Your Coffee May Have Some Health Perks, but Can Brew Trouble in People With Certain Conditions To judge by recent headlines, coffee could be the latest health-food craze, right up there with broccoli and whole-wheat bread. But don’t think you’ll be healthier graduating from a tall to a venti just yet. While there has been [...]
Archive for December, 2009
Good News in the Daily Grind
Posted in Health on December 31, 2009 | Comments Off
Look Ahead With Stoicism—and Optimism
Posted in Editorials and opinion on December 31, 2009 | Comments Off
While so many of our institutions have failed, we can repair them. The first step is to take personal responsibility. The accomplished and sophisticated attorney was asked what attitude he was bringing to the new year. “Stoicism and mindless optimism,” he laughed, which sounded just about right. He meant it, he said, about the stoicism. [...]
Today in History – December 31
Posted in This day in history, tagged December 31 on December 31, 2009 | Comments Off
Today is Thursday, Dec. 31, the 365th and final day of 2009. Today is New Year’s Eve. Today’s Highlight in History On Dec. 31, 1909, the Manhattan Bridge, spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, was officially opened to vehicular traffic by New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. on his last day [...]
A Lethal Mix of Cocaine and Chilies Police officers around the world often use pepper spray to restrain people who are out of control. But after a series of unexplained deaths, researchers now suspect the spray, which is derived from chili peppers, could be fatal if the subject has been using cocaine or other drugs. [...]
Got Change For A Million Silver Dollars?
Posted in Strange but true on December 31, 2009 | Comments Off
Easy Money Two Germans were caught in an Austria mountain town with 500 million dollars in counterfeit banknotes. It’s one of the biggest hauls of counterfeit dollars in Europe. But the culprits say they thought the 1 million dollar bills were real. Early next year an Austrian court must decide their fate. He dreamed of [...]
Obama administration is right to prosecute alleged Detroit bomber in U.S. court
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion, Law on December 31, 2009 | Comments Off
FORMER VICE president Richard B. Cheney on Wednesday joined a Republican chorus criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to charge alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in federal court. Mr. Cheney and others argue that Mr. Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas, should have been held as an [...]
Hard to Count the Cost
Posted in Economy and business, Other on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Prices are often irrational. So are consumers. Almost two-thirds of retail prices end in a nine on some estimates. These “charm prices”—set just below a round number—are meant to lead consumers to round down rather than up. While some doubt their effectiveness, plainly Steve Jobs is a believer, insisting initially that all tracks on iTunes [...]
A Rodney Dangerfield America?
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
America isn’t dead. It’s just dead in the water. Why pretend? We have arrived at a point where nearly everyone’s conversation of more than five minutes about what is going on in the nation or the world ends up in the ditch. The opinion polls are deep into the no-holiday spirit, competing to deliver low [...]
A Cold-Blooded Foreign Policy
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
No despot fears the president, and no demonstrator in Tehran expects him to ride to the rescue. With year one drawing to a close, the truth of the Obama presidency is laid bare: retrenchment abroad, and redistribution and the intrusive regulatory state at home. This is the genuine calling of Barack Obama, and of the [...]
New Year’s Resolutions for Washington
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Ambitious Republicans should resolve to run for office next year. President Obama not only left Washington, D.C., for the holidays, but the lower 48 as well. So I thought I’d offer a few New Year’s resolutions for him and others to come back to in the coming year. First, to Mr. Obama’s staff: The Norwegian [...]
Technology and the New ‘Me’ Generation
Posted in Living on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Computers and cell phones have become the narcissist’s best friends. Spare me the stories of your “genius” tech-savvy child who can name every country on Google Earth, or how, because of your iPhone, BlackBerry and three cell phones, you juggle 20 tasks at once and never miss any business—even at 4 a.m., because you sleep [...]
Obama’s Security ‘Breach’
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Returning Gitmo’s detainees to Yemen defies common sense. President Obama has belatedly declared that the near miss above Detroit constituted “a catastrophic breach of security” and ordered a review of America’s intelligence efforts. We’re glad to hear it, but let’s hope the Commander in Chief also rethinks his own approach to counterterrorism. Recent events have [...]
Brenda Maddox’s top 10 Joycean books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
To celebrate the 100th Bloomsday – that’s June 16 1904, the date on which Ulysses takes place, and James Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle – biographer Brenda Maddox introduces her 10 favourite books by and about Joyce. 1. Dubliners (intro Terence Brown, Penguin) The first book to read is Joyce’s first, Dubliners. In [...]
Stephen Jones’s top 10 Americana
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Stephen Jones is also known as the musician Babybird. His first novel, The Bad Book, was about a damaged childhood; his second, Henry and Ida Swop Teeth, features Siamese twins who forsake their lives as drug-addled scientific guinea pigs to go on the run. 1. America’s Back Porch by Daniel Jeffreys Being a poor reader, [...]
Christopher Priest’s top 10 slipstream books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Christopher Priest won the Arthur C Clarke award and the British SF award for his alternate history of the second world war, The Separation. His previous novels include The Prestige, The Extremes and the The Quiet Woman. The Separation will be republished by Gollancz in October. Slipstream does not define a category, but suggests an [...]
