the Tailgate, the Breathalyzer,'' Nov. 19: Boolah, boolah to the universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota for taking steps to limit student alcohol consumption at least on days of football games. Hopefully other .... Today's N.B.A. Is Boring To the Sports Editor: Re ''N.B.A.'s Old Reliable Very Much in Vogue,'' Nov. 20: It is no surprise that the pick-and-roll is practiced so often in the N.B.A. Professional basketball has become a two-man game. Three players stand around while two ot.... A New World To the Sports Editor: Re ''Losing a Chess Match, and a Game,'' Nov. 16: Jacksonville's Maurice Jones-Drew got a lot of positive attention for saying, ''Tell my fantasy owners I'm sorry,'' after he eschewed a sure touchdown by taking a knee on t.... Missed Opportunity To the Sports Editor: Re ''This Time, No Reward for Risk Taker,'' Nov. 17: Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's call for a fourth-down attempt at his 28-yard line in the last minutes of the fourth quarter has been criticized since last Sunday's loss.... Defensive Pit Bull Helped Galaxy Reach Final CARSON, Calif. The character of the Los Angeles Galaxy's Dema Kovalenko -- or is it Demon? -- appears to have been carefully constructed. The days-old stubble, the piercing hazel eyes and the Russian accent are archetypical of a persona built around.... A Schumacher Return? Mercedes has played down, without completely dismissing, speculation that the seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher could come out of retirement to replace the newly crowned world champion Jenson Button, who switched to McLaren. Me.... Austrian Rider Barred The Austrian cycling federation said Christian Pfannberger had been barred for life by the national antidoping agency after a second doping offense. Pfannberger, a two-time Austrian national champion, pulled out of the Giro d'Italia and was su.... Saints' Bush and Ellis Out With Knee Injuries Running back Reggie Bush and defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis did not travel with the New Orleans Saints for Sunday's game against Tampa Bay. A team spokesman said Saturday that both players had been downgraded on the official injury report from quest.... Starting, Kyle Busch Wins Kyle Busch won the Nationwide Series championship. Busch needed only to start the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to win his first Nascar title. Busch has eight victories in the second-tier series and 11 second-place finishes. He entered with.... Rosa Twins 1-2 In 5-K Run Joe Rosa placed first and his twin, Jim, was second at the New Jersey State Meet of Champions. Joe covered the five-kilometer course at Holmdel Park in 14 minutes 56 seconds to break the course record of 15:04 he set Oct. 3. Jim was timed in 15:15. .... Holmgren Interested The former Seattle and Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren said he would be interested in working for the Cleveland Browns. Holmgren said in his weekly radio show on KJR in Seattle that he had not yet spoken to the Browns' owner, Randy Lerner, who i.... The Book on Turner: Couldn't Pick It Up After 20 years, the dossier on Norv Turner is complete. He is a great teacher of quarterbacks and receivers whose offenses generate impressive statistics, if slightly less impressive point totals. He is a good planner but a poor in-game strategist. .... For Martin, Being Second Wouldn't Be Falling Short The final event in a relatively unspectacular 36-race Nascar Sprint Cup season is likely to amount to little more than a 267-lap parade Sunday in Homestead, Fla., with Jimmie Johnson almost certain to cruise to an unprecedented fourth consecutive se.... Darrelle Revis Vs. Randy Moss Two of the best players in the N.F.L. at their respective positions meet again Sunday. In Week 2, Darrelle Revis blanketed Randy Moss, below, allowing four catches for 24 yards. Afterward, Moss said Revis often had help over the top, which whe.... Leaving Cleveland, For More of Same FLORHAM PARK, N.J. Even his Jets teammates feel extra sympathy for wide receiver Braylon Edwards. This season, Edwards has lost eight games with two teams in five states. He has lost to division leaders (Cincinnati, Minnesota, Denver) and again.... Michael Boley Vs. Former Team Giants linebacker Michael Boley, a former Falcon, lost his starting job last season and left as a free agent. ''I won't lie, yeah, I was bitter,'' Boley said. But he says he retains friends on the team. ''We still