Resolved

This year was a rough one. Morale went missing somewhere between the U.S. government’s near-default and Europe’s near-collapse, and, as 2011 comes to a close, the usual New Year’s resolutions seem a little frivolous. What’s needed is planning, action, and maybe even some austerity measures—which is why the Unstuck iPad app, offered for free, is […]

Dream On

Last year, Adam Gopnik wrote about Vincent van Gogh and the mythology surrounding his severed ear, including the claim that it was Gauguin, not van Gogh, who made the infamous cut. This October, a book titled “Van Gogh: The Life,” by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, challenged the idea that van Gogh took his […]

No Strings Attached

This week in The New Yorker, Michael Schulman writes about the Whatnot Workshop, a kiosk at F.A.O. Schwarz where shoppers can design their own Muppets. (Schulman accompanied Jason Segel, the actor who co-wrote and stars in the new Muppet movie and who opted to design his creation in Schulman’s likeness.) But don’t fret if you’re […]

‘Tis the Season

When “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuted in 1965, CBS executives were nervous. The special used children, not adults playing children, for the voices; the soundtrack featured jazz; and Linus’s speech on the true meaning of Christmas was overtly religious. But these supposed liabilities were the things viewers loved most. The show immediately met with critical […]