Monty Don’s top 10 gardening books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Monty Don is the main presenter of BBC TV’s Gardener’s World and has been gardening correspondent of the Observer since 1994. A committed proponent of organic gardening, he puts his principles into practice in his own garden in Herefordshire. His latest book is The Complete Gardener (Dorling Kindersley). 1. Derek Jarman’s Garden by Derek Jarman [...]
The 10 most popular misconceptions about Oscar Wilde
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Merlin Holland is Oscar Wilde’s grandson and the sole executor of his estate. He is the author of Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess, the first unabridged publication of the famous libel trial. 1. ‘Oscar’ is the best-known ‘Wilde’ True, but unfairly so. His father, Sir William, was a remarkable Dublin doctor whose medical work on [...]
Paul Kingsnorth’s top 10 dissenting books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Paul Kingsnorth was deputy editor of the Ecologist magazine. He is the author of One No Many Yeses: a journey to the heart of the global resistance movement (Free Press), an introduction to the new politics of anti-globalisation. 1. Essays by George Orwell This collection of classic essays covers everything from English patriotism to political [...]
James Siegal’s top 10 thrillers
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
James Siegel is a thriller writer and vice chairman and senior executive creative director of advertising agency BBDO New York. His latest book, Derailed (Time Warner), is set in the world of advertising. 1. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris The first appearance of the infamous Hannibal Lector and, in my opinion, a better book than [...]
Michael Morpurgo’s top 10 favourite books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Michael Morpurgo has written over 60 books for children, including The Wreck of the Zanzibar, Dear Olly, Why the Whales Came and My Friend Walter. His most recent book, Cool! (Collins), is about a boy in a coma. 1. The Rattle Bag edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes My book to take to my [...]
Julia Darling’s top 10 books about northern England
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Julia Darling is a playwright, poet and novelist and the winner of the 2003 Northern Rock Foundation writer’s award. Her second novel, The Taxi Driver’s Daughter, is longlisted for the Booker Prize 2003 1. Out of One Eye: Jimmy Forsyth, photographer by Anthony Flowers and Derek Smith This is a book about Jimmy’s life and [...]
Michael Rosen’s top 10 books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Michael Rosen is a poet and children’s author whose most recent books include Carrying the Elephant: A Memoir of Love and Loss and Uncle Billy Being Silly. He is one of the authors taking part in the live World Book Day Online Festival on March 6, along with Terry Pratchett, Meera Syal and many more. [...]
Peter F Stevens’s top 10 nautical books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
The author of The Voyage of the Catalpa shares his top 10 nautical books, but hastens to explain, “As an aficionado of CS Forester’s Horatio Hornblower books and Patrick O’Brian’s great tales of the Royal Navy, there was no way I could select just one from each author.” 1. The Spanish Armada by Garrett Mattingly [...]
David Smith’s top 10 economics books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
David Smith’s previous books include Will Europe Work?, about the prospects for European economic and monetary union, as well as The Rise and Fall of Monetarism and From Boom to Bust, which analysed post-war economic policy in Britain. His latest work, Free Lunch: Easily Digestible Economics, is published by Profile. 1. A Beautiful Mind by [...]
Giles Lyon’s top 10 cricket books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Giles Lyon founded Bodyline Books, which specialises in Wisdens and all kinds of cricket memorabilia (150a Harbord Street, London, SW6 6PH; call 0207 385 2176). To buy any of the books below, browse his website, 1. Harold Gimblett: Tormented Genius of Cricket by David Foot Superb life study of the Bicknoller Biffer, a manic depressive [...]
AL Kennedy’s top 10 controversial books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
AL Kennedy appeared on the Granta best young British novelists lists of 1993 and 2003. The author of uncompromising, stylistically inventive and emotionally charged novels and short stories, her books include So I Am Glad, Everything You Need and On Bullfighting. Her most recent book is Indelible Acts. “Taking offence at books is a centuries [...]
Richard Grant’s top 10 books about wandering
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Richard Grant is a freelance journalist based in Arizona and the author of Ghost Riders: Travels With American Nomads. “I have a restless personality, a compulsion to keep travelling, and I’ve always enjoyed reading about people who made their lives into a perpetual journey. The literature of wandering and nomadism is also in part a [...]
David Peace’s top 10 British true-crime books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
David Peace’s West Riding quartet – 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1983 – is an ultra-noir crime series set in and around Leeds in the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper murders. He is one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists of 2003. Crimes happen in actual, specific places at actual, specific times to actual, specific people. [...]
Wendy Perriam’s top 10 seriously sexy books
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Wendy Perriam is the author of 15 novels, all of which tackle the themes of sex, religion and humour. Nominated three years running for the Literary Review Bad Sex award, she triumphed this year with a passage from her latest novel, Tread Softly, in which she describes ‘pin-striped sex’. “I’ve always written explicitly about sex [...]
Lisa Hilton’s top 10 scandalous French novels
Posted in Literature on December 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Lisa Hilton’s Athénaïs, The Real Queen of France – a biography of Madame De Montespan, Louis XIV’s official mistress – is published by Little, Brown at £17.99. 1. Nana by Emile Zola The courtesan’s courtesan, and possibly the funniest book he ever wrote. 2. The Claudine Novels by Colette So much naughtier than Gigi, Claudine [...]
