Eleanor Roosevelt Wrote a Daily Newspaper Column for 25 Years
Earlier we were speaking of the polio diagnosis of President Franklin Roosevelt. Now let’s chat a bit about the stamina of his wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. For years, Eleanor …..
Biographies
FDR Probably Got Polio at a Boy Scout Jamboree
You learn something new every day, and today we learned how future president Franklin D. Roosevelt got polio at age 39. Or how he probably got it: from the Boy …..
Will Robert Wadlow Always Be the World’s Tallest Man?
Will anyone ever be taller than Robert Wadlow? The small-town boy from Illinois was a whopping 8’11” tall — that’s right: eight feet, eleven inches — when he died in …..
Rihanna is In, Queen Elizabeth is Out as Barbados Declares Independence
Queen Elizabeth II has one less item on her plate: Barbados has become an independent republic. Musical star Rihanna and royal representative Prince Charles were on hand as Barbados cut …..
Lucian Freud Painting That Lucian Freud Denied Painting Was Painted by Lucian Freud
Here’s a fascinating little story about hotsy-totsy 20th-century artist Lucian Freud and a portrait he said he didn’t paint. In 1997, a Swiss art collector bought what he thought was …..
Edmund Fitzgerald was Alive When the Edmund Fitzgerald Sank
You might have assumed that the ill-fated ship the Edmund Fitzgerald was named for an old-timey sea captain or an Irish bartender or some other sailing-adjacent fellow. Not so! As …..
Dave Grohl Looks Back as He’s Inducted (Again) Into the Rock Hall of Fame
Here’s a wonderful interview with rocker Dave Grohl, courtesy of New York magazine. Grohl just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a second time. This …..
Hoagy Carmichael on The Flintstones: A Needlessly Detailed Analysis
Looking back from a distance of 60 years, Hoagy Carmichael‘s 1961 appearance on The Flintstones was a strange affair. One might think this was a desperation gag near the end of …..
How Charlie Watts Did His Thing
The encomiums for Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts were broad and heartfelt after his death last month. Words like limber, subtle, stoic and impeccable were tossed about in obituaries and …..
Emma Raducanu Biography: New!
Our new biography of tennis star Emma Raducanu is now live. We almost said “tennis prodigy,” but that term no longer applies when you’re the reigning U.S. Open champion. Her …..