A reader writes: “This is so priceless, and so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today. Be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die — just in case.” A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her […]
Archives for June 2005
BATTLE OF THE NPR CORRECTIONS
The original “correction” about David D’Arcy’s MoMAGATE story that NPR ran on its corrections page reads: Jan. 27, 2005:MoMA Embroiled in Battle over Painting Seized by NazisMorning Edition, Dec. 27, 2004 In a story on All Things Considered on Dec. 27, we reported on the controversy over ownership of a painting on loan to the […]
CITY OF GHOSTS
The Guardian of London reported: “Fresh evidence has emerged of the extent of destruction and appalling conditions” in still-deserted Falluja, a “city of ghosts where dogs feed on uncollected corpses.” That was in January. I guess the corpses have been collected by now. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
NAMING THE MADNESS
When you put a face on death, the madness of war becomes clear. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
WHOSE KLOSE CALL GOT NPR REPORTER FIRED?
National Public Radio made a huge mistake ousting its veteran arts reporter David D’Arcy and is still trying to cover it up. The latest attempt came during an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board when the network refused to produce documents that would allegedly clarify why he was fired and Tom Cole, a unionized […]
NOSTALGIA BUG: ‘UNCLE BILL’ BURROUGHS
When I was looking at my old Bob Woodward interview, some of which I posted because it seemed, uh, timely, I saw another old interview I did — this one with Bill Burroughs. I thought you’d find it interesting. Here’s part of it: Your books are filled with gun lore. What spurred your interest in […]
FIRST THE BLOG, THEN THE REBLOG
Staight Up posts are being reblogged — curated, if you like — in Germany. The reblogger is Fareed Armaly, an Arab-American expatriate (born in Iowa City, Iowa, now living in Stuttgart). I don’t know him and never heard of him before. All I know is, his work has been shown at Documenta11, among other prestigious art exhibitions. The […]
MEMORY LANE: WOODWARD SORT OF OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY
Now that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are together again, taking a victory lap after all these years, like the Simon & Garfunkel of journalism, I’m reminded by my staff of thousands that once upon a time, long ago and far away, I interviewed Woodward about his only non-political book — the one out of […]
I FIND IT STRANGE . . .
… that Chuck Colson is offended — “I am really shocked,” he says — that Mark Felt (a k a Deep Throat) went “sneaking around dark alleys and talking to reporters.” It wasn’t “the right way” for a “very upright” FBI agent to uncover Watergate crimes. Uh, wait a minute, Chuck. Weren’t you one of the worst of Nixon’s real dark-alley sneaks? […]