Author Archives: lmharnisch

Amazon recentlly made a curious addition to its “Search Inside” feature: Statistically Improbable Phrases. Amazon explains: Statistically Improbable Phrases, or “SIPs”, show you the interesting, distinctive, or unlikely phrases that occur in the text of books in Search Inside the … Continue reading →

HE second “Greater New York,” the youth-besotted, cheerful, immodestly ingratiating jumbo survey of contemporary art….Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, March 18, 2005

I‘ve always wondered why writers devote space to what the subjects of their profiles eat during an interview. Maybe they’re justifying the restaurant charges on their expense accounts. Here are a few gustatory delights: Ned Martel, New York Times, March … Continue reading →

Someone at the Washington Post turned in a great headline on a recent Tom Shales review: ‘Fat Actress’: Jolly-Unsaturated It’s quite a trick to summarize an entire review in two words, but the headline writer did it cleverly and with … Continue reading →

In an oped piece for the New York Times, (March 5, 2005) Jessica Queller, a writer for “The Gilmore Girls,” describes her mother growing up “in a small house on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.” I can just see the … Continue reading →

The tributes have poured in and some of his works have been reprinted since Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide Sunday, although one could easily say he killed himself in bits and pieces years ago. It seems few writers at the … Continue reading →

I recently came across my Dave Brubeck albums while going through my old collection of LPs and discovered that “Jazz: Red Hot and Cool,” recorded in 1954 and 1955, was done in partnership with the Helena Rubinstein cosmetics company and … Continue reading →

The New Yorker recently republished Kenneth Tynan’s 1978 profile after the death of Johnny Carson on Jan. 24, 2005, and I spent some time picking it apart since magazine writing is a formula that I’ve never mastered, although I can’t … Continue reading →