The New York Observer (New York, NY) back issues from March 2008:
At the Alamo, Hillary Offers a Bristling Defense (and a Desperate Housewife).
Mar 01, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ SAN ANTONIO, Texas - It was hardly the kind of symbolism an embattled candidate would hope for: appearing at an event within a stone's throw of the Alamo last night, Hillary Clinton had only spoken for a few moments when the lights illuminating her on the open-air ...
Ohio Gov. Says Hillary Could Fight On Without Texas.
Mar 01, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio thinks Hillary Clinton should keep pursuing the Democratic nomination even if she emerges from Tuesday's voting with a victory only in his state. "In my judgment and if I'm asked, I'll say to her that if she ...
Trailing on the Cards, Hillary Stops Circling, Throws Haymakers, Et Cetera, Et Cetera.
Mar 02, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio-A good portion of the coverage of the Democratic primary contest has been marked, some might say marred, by boxing metaphors. It's a constant struggle, apparently, to resist words like knockout, jab, punch and ring. But today Hillary ...
Obama, as Senator Pothole, De-Froths an Ohio Audience.
Mar 02, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio-The crowd at the Valley Forge high school last night was itching to clap. But Barack Obama was not in bring-down-the-house mode. He was in boring mode. He was in talking about energy and gas prices and "You see it all across Ohio, people ...
Stumping for Clinton, Steinem Says McCain's P.O.W. Cred Is Overrated.
Mar 02, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ AUSTIN, Texas-Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton's behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation. From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John ...
Quinn, Thompson March in the Other St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Here's a shot of Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson--two likely mayoral candidates--at the all-inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade in Sunnyside yesterday afternoon. Quinn marched behind the parade's official banner, while Thompson marched behind the flag for the ...
De Niro, Rosenthal to Chair Beefed Up Tribeca Film Institute.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will co-chair a bigger and stronger version of the Tribeca Film Institute. TFI is merging with the Rockefeller Foundation's Renew Media to deliver more than $1 million film, media and arts grants annually. The two not-for-profit ...
Obama Takes Mayor's Place in Hot Dog Primary.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ I took this picture last night outside the Upper West Side Gray's Papaya. As you can see, the ...
Best-Selling Holocaust Memoir Is a Fake.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Misha Defonseca, 71, admitted through her lawyers last week that her book, Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, translated into 18 language and adapted for the French feature film Surviving With Wolves, was a fiction. She didn't live with a pack of wolves to escape ...
Soap Protestors Advocate for Gay Kiss.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ As the World Turns had the first gay male character in daytime drama in 1988. Last summer, the show hit another milestone when the first two gay men on a soap, Luke and Noah, kissed for the first time. But the lovers haven't locked lips since September, when the Noah ...
Clinton on S.N.L.: Do I Really Laugh Like That?
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ In case you missed it, here's Hillary Clinton's appearance on ...
The Skinny on Cafe Boulud.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Barbara Walters prefers Table 10 at Cafe Boulud and Jon Corzine does, too, though the New Jersey governor will take 20 and 30 as well. The Wall Street Journal this weekend breaks down the A-list seating arrangements at Daniel Boulud's nearly decade-old French eatery at ...
Dem Electeds React to Bloomberg's G.O.P. Donation.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Yesterday I got the chance to ask a number of Democratic elected officials about the $500,000 Michael Bloomberg quietly donated to the Republican Senate campaign committee recently. Their reactions, which I gathered at the Riverdale Jewish Community Council ...
Poll: Clinton's Ohio Lead Narrows Further.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Hillary Clinton now leads Barack Obama in Ohio 49-45, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac (which will be posted here shortly). That's a significant narrowing of her lead, and just barely outside the 3.5 percent margin of error. In a Quinnipiac poll ...
Morning Memo: Marion Cotillard's Wacky 9/11 Theory; P. Diddy Comes Out as Bicoastal.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard thinks the World Trade Center might have been destroyed because it was too expensive to re-wire the building for class-A tenants. (PageSix.com) An example of the kind of freedom satellite radio affords Howard Stern: His ...
The Morning Read: Monday, March 3, 2008.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ In an interview with Geoffrey Gray, Joe Bruno says he provided "entree" for an investment firm he worked for when it wanted to do business with state unions. Bruno's spokesman John McArdle doesn't like the story. "Bruno needs to fire McArdle," ...
The (Big) Round-Up: Monday.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Subsidized housing for middle class New Yorkers exists, but that $51,000 Chelsea co-op is a needle in a haystack. [NY Times] A 27-year-old struggling artist inherited a rent-subsidized apartment in Astoria from his grandmother. [NY Times] After a ...
Journal Seeks a Cut in Reporters' Book Deals.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ On Thursday, Wall Street Journal staffers received a memo from managing editor Marcus Brauchli and books director Roe D'Angelo announcing a new book-leave policy. It seemed simple enough: if reporters want to write a book they need to inform editors ahead ...
The March 4 Stakes for Hillary.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Two things are obvious: If Hillary Clinton can somehow win both Texas and Ohio, she stays; if she loses both states, she's tuna fish. A third possibility-a split decision-will present Clinton the justification to push on if she wishes to, but without any ...
Conservative Race-Baiters Could Sink McCain.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ John McCain has a new problem with some of his far-right critics. Having made his life miserable in the primary, they seem now intent on wrecking his general election effort before it even starts. At a campaign event last week, radio talk-show host Bill ...
Barack Obama, D.L.C. Clintonite?
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ If Barack Obama prevails over Hillary Clinton to become his party's nominee, it will mark the end of an era for the Clintons. But the agenda of the group that devised their national political identity will be just fine. At least according to Al From, the ...
Events for Tuesday, March 4, 2008.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. International Conference on Climate Change; Marriott Marquis hotel, fifth floor, 1535 Broadway. 9:30 a.m. Meeting of Suffolk County Legislature; Rose Caracappa Auditorium, Rogers legislative building, 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, ...
Elsewhere: NAFTA, Bruno, Cuomo.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ The Obama campaign had to be defensive about NAFTA. Canadians issue an apology for interfering in the election. The press confronts Barack Obama about the same issue at a conference today. Ben notices that Dick Durbin failed to stay ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Monday.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ The proprietor of Manhattan's see-and-be-seen nightspot Beatrice Inn is tasked with transforming the home of a Howard Johnson's hotel and a Holiday Inn in Atlantic City into a boutique hotel. [NY Times] J.C. Penny buys Manhattan's only bona-fide food court ...
Fidler, Felder Say Hikind Speaks for Himself About Obama and the Jews.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Lew Fidler is somewhat skeptical about Assemblyman Dov Hikind's notion that Jewish voters would flock to John McCain if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, a claim Hikind made in the New York Post today. As he notes, the story--that a Democrat who ...
Sander Imagines Second Avenue Subway All the Way to Queens.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ In his State of the MTA address today, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief Executive Elliot (Lee) Sander imagined aloud the Second Avenue Subway running from the Bronx into Brooklyn and on to Queens. "Imagine the Second Avenue subway running south to ...
Warhol Comes to the Jewish Museum This Spring.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ There's nothing like some colorful pop art to get you amped for spring. The Jewish Museum seems to know this. On March 16, the museum will unveil Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered, a follow up of sorts to Mr. Warhol's somewhat controversial 1980 series, Ten ...
The New Plaza Hotel: 'It's Kind of Empty-Looking Now'.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Camera-wielding tourists, a smattering of ladies who lunch, and a few nostalgic locals milled around the newly renovated Plaza Hotel this afternoon, two days after the iconic landmark re-opened following a three-year, $400 million renovation. The Plaza's ...
Our Critic's Tip Sheet on Current Reading: Female Fibs; Liebling at War; Mailer and Auchincloss, Separated at Birth.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets: The Truth About Why Women Lie (St. Martin's Press, $23.95) is the latest from "gender expert" Susan Shapiro Barash. I picked it up out of idle curiosity (are women's reasons for lying really different from men's?) and would have ...
Jennifer 8. Lee's Book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Published.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ The New York Times City Room writer Jenny 8. Lee's book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, was released today. She'll be touring the city--KGB Bar, the 82nd Street Barnes & Noble--over the next week or so to get word out. And she's gonna be on Colbert too. Here's the ...
Manhattan Weekend Box Office: Who Looks Better in Fur by the Fireside? Boleyn Babes, Bana Best B-Balling Ferrell.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ In a turn of a events that will not help our fair city's reputation as bookish and snobby, The Other Boleyn Girl (no. 1), based on the best-selling tome of the same name, handily beat out the Will Ferrell comedy Semi-Pro (no. 3), despite playing at two fewer theaters. ...
