Manhattan

Author Laura Pedersen Tackles the Highs and Lows of Life in New York

Gabriella Tutino

A native upstate New Yorker from Buffalo who arrived in 1984 and has chronicled her time and observations of NYC in her latest memoir, Life in New York: How I Learned to Love Squeegee Men, Token Suckers, Trash Twisters and Subway Sharks. Pedersen has already established herself as a successful writer, so this memoir doesn’t follow the upward mobility storyline of “country-girl-to-big-city-slicker.” Rather, Pedersen writes about the ever-changing history and culture of NYC--spanning the 1600s to the 18th century to the present

Why New York Remains America’s Most Fascinating City

Eugene Durante

Considering Gotham’s controversial history, no wonder the citizens possess a distinctive edge. The vibrant culture of the city induces feedback from every visitor -- even if the opinions are based on half-baked stereotypes. But having a New York story is what every visitor seeks; because in New York, like nowhere else, the exposure is the attraction. The soul of the city is felt on the sidewalks and subways, on the front stoop and back alleys. You just can’t paint it on the walls. 

A Toast to Cocktails in Literature

Benjamin Wright

Throughout the works of Russian writers, like Tolstoy and Chekhov, the characters drink vodka like there is no tomorrow, and also wine, as in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Mead, the delicious honey wine first created by the ancients, played a significant role in Beowulf, with Beowulf, the hero, defending the king’s mead hall against the terrifying beast, Grendel. In works like Steinbeck’s classic moral tale, The Pearl, the featured drink of choice is pulque, a beverage made from the maguey plant’s fermented sap. 

The Master of Reinvention: Why Woody Allen Still Matters

Christopher Karr

Woody Allen’s films — 40 in all, from 1971’s Bananas to 2011’s Midnight in Paris — compose one of the most astonishing sequences of cinematic expression in American movie history. For a filmmaker who is often accused of making the same picture over and over, Allen is remarkably adept at reinvention. Who expected Interiors after Annie Hall? Or Zelig after A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy? Or Match Point after Melinda and Melinda

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