A Hollywood-handsome Princeton grad recently shot his hedge-fund-founder father to death. The alleged reason: Thomas Gilbert Sr.’s plan to cut his allowance by $200 a month. You can imagine what the tabloids are doing with the story. There’s a lot going on here, and while mental illness is almost certainly part of it, as said, […]

One may start the day at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the way in, you’ll pass through the new David H. Koch Plaza — the result of a $65 million gift from David H. Koch. After lunch, cross Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History, and marvel at the giant stegosaurus […]

Was Angelina Jolie unqualified to direct the big-budget World War II saga “Unbroken”? The movie tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, a champion runner and champion survivor — of his bomber’s crash, 47 days on an ocean raft and torture in a Japanese prison camp. Salon writer Andrew O’Hehir asks a good question about […]

What is it that makes the holiday movie classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” feel so ancient? It’s the relationships, but which ones? Not George Bailey’s warm and loving family. We have close families today. It’s not the far-off relationships, as with long-lost school friends. We have more of them than ever, thanks to Facebook and […]

I’m paying up at this discount store, and the nice woman at the cash register asks me something like, “Do you want to support a program to help homeless teenagers get drug counseling?” “Suppose I don’t” is the thought never uttered. Instead, I say, “No, thank you” or, less forthrightly, “Not today.” This happens at […]

In covering the violence engulfing Ferguson, Missouri, media routinely cite the following numbers to explain the frustration of the minority community there: Ferguson’s population is two-thirds African-American, yet the mayor, five of the six City Council members and nearly the entire police force are white. But there are other numbers. In the municipal election held […]