chit-chat and talk trash,'' B.... Giants' Ross Heals With Help From His Fiancee, a Gold Medalist EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Cornerback Aaron Ross hopes to make his season debut Sunday when the Giants host Atlanta in their 10th game of the season. But his fiancee will not be at Giants Stadium to see him and will not even watch the game on televi.... Robinson Shoots at His Own Basket EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Nate Robinson found the basket only once Saturday -- after the buzzer and at the wrong end of the court. With 0.5 seconds left in the first quarter of the Knicks' game against the Nets, Robinson received an inbounds pass, .... Duke Matches 3-Pointer Record in Romp Over Radford The freshman Andre Dawkins scored a season-high 20 points and No. 9 Duke matched a university record with 18 3-pointers in a 104-67 romp at home against Radford. Nolan Smith added 20 points and Jon Scheyer had 18 for the Blue Devils. They overw.... Clamping Down in 4th, Cavaliers Hold Off 76ers LeBron James scored 32 points, Mo Williams had 18 and the host Cleveland Cavaliers clamped down defensively in the fourth quarter, holding the Philadelphia 76ers to 10 points over the final 12 minutes for a 97-91 victory Saturday night. James a.... To Hang In, a Series Winner Must Learn to Let Go More than any other team in American professional sports, the Yankees cannot afford to rebuild. The team's partnership with the YES regional sports network is too lucrative when the Yankees are winning, their hulking palace of a stadium is too much .... With 66, Westwood Keeps Two-Stroke Lead in Dubai DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Lee Westwood maintained his two-shot lead at the Dubai World Championships after shooting a six-under 66 Saturday in the third round. Westwood, of England, made six birdies to take his total to 15-under 201. England'.... Federer Was at His Best, But May Not Finish First Whether Roger Federer wins or loses in London next week, the tennis year will still be his. No matter how big the buzz at the tour championships, which start Sunday in their new digs by the River Thames, the truth is that the most significant t.... Making a Living on the L.P.G.A. Tour Becomes Tougher by the Year RICHMOND, Tex. Reilley Rankin is a college graduate who earned more than $400,000 two years ago plying her trade. Now she is merely another member of the L.P.G.A.'s middle class trying not to slip through the economy's cracks. With her work sc.... Devils Seem to Have Lost Their Winning Touch on the Road After winning their first nine road games, the Devils have now gone winless in three away games after a 5-3 loss Saturday to the Stars in Dallas. Defenseman Stephane Robidas had two goals and two assists for the Stars, and the rookie Tom Wandel.... Thin Attack Falls Short as Rangers Sink Deeper ''It cannot just be Marian and I,'' Vinny Prospal said at practice on Friday, referring to how he and Marian Gaborik were doing almost all of the Rangers' scoring lately. But in the Rangers' 3-2 loss to Florida on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, .... Day's Story Lines: Some of the top trends from Saturday's games: Change out west Southern California's seven-year reign atop the Pac-10 ended quietly. The idle Trojans were eliminated when No. 20 Oregon State beat Washington State. Narrow Escape Florida State scored a touchdown in the final minute to beat Ma.... Record-Setting Day In Division II Playoffs WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. West Liberty and Edinboro have made a habit of offensive shows. Zach Amedro threw for 540 yards and 6 touchdowns, Kevon Calhoun ran for 173 yards and 4 more scores, and West Liberty outscored Edinboro, 84-63, on Saturday in .... Yale Fails on 4th-Down Risk, and Harvard Pulls Out Win WEST HAVEN, Conn. During his first year at Yale, Coach Tom Williams kept telling his football team that he would be aggressive. The Bulldogs ran two fake-punt plays earlier this season, and both worked. But this time, Yale was playing Harvard,.... Day's Best Some of the top performances in Saturday's games: The Heisman contender Case Keemun, left, threw five touchdown passes to lead Houston over Memphis, 55-14. He has 94 career touchdown passes, breaking David Klingler's team record of 91. Virginia Tech linebacker Cody Grimm tied an N.C.A.A. record b.... Oregon and Oregon St. to Play for Rose Bowl Berth Jeremiah Masoli tied the score with a touchdown pass