Latest work
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A spotless mind
Read more: A spotless mindBerlusconi: The plutocrat. This is Italy in 2006: Two reality show stars — middle-aged men — face off on a Sunday afternoon television variety show. One is dressed in an elaborately brