Ben Bradlee Fact #3

Ben Bradlee’s sister-in-law, Mary Pinchot Meyer, carried on an affair with his friend, president John F. Kennedy, while Kennedy was president. In his autobiography, “A Good Life,” Bradlee acknowledged the existence of a diary of Meyers’ that details the affair but claims he had no knowledge of it while either Kennedy or Meyer was living.
Meyer [...]

AAAARRRGGHHH!

The SMOKING POPES are playing in Downtown Greensboro, at Greene Street, on Wednesday.
I didn’t even realize they’d gotten back together after lead-singer Josh Caterer became a born again Christian and gave up secular rock music.
And now, years after I missed my chance to see them live with Morrissey in high school, I’m going to see [...]

The gay-bashing hair-trigger

Memo to Republicans who keep telling me these people aren’t homophobic and that my suggesting that is horrible and slanderous:
Make sure these people know that….
Conservative talk show host Michael Savage July 7, 2003, in reaction to Jerky Boys-style prank caller “East Coast Bob,” who had just insulted Savage’s teeth…but, bizarrely, hadn’t said anything about homosexuality:
“Are [...]

Ben Bradlee Fact #2

In 1981 Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke won the Pulitzer Prize for a story entitled “Jimmy’s World.” The story profiled an 8-year-old heroin addict whose stepfather regularly shot him up.
Washington officials mounted a search for Jimmy and mayor Marion Barry (who would later face drug charges of his own) announced that the city had Jimmy [...]

Ben Bradlee Fact #1

For the next three days, until former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee appears at Elon, I’ll be presenting one interesting, true-life Ben Bradlee fact daily.

Today’s Ben Bradlee fact:
Ben Bradlee has three tattoos – one on his left arm and two on his right buttock.

"Our best today, better tomorrow"

Ben Bradlee, former Executive Editor of the Washington Post who saw the paper through Watergate, The Pentagon Papers and more, author of “Conversations with Kennedy” and “A Good Life,” is speaking at Elon on February 27th.
Info here.

The children of the night. What music they make

Gretchen always falls asleep before I do. Or I fall asleep and then wake up again.
This means she never hears the loud arguments people have in the street just outside our window at after 2 a.m. or the gunshot that goes off at least once a week at some point between 2 a.m. and 4 [...]

Clarey’s column this week

From Brian Clarey’s column this week in Yes! Weekly:
I step out of the baggage claim and into the February gray. The bitter wind makes my nose run, makes my eyes water. I fumble for my matches and curse the cold.
I hate February in New York.
I got the call yesterday afternoon. The news wasn’t good. Cap, [...]

RJC Martini at Renaissance Jazz Cafe

Renaissance Jazz Café
Address: 117 North Greene Street, GreensboroTelephone: 230-7420
Web site: www.rjctriad.com
The Drink: RJC Martini
Rating: Three swizzle sticks
The Drink: The RJC Martini is really a martini in name only. It’s vodka rather than gin, sweetened with fresh fruit juice, pineapple and sour mix. It’s more like a very lovely glass of Kool-Aid in a conical glass, [...]

The gayest thing I’ve ever seen

…but, really, who wouldn’t want to see this? I kind of want to get tickets.
John Russell – tell me you’re going to this.

Pray that Kanye West doesn’t say your name….

Kanye West is now in one of those strange moments in history where he’s both the best of his genre and also the most popular.
What people concentrate on is the social commentary – and it’s inescapable on his last two albums, if cut with plenty of bravado and materialism. But what I really like about [...]

Hunter Thompson story from Tom Wolfe

“The next time I saw Hunter was in June of 1976 at the Aspen Design Conference in Aspen, Colo. By now Hunter had bought a large farm near Aspen where he seemed to raise mainly vicious dogs and deadly weapons, such as the .357 magnum. He publicized them constantly as a warning to those, Hell’s [...]

Fred Phelps moves one step closer to secret fantasy of being raped by hairy bikers

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) — Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier’s funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters.
They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. [...]

Cause what I need is more crap in my apartment

One more thing I’d love to have but for which I would have absolutely no use.

If he lived in the U.S. Fox News would give him his own show

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Right-wing British historian David Irving pleaded guilty Monday to charges of denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to three years in prison after conceding he was wrong to say there were no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived in court carrying [...]

Sage words from Bill Maher

Bill Maher discussing Hillary Clinton on Harball with Chris Matthews:
“She will never win the presidency. So the people who are worried about that can stop worrying. She will never be elected president in this country. The Democrats should buddy up to that concept before they walk over a cliff with her in 2008.”
Also:
“She is the [...]

Some images from the Chris Lowrance Turns 21 pubcrawl in downtown Greensboro (and beyond)

Here Chris (above, with Kitty) discovers that, while he much prefers liquor to beer, he much prefers stout to ale. We started off at Natty Greene’s but, as no one but me was much impressed with beer, we moved on pretty quickly.

A Buttery Nipple (above) at McCoul’s Public House. This may have been Kitty’s favorite [...]

Holy Comic Book! Local store owner’s Batman story published

Joe KillianStaff WriterThe News & Record2/17/06
GREENSBORO — When comic store owner John Hitchcock gets the shipment of new books at Parts Unknown: The Comic Book Store next week, he’ll be fulfilling a lifelong dream.
A page from the six-page story “Batman: 1947″ that John Hitchock of Greensboro wrote for DC Comics’ Solo magazine.That’s because among [...]

Frustrating day

Spent the better part of my day chasing down kids for a Higher Ed story for the N&R.
I have noticed – and it’s been confirmed for me by other reporters – that it’s much harder to do news or feature pieces with college kids and damned near impossible to set up photo assignments. Which is [...]

"It’s better, I think, than waving socks about."

Surreal, early MTV-like television feature on the Smiths at Youtube.com.
Morrissey is credited as “Paul Morrissey” and fields questions like “Why do you hold flowers when you sing?” and “Why do you call yourselves the Smiths?” from scripted primary schoolers – who also treat us to a chorus of “This Charming Man.”
He and Johnny Marr are, [...]