to Ed Dickson with six seconds left, and then won the game with a 1-yard run in the second overtime as No. 11 Oregon defeated Arizona, 44-41, on Saturday night in Tucson to take a big step toward .... Paulus Lifts Syracuse In Upset Of Rutgers Greg Paulus's second senior day turned out to be maybe the most memorable of his brief college football career. Paulus had 142 yards passing on Saturday and host Syracuse earned its first conference victory with a 31-13 upset of 25th-ranked Rut.... Hip-Hop's New Steps Los Angeles THINK globally, act virally. Like a cartoon thought bubble, that notion seems to hang in the mild afternoon air here, as school lets out early on parent-teacher conference day at Alexander Hamilton High School. At two o'clock precis.... Becoming the Alpha Dog In Your Own Home AS far back as ''Father Knows Best,'' television has been an unintentional teaching aid for parents. To watch Mike and Carol Brady labor tirelessly to boost Jan's wobbly self-esteem, or Cliff and Clair Huxtable corral Denise's rebellious impulses wi.... Glittering Autumn PHOTOS: Nov. 17: The Museum of Arts and Design held an awards dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. 30. BARBARA TOBER, left, and SHELLY LAZARUS. 31. HOLLY HOTCHNER and JEROME CHAZEN. 32. From left, ADAM ZEISEL, JEAN RICHARDS, TALISMAN BROLIN and EVA ZEIS.... Mia Feldbaum and Mark McGoldrick MARK McGOLDRICK rocketed through his adolescence in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the highly combustible fuel of alcohol, drugs and trouble, he and his friends making impulsive trips in speeding cars. One ride ended in a car crash, leaving him a paralyzed in.... Helen Bailey, Farhad Manjoo Dr. Helen Louise Bailey and Farhad Manjoo were married in San Francisco Saturday by Imam Junaid M. Kharsany at 1 Fort Mason, an event space. Dr. Bailey, 33, is keeping her name. She is a fifth-year resident in pathology and laboratory medicine.... Jenna Lee, Brian Kim Jenna Jihyun Lee and Brian Andrew Kim were married Saturday in Flushing, Queens. The Rev. Thomas F. Brosnan performed the ceremony at St. Paul Chong Hasang Roman Catholic Church. Mrs. Kim, 29, is an associate at Mason Capital Management, a hedg.... Stephanie James, Marc Esquenazi Stephanie Leigh James, the daughter of Ellen B. James and John P. James of Short Hills, N.J., was married Saturday evening to Marc Israel Esquenazi, the son of Fortuna I. Esquenazi and Dr. Rafael C. Esquenazi of Bellaire, Tex. Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz .... Christyn Moran, Michael Muscarella Christyn Joelle Moran and Michael John Muscarella were married Saturday in Philadelphia. The Rev. George S. Rigby Jr., a Methodist minister, led a nondenominational ceremony at the Union League of Philadelphia. The bride, 37, is the vice preside.... Rainbow Corcoran, Andrew Partridge Tanya Rainbow Corcoran and Andrew William Partridge were married Monday in Chicago. Judge Raymond W. Mitchell of the Circuit Court of Cook County, officiated at City Hall there. On Saturday, Sabina Tamm Rivera, a Universal Life minister, led a.... Sari Scheer, Samuel Kopel Sari Scheer and Dr. Samuel Kopel were married Saturday evening at the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Manhattan. The rabbi, Dr. Elie Abadie, performed the ceremony. Ms. Scheer, 55, is keeping her name. She is a finance and computer systems manage.... Jessica Meller, Patrick Cranston Jessica Suzanne Meller and Patrick Scott Cranston were married Saturday. Kim Kirkley, a Universal Brotherhood minister, led a nondenominational ceremony at Bridgewaters, a restaurant in New York. Ms. Meller, 27, is keeping her name. She is stud.... Mara Sitomer, Daniel Seigerman Mara Rebecca Sitomer, the daughter of Terry Sitomer and Jeffrey Sitomer of Upper Saddle River, N.J., was married Saturday evening to Dr. Daniel Allan Seigerman, a son of Robin Seigerman and Dr. David E. Seigerman of Roslyn, N.Y. Rabbi Lee Friedlande.... Megan Brady, Michael Monforte Megan Elizabeth Brady and Michael Angelo Monforte were married Saturday in a self-uniting civil ceremony under Pennsylvania's marriage statute at the Blue Bell Country Club in Blue Bell, Pa. The bride and bridegroom, both 32, met at Hofstra Un.... Susan Mendik, Moe Tarkinow Susan Mendik and Moe Tarkinow were married Saturday in New York. Dr. David M. Posner performed the ceremony at Temple Emanu-El, where he is senior rabbi. Ms. Mendik, 60, is keeping her name. She retired from Friedman, Alpren & Green, a New