Political satire and the New Yorker's cover

What’s the real meaning of that satirical New Yorker cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as closet Muslim terrorists? Here’s a better question: What hope is there for satire in a post-literate society?

Rick Soisson

Jul 20, 2008 · Essays · 6 minute read

Touring in Torino

The once gritty northern Italian industrial city of Turin has been transformed into a vibrant cultural center. Few Americans have discovered it yet. Our peripatetic cheapskate professor, Patrick D. Hazard, offers a few tips.

Patrick D. Hazard

Jul 20, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

Satisfactions of home brewing

Let's face it, there's not much left that you can make at home that outshines its commercial equivalents. Homebrewed beer is the exception. And anyone who can make a good beef stew can make beer.

Lynn Hoffman

Jul 15, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

New York's baseball/money conundrum

Oh, for the sporting life in New York. When the going gets tough there, the toughest baseball executives….. find excuses.

Rick Soisson

Jul 12, 2008 · Essays · 3 minute read

The "Prague Spring,' 40 years later

Forty years after Soviet troops smothered the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union is dead and Prague itself has become an inexhaustible panorama of the liberating effects of freedom at work.

Patrick D. Hazard

Jul 12, 2008 · Essays · 7 minute read

"Bodies, Inc.'

So you thought dead bodies are useless? Bodies….the Exhibition has attracted throngs of spectators in a wildly successful nationwide tour. Where do these bodies come from? Funny you should ask….

Robert Zaller

Jun 17, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

Professor's tour: Arts in Berlin

Broke and desperate, our favorite mad professor and professional skinflint parlays his gall and ingenuity into two memorable days of cultural stimulation in Berlin, and urges you to do likewise.

Patrick D. Hazard

Jun 16, 2008 · Essays · 8 minute read

West Philly rediscovered

On the surface, West Philadelphia is a poster child for poverty and crime. But beneath the surface I found a neighborhood that was once designed with aesthetics in mind. I also found, to my astonishment, two of my most distinguished cultural heroes.

Be'eri Moalem

Jun 10, 2008 · Essays · 6 minute read

Gastropubs: Five small wonders

Sometimes a whole wave of delightful food creeps in under the cultural establishment’s radar. This may be the case with Philadelphia’s recent flowering of— forgive the slightly unappetizing term— gastropubs.

Monk’s, Standard Tap, Le Virtù, Memphis Taproom, Devil’s Den. Details below.

Lynn Hoffman

May 27, 2008 · Essays · 5 minute read

Pretensions of "Bigger, Stronger, Faster'

Bodybuilding may indeed be an interesting phenomenon, as Chris Bell contends in Bigger, Stronger, Faster. But please— spare us the half-baked sociological punditry.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster. Documentary film directed by Chris Bell. Beginning May 30, 2008 at Ritz at the Bourse, Fourth and Ludlow Sts. . (215) 925-7900.or www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com.

Tom Purdom

May 25, 2008 · Essays · 6 minute read