Helen Andrews

In the game of Operation that is the blogosphere, James Poulos’s tweezers have hit the metal edge and set the buzzer ringing with “ What Are Women For? ” and its follow-up — and I have a theory why that has nothing to do with feminism. If you believe his critics, . . . . Continue Reading »

“You see this? This is what I’m going to do to your referendum.” Liechtenstein may be a constitutional rather than an absolute monarchy, but don’t confuse His Serene Highness Hans-Adam II with one of those ornamental vestiges of royalty that pass for monarchs in the . . . . Continue Reading »

The city of Savannah, Georgia, has banned snakes from its St. Patrick’s Day Parade because it does not think that inebriation and dangerous animals are a good combination. Obviously that would be a very bad combination. All that remains to be proven, then, is that the sort of snakes Americans . . . . Continue Reading »

It wasn’t quite on the level of Hasselhoff playing the Berlin Wall, but it was certainly inspiring of the band Opeth to decide not to let an armed coup in the Maldives stop them from bringing Swedish death metal to the people of Malé. The police had seized the state-owned TV station at . . . . Continue Reading »

In India, the wildlife-reintroduction scheme known as Project Cheetah faces growing opposition , primarily from supporters of its close cousin, Project Tiger. The two big-cat species cannot coexist and would have to compete for habitat — and more important, the two projects would have to . . . . Continue Reading »

In Paul Fussell’s book about British travel writing, he never says straight out that Robert Byron is his favorite travel writer, but he’s the only author Fussell quotes without commentary for more than a page, so I think it’s safe to assume. The long blockquote is here if you want . . . . Continue Reading »

This article from the U.N. press office certainly has a punchy lede: “Criminal gangs are becoming a threat to the world’s glaciers, which are already receding as a result of climate change.”  . . . the United Nations said today, citing a case in Chile where police are . . . . Continue Reading »

In John Ellis’s twenty-three years as a hangman for the British government, he executed 203 people including the famous Dr. Crippen, the WWI traitor Roger Casement , the housewife Susan Newell (the last woman ever hanged in Scotland), and James Howarth Hargreaves, with whom Ellis “had . . . . Continue Reading »

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I know Eve Tushnet likes to think of Edward G. Robinson’s character in Five Star Final as the cinematic avatar of self-loathing tabloid journalism, and I can see her point. It’s a good script, and it’s Edward G. Robinson. But if we follow the scent of our story back to Late Night . . . . Continue Reading »