Yor.... Bess Rattray, Paul Gartside Bess Rattray and Paul Gartside were married Saturday on the island of Nevis in the West Indies by Magistrate Yasmine Clarke. Ms. Rattray, 42, is keeping her name. She is a freelance magazine editor in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. She graduated from .... Erika Savage, Philip Alberstat Erika Lynne Savage and Philip Alberstat were married Saturday evening in Palm Springs, Calif. Rabbi Neal Weinberg officiated at the Parker Palm Springs, a resort. The bride, 36, is an in-house counsel at Interscope Geffen A&M Records in Los An.... Carly Weiss, Jonathan Natko Carly Brooke Weiss, a daughter of Susan P. Weiss and Paul H. Weiss of Blue Bell, Pa., was married Saturday evening to Jonathan David Natko, a son of Andrea Natko and Les Natko of Roslyn, N.Y. Rabbi Baht Yameem Weiss officiated at the Ritz-Carlton in.... Nicole Pearl, David Kaplan Nicole Beth Pearl, a daughter of Susan P. Pearl and Kenneth B. Pearl of Highland Park, Ill., and David Michael Kaplan, the son of Kathy Kaplan and Richard Kaplan of Chicago, were married Saturday evening in Hallandale Beach, Fla. William A. Rudnick,.... Emily Theriault, Luca Laino Emily Theriault and Luca Laino were married Saturday at The Racquet and Tennis Club in New York. The Rev. David T. Lewicki, a Presbyterian minister, officiated. The couple received M.B.A. degrees from Dartmouth, where they met. Mrs. Laino, .... Margaret Bruton, John McCardell III Margaret McKissick Bruton, the daughter of Jean D. Bruton and John C. Bruton Jr. of Columbia, S.C., and John Malcolm McCardell III, a son of Bonita G. McCardell and Mr. McCardell Jr. of Middlebury, Vt., were married Saturday at St. John's Episcopal .... Norah Lawlor, Jeffrey Bradford Norah Elizabeth Lawlor and Jeffrey Peter Bradford were married in New York Saturday by the Rev. George W. Rutler at the Roman Catholic Church of Our Saviour, where he is the pastor. The bride, 43, will continue to use her name professionally. S.... Pamela Aronstam, Samuel Buxton Pamela Joy Aronstam, a daughter of Vicki Aronstam and Neil L. Aronstam of New York, was married in New York Saturday evening to Samuel Cary Buxton, the son of Dr. Judy Buxton of Villanova, Pa., and Dr. Alfred Buxton of Barrington, R.I. Dr. David M. .... To the Happy Couple, and My YouTube Clip WEDDING toasts can be witty or raunchy. They can be shouted, mumbled or slurred. They can make guests laugh, cry or yawn. But in a video democracy in which guests are often armed with sophisticated cameras, toasts are becoming more like scripted per.... Not Taking 'Not Hiring' for an Answer BABY boomers have lived during an era of unparalleled prosperity. So when this deep recession hit -- at a time when boomers were advancing to middle- and late-middle age -- much was written about them being too spoiled to cope. Not so. A look a.... Jock Art THERE is a small gem of a show at Danziger Projects, featuring a little-known trove of Polaroids shot by Andy Warhol in the late 1970s and early '80s. Commissioned by a collector, they are portraits of famous athletes taken with a Big Shot camera. T.... Quick Change Artist EVEN for an artist who trades in the glamorously ephemeral, Francesco Vezzoli created a spectacle -- ''Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again)'' -- that was dazzlingly short. The performance featured Lady Gaga, w.... The Wild Bunch IF your 7-year-old design addict is already disdainful of rugs with storybook characters (and if money is no object), here's a less saccharine alternative: four witty, whimsical offerings that the London designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have .... Retro Specs A RARE assortment of vintage Oliver Peoples frames, dating as far back as 1987, is the calling card at A. Kinney Court, a boutique that opened recently in Venice, Calif. The owner, Garrett Leight, 25, is following in the footsteps of his dad, Larry,.... Conversation Starters YOU can literally put your money where your mouth is with these enamel, silver and gold Seven Sins earrings by the Rome-based jeweler Delfina Delettrez (who, as a fourth-generation Fendi, must have accessories in her blood). Her work, with its gothi.... Fine and Dandy ANDRE 3000 must have taken a page or two out of ''Gentlemen of the Bacongo'' (Trolley Books, $39.95), a new tome by Daniele Tamagni that celebrates dandies in an unlikely style capital -- the Congo Republic. The culture of La SAPE, or La Societe des.... Her World on a String BROOKLYN DECKER, the swimwear model, was hovering a foot over the mat, like Tom Cruise in ''Mission Impossible.'' With her feet resting in a rope hanging from the ceiling and her hands planted wide on the mat, she was attempting an aerial variation .... Hue Last week, Central Park was a blaze of red. Patience, the southernmost library lion, stood guard on Fifth Avenue against a background of golden leaves. And autumn's splendor appeared on the backs of a few imaginative women in a city known for dressi.... The Boundaries of a Breakup WHEN I broke up with my live-in girlfriend of five years, we divvied up our things, helped each other move into our new apartments, and then stopped seeing each other altogether -- a cold-turkey breakup that I was sure was for the best. We didn't se.... Rude Revenge To the Editor: Re ''One Rude Turn Deserves a Swat'' (Sunday Styles, Nov. 15): I, too, have been the victim of loud personal cellphone conversations. But I have been most effective in handling this, without confrontations. I speak on my phon.... Surgery At the Spa To the Editor: Re ''Surgery at a Spa? Buyer Beware'' (Thursday Styles, Nov. 5), about invasive procedures performed at spas: It sheds light on a growing public health issue: who should be allowed to perform certain cosmetic procedures at un.... I Ordered the Ants! While finishing a meal at a French restaurant that we frequent, I spotted a three-inch water bug making its way down a wall, inches from my 14-year-old daughter's head. Happily, the bug ducked into a crevice. I quietly told the headwaiter. Aft.... Barkeep, a Placebo On the Rocks, Please ON Oct. 11, 1918, during the flu pandemic, a Public Health Service physician in Baltimore, alarmed by a trend he'd noted, sent an urgent note to Surgeon General Rupert Blue. ''Sir,'' he began, ''a strong and growing belief exists in the minds of the.... Liberty, Equality, Gastronomy A marvelous painting of a gourmand at his table hangs in the Musee Carnavalet in Paris -- a portly, pink-faced figure happily gorging on a regal casserole, with a bottle of wine at one elbow and a luscious-looking souffle at the other. It is traditi.... In Texas, Minimalist Art and Maximum Flavor ''The big empty'' is how my seatmate describes the landscape as our plane makes its descent to El Paso. To me it is the opposite: this is a place I've visited and lived in for the last 13 years, and it is a land filled with memories, adventure and p.... Berlin Empty Space Smack in the middle of eastern Berlin is a grassy lawn measuring nearly five acres. Near it is a huge billboard showing a castle. What gives? It's an example of Zwischennutzung, or interim use, a word that gets bandied around a lot in a city t.... Mumbai Lunch to Go Among the wonders of Mumbai are the dabbawallas, deliverymen who ferry home-cooked meals -- in multicompartment metal lunch boxes called tiffins -- from residences to offices (and back) every day. It used to be that the meals would originate only wi.... Hotels Blossoming in Berlin CASA CAMPER, a 51-room hotel in the Mitte district of Berlin, was fully booked when it opened on Sept. 15. The hotel, run by the Spanish urban clothing label Camper, drew a youthful clientele that included fashionable Europeans in party mode and Mono.... London Autumn Opening These are excerpts from recent posts on the Globespotters blog, a travelers' guide to cities around the world. Full entries can be found at nytimes.com/globespotters. Anthropologie, the American fashion and housewares chain, has opened its firs.... Library Treasures To the Editor: I enjoyed the article ''Rare Books Don't Always Live in Glass Cases'' (Nov. 1) on lesser-known libraries with extraordinary collections. I was reminded of the detour-worthy art collection housed in the library of my hometown, Charles .... The Ridgeway Trail To the Editor: The Ridgeway Trail (''Hiking Into History,'' Nov. 1) in England has the mixture of nature, history, geology and village life that makes for extraordinary hiking and that seems to be missing in the trails in the United States. The Unit.... On the Web FRUGAL TRAVELER Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler, shares tips on buying inexpensive souvenirs, including hot sauces and designer T-shirts. nytimes.com/frugaltraveler GLOBESPOTTERS Local correspondents report on a jazz festival in Mumba.... Free Wi-Fi in the Sky And Some in the Terminal Flying during the holidays is never fun. But a couple of airlines are trying to brighten up the process with