Newsday's John Mancini on Job Cuts.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ At 4 p.m. today Newsday chief editor John Mancini is meeting with reporters and staffers to discuss job cuts at the paper. This will be his second meeting; the first one was on Friday. We just got an account of what happened on Friday from a reporter who ...
Gina Gershon to Play Stewardess on Broadway.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Gina Gershon, who sat down with the Observer's Spencer Morgan for some chicken soup last October, is prepared for a landing on Broadway with Mary McCormack, who played Kate Harper on The West Wing. They'll play flight attendants in the upcoming revival of <'s 1960s ...
2007 A Big, Big Year for Building Permits.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Last year was one of the busiest years for residential development in New York's recent history, with permits issued for 31,918 privately owned housing units, according to data from the U.S. Census. The city's departments of Housing Preservation and Development and of ...
An Anchor for Obama-Bloomberg.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Bonnie Behrend, who formerly worked as an anchor for Bloomberg and CNBC, then allegedly blamed Bob Wright for her prolonged unemployment, loves the idea of an ...
Polls: Texas Tied, Clinton Leads Ohio.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ A deluge of polls on the day before the March 4 primaries shows mixed results: Generally, it looks like Texas is going to be close for Democrats. Although a Public Policy Poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama 50-44, a poll by Rasmussen and two ...
A Bloomberg Commercial.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ I can't tell if this Michael Bloomberg-for-president commercial was made by real supporters (who just happen to be a little goofy), or if it's a spoof of the kind of commercials we would have ...
Bloomberg: An 'Outrage' to Suggest Albany Makes Political Decisions About Policy.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ At an appearance in Florida today--part of his campaign against illegal guns--Michael Bloomberg fielded an off-topic question from a reporter who asked if his recent contribution to Republicans in Albany would impact his state agenda--especially congestion pricing. ...
Bronx Birthplace of Hip Hop Saved--For Now.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development has rejected developer Mark Karasick's bid for the Mitchell Lama housing development in the western Bronx that many consider to be the birthplace of hip-hop, after an investigation determined that ...
Obama Should Champion the Cause of Michigan and Florida.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ If Hillary Clinton does well enough in tomorrow's quartet of primaries to continue, her campaign's next step will to resume banging the drum about seating the delegates of Michigan and Florida at the convention. Barack Obama should support this aim. ...
Russell Simmons for Obama.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ So Russell Simmons has put out a statement explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for president. It's not necessarily a natural choice for Simmons, given how involved he has become in New York State politics. He previously endorsed Andrew Cuomo for ...
STAT OF THE DAY: Riverdale, The Bronx's Manhattan.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ The average price of a home in Central Riverdale increased over 15.2 percent to $425,495 from 2000 through 2007, according to an ...
Bloomsbury President Karen Rinaldi Leaves For Senior Position at Rodale.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Bloomsbury USA president Karen Rinaldi, who has been with the house for nine years, is leaving her job for a "very senior and interesting post" at wellness/health/fitness publisher Rodale Books, according to an announcement from the company's executive director, ...
Dinowitz on Bloomberg and the Water Filtration Plant.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Here's Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz of the Bronx talking about the water filtration plant that the city is building in Van Cortlandt Park, which Dinowitz has long criticized. It has been reported that the cost of the project is now ...
Wolfson Makes It NAFTAgate.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Now, according to the Clinton campaign, it's "NAFTAgate." That's what Howard Wolfson just called the controversy about Barack Obama's senior economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, allegedly telling Canadian officials that Mr. Obama's sharp attacks on NAFTA ...
Indicted State Senator Cites 'Weapons of Member-Items Destruction'.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, Jr., who is under indictment for steering public money through a non-profit organization and back into his own pocket, chatted with me after yesterday's legislative breakfast, hosted by the Riverdale Jewish Community Council. ...
Dressing for Election.
Mar 03, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ In case you had any doubt, fedoras are so much back in style I spotted them on City Council members--and candidates for higher office--David Weprin and Jim Gennaro at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Sunnyside yesterday. ...
Spurned Lawyers Sue Judith Regan For Stiffing Them on Legal Fees.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Just over a month after ex-publisher Judith Regan settled a spectacular $100 million lawsuit against her old employers at News Corporation and its book division HarperCollins, the volatile grand dame of 21st century book publishing has been hit with a side suit from ...
