If this historian could go back in time and attend any of Lincoln's speeches, he'd pick the Cooper Union address rather than the one you (I?) think: "Why go to Gettysburg and stand around for hours…
This social scientist and policy advisor finds hope in local resistance to data centers. "These are our neighbors saying we thought we had no power, but we know where AI sits in our lives, and we can…
"Eye surgery now is so marvelous," says this ophthalmologist. "I'm amazed." At age 97, he's one of the innovators who made it amazing, and he found time to go out for beers with Wernher von Braun and…
Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington does not convey his actual appearance, says the Jewish Museum's director. "It's the way Washington wanted to present himself." The dubious task of the…
They note that the leaders of the Irish rebellion of 1916 "wrote plays and poems and were well known in Irish literary circles." I'd be happy to have leaders who went to a play or read a poem. The…
These historians note that our Revolutionary War was also a civil war. "In New York and Philadelphia and Charleston, it really was neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother." Not what I…
A little sadness tints his exultant photographs of subway repair shops: "I'm one step ahead of the wrecking ball, whether it's a factory that's going to close or a process that's going to change. It's…
When he asked Frederick Douglass to the White House, did he serve snacks? "We did offer some refreshments, perhaps tea and bread." Tea and bread? Great Emancipator, chintzy host. A conversation with…
From the day she was born, her father was determined to make her a musician: "When I was brought home, my father piped classical music throughout the house and in our bedrooms. All night. Newborns! We…
The Lutheran Bishop of New York esteems the subway. "It doesn't discriminate based on age, race, gender identity, religion, lack of religion, none of those things." Not just a public good, "a…