a gift of free Wi-Fi access at 10,000 feet. Through Jan. 15, Virgin America, in a promotion with Google, will offer its Gogo Inflight I.... A Night, and Day, In Tunisia at a New Resort The North African country of Tunisia is known for its golden beaches, sunny weather and affordable luxuries. The new 260-room Radisson hotel, in the former French colonial port city of Monastir, is no exception. The Radisson Blu Resort & Thalas.... A New Wait-Time App For Disney Theme Parks Want to find Mickey Mouse for an autograph? Want to know the wait time for Space Mountain? Well, there's an app for that -- sort of. Disney Parks has released a mobile app, Mobile Magic, which delivers real-time updates of wait times, where to fin.... B & Bs Seek to Be a Guy Thing BED-and-breakfasts are starting to man up, doing away with the lace bedspreads and trading high tea for brewskies. In Pittsburgh, the Mansion at Maple Heights, owned by a former Pittsburgh Steeler, Chukky Okobi, offered a $995 two-night Gridiro.... Q&A Hong Kong Highlights for Two 21-Year-Olds My son and a friend will be going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in January and would like to make a stop in Hong Kong first. Can you suggest comfortable places to stay in Hong .... The Indie Music Pillars of Athens DUSK was descending softly on Athens as the sounds of bass-heavy noise pop drifted across Karitsi Square, a tucked-away cobblestone oasis near the city center. In the outside seating area of Use Bar (Karitsi Square 5; 30-210-323-5993), two tables of.... Madrid: Estado Puro A hotel tapas bar located smack in the middle of one of Madrid's busiest tourist hubs? Easy to pass up, perhaps. But then I took a closer look. An artfully stylized pattern of filigree mantilla combs -- the restaurant's logo -- covered the ceiling a.... A Newly Stylish Amman Asserts Itself ''AREN'T you going to check out the terrace?'' Madian al-Jazerah said to me. It was just after sunset on a summer Thursday evening, and we were standing on the sprawling front deck of Books@Cafe, the combination bookstore, cafe and restaurant .... Boston: Copley Square Hotel THE BASICS Don't show up in Boston and ask for the Copley Hotel. You'll find at least three within a few blocks: a towering Westin Copley Place, the Fairmont Copley Plaza, and the Copley Square Hotel, the smallest of the three. Until this year,.... New Rival to Atlanta Art Scene THE warehouses and industrial buildings to the west of downtown Atlanta have not had the benefit of a concerted attempt by the city at urban revitalization. Instead, the West Side has lately given rise to a sort of ad hoc group of contemporary art .... 36 Hours in Rajasthan INDIA is modernizing rapidly, sometimes too fast. You have giant malls, but grandmothers afraid to use the escalators. There are villages in the middle of nowhere, with ornate temples soaring into the hot sky. Still, old Rajasthan endures, evoking r.... A Luxurious Oasis In a Downtown Hotel In the center of the business district of busy White Plains, the Lobby Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton offers a luxurious oasis of serenity. Deep armchairs and sofas fill the handsome space and surround a glass-enclosed fireplace -- the perfect setting f.... A Bistro That Does Grand-mere Proud AT Bistro Rollin on a blustery November night, I put the ''roasted half chicken grand-mere'' to the test. If you're going to reference someone's grandmother on the menu, the hen in question had better be delicious. Golden skinned and rosy hued, surr.... Westchester Comedy ELMSFORD Westchester Broadway Theater ''Battle of the Sexes Comedy Night,'' stand-up. Monday at 6 p.m. $75 for dinner and show. Westchester Broadway Theater, 75 Clearbrook Road. broadwaytheatre.com; (914) 592-2222. TARRYTOWN Tarryto.... Getting Into Shakespeare, No Memorizing Required Dobbs Ferry THE floor is strewn with backpacks. A dozen or so high school students -- in jeans and hoodies, sweaters and dresses, boots and sneakers -- have divided into clusters of two to four, most on and around the stage, in an otherwise empty .... Microphones Join Cameras in Westchester Shortly before the end of October, ShotSpotter went live in Mount Vernon, blanketing the city's entire 4.5 square miles with its acoustic gunshot tracking technology. Using half of the $3 million earmarked by Westchester County for the system -- the.... The Pit Bull in the China Shop AT last the American right and left have one issue they unequivocally agree on: You don't actually have to read Sarah Palin's book to have an opinion about it. Last Sunday Liz Cheney praised ''Going Rogue'' as ''well-written'' on Fox News even thoug.... Other Views: The Columnist's Voice Re ''The Archbishop's Blog'' (Nov. 8): On Maureen Dowd's column on nuns, I agree with her in principle, but not in tone. Yes, columnists get a lot of leeway, but I am not surprised at Archbishop Timothy Dolan's objections. She was clearly over .... Advice From Grandma President Obama's visit to China this week inevitably invites comparisons between the world's two leading powers. You know what they say: Britain owned the 19th century, America owned the 20th century, and, it's all but certain that China will own t.... Avoidance by the Numbers Philadelphia AMONG the reforms approved by the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday was an amendment allowing a systematic risk council to suggest new regulations on financial and corporate accounting. New regulations are all well and go.... Who Created Major Hasan? Princeton, N.J. IN the case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and the Fort Hood massacre, the verdict has come in. The liberal news media have been found guilty -- by the conservative news media -- of coddling Major Hasan's religion, Islam. Liberals,.... Visceral Has Its Value WASHINGTON It's easy to dismiss Sarah Palin. She's back on the trail, with the tumbling hair and tumbling thoughts. The queen of the scenic strip mall known as Wasilla now reigns over thrilled subjects thronging to a politically strategic swat.... My Chocolate Meltdown TO investment bankers, it's welcome news that Kraft Foods is offering more than $16 billion to acquire the British candymaker Cadbury: Maybe the frozen credit markets are thawing. As a chocolate fiend, bunkered in my kitchen alongside a simmering ba.... Animal, Vegetable, Miserable Lewisburg, Pa. LATELY more people have begun to express an interest in where the meat they eat comes from and how it was raised. Were the animals humanely treated? Did they have a good quality of life before the death that turned them into someone.... Correction An article last Sunday about China's economic growth described the trade relationship between China and the United States incorrectly. China is America's biggest source of imports, not its biggest trading partner. (America's biggest trading partner,.... Correction An article last Sunday about ideas on what to name the current decade misstated part of the name of a financial instrument that has been cited as a reason for the economic collapse. It is a collateralized debt obligation, not collateral debt obligat.... An Evolutionary Bent Toward Religion? To the Editor: Re ''The Evolution of the God Gene'' (Week in Review, Nov. 15): While it's possible that a ''god gene'' has evolved in humanity because it promotes social order and conformity, the article, and perhaps the science, ignores th.... End-of-Life Planning and the House Health Bill To the Editor: Re ''My Near Death Panel Experience'' (Op-Ed, Nov. 15): It is welcome that Representative Earl Blumenauer has taken the time to set the record straight on the end-of-life provisions included in the House health care bill. It .... A Ban on Genetic Discrimination It is rare when antidiscrimination law is extended to a whole new group of people, but that happened on Saturday, when a federal ban on discriminating on the basis of genetic background took effect. The new law is an important step in protecting peo.... Roll Your Own Tax Rate There are no records kept on how fast loopholes can be uncovered in new federal law, but the roll-your-own tobacco industry is making a breathtaking run for this year's shabby laurels. No sooner had President Obama signed the new children's health i.... The Senate's Duty on Climate The news that world leaders have abandoned hope for a comprehensive, legally binding climate change treaty in Copenhagen next month inspired no end of finger-pointing. Environmentalists blamed eight years of inaction under George W. Bush. The Europe.... Goldman's Non-Apology ''Certainly, our industry is responsible for things. We're a leader in our industry, and we participated in things that were clearly wrong and we have reasons to regret and apologize for.'' --Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive, Goldm.... © 2009 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. © 2009 West, a Thomson business Westlaw Integration Solutions  /  Westlaw.com