Clinton Sells Age and Experience, Austin Crowd Buys.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ AUSTIN, Texas-Last night, at her final pre-election rally here in Texas, Hillary Clinton once again invoked the prospect of a 3 a.m. call to the White House. She told a crowd of around 3000 at the Burger Center sports facility that they should choose ...
Good Luck With That.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Here's Jimmy Kimmel's rendition of the T.V. ad Michael ...
Al From on Obama, McCain and the Race-Baiters.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Jason Horowitz talks to Al From and Steve Clemons about Barack Obama's place in the tradition of the Clintonian Democratic Leadership Council. ...
The Morning Read: Tuesday, March 4, 2008.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Hillary Clinton continued to press Barack Obama on national security in the final hours of campaigning yesterday. Jackie Calmes wonders what would constitute an absolute win in today's primaries. Michael Saul describes Obama as "exasperated" ...
The Week in Music: How's Your Hip? Madge, Dame Bassey Hop To; More Malkmus; Bauhaus Back.(Sound recording review)
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Madonna turns 50 this year and whether one loves or hates her, one has to wonder how many listenable albums she has left. This is as much because every album represents another persona, another clone of the same DNA, as the fact that the woman is turning 50 ....
Book on the Number Seven Sold to Twelve.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Former editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest Jackie Leo and Williams College math professor Edward Burger are teaming up to write a book about the history of the number '7' for Twelve Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA started in 2005 that defines itself by its ...
The Round-Up: Tuesday.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Governor Spitzer plans to introduce a legislative package today to reduce foreclosures. [NY Times] Attorney General Mario Cuomo negotiated a deal with two American mortgage giants prohibiting appraisal firms controlled by lenders. [NY Times] ...
Kelefa Sanneh, Ariel Levy Join New Yorker.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ New York Times music critic Kelefa Sanneh is leaving the newspaper to become a staff writer at The New Yorker, according to an internal memo distributed yesterday. (Radar had reported a rumor to this effect.) Also heading over to 4 Times Square is New York ...
In This Week's Observer...
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Bob Vila wants $11.5 million for his East 75th brownstone. Two deals in two tony co-ops prove that cash trumps controversy. Manhattan investment sales reach lowest levels since 2006. Developer Douglas Durst talks One Bryant Park and the ...
Goodbye Mad Dog, Hello Daddy-O: David Carey Is Conde Nast's New Business Paradigm.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ On a recent Monday morning David Carey, group president of Conde Nast since early January, welcomed Off the Record to his spacious and spare 18th-floor corner office at 4 Times Square with his hand extended. "Want a smoothie?" he asked, gesturing to a table full of ...
Obama's Hip-Hop Admirers.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, it's a pretty safe assumption that he's going to have overwhelming support from the hip-hop community. Vibe magazine crystallized his status as an icon in the rap community, remixing his first name into the hipper ...
Zombies, Schmombies! Teen Girls Are Vamping It Up!
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ It is probably only a slight exaggeration to say that to be an author of young adult books today is to have written, be writing or contemplating writing a book about vampires. But vampires are over! says conventional wisdom. It's all about zombies and faeries (that's ...
Madge and Mariah Switch Beds.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ On Friday night at the Ritz, that trumped-up gay bar up in Hells Kitchen, something entirely too ordinary happened once too often: Madonna's "Get Together" came on. That's the one that goes: "Can we get together? / I really, I really want to be with you." ...
It's Difficile Out There for a French Restaurant.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ C'est fini for Jean-Paul Mouttet's ancient tiny French bistro L'Entrecote. The Sutton Place institution, staffed sparingly by Mr. Mouttet, 70, and two blond waitresses--one of whom is commonly mistaken for his wife--and frequented over the years by such ...
Edgy Novelist Goes Mainstream.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ A writer whose books explore the sweetness of mutilation, the beauty of violence and the eroticism of school shootings has found an unlikely home at the corporate-owned publishing powerhouse HarperCollins. Until now, Dennis Cooper, nothing if not a cult icon, has only ...
Durst Indomitable.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Location: You're now one of four teams left vying for the West Side rail yards, down from five. How do you feel about your chances? Mr. Durst: I think we have a 25 percent chance. ... We think we have the best bid in terms of planning and the financial terms ...
Facebook Banned Me! Worst. Week. Ever.
Mar 04, 2008 ... <![CDATA[ Last week was my worst week ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but definitely my worst week in 2008. The trouble started on a Tuesday night. Shortly before I entered a bar to meet a friend for drinks, I updated my Facebook status on my BlackBerry, with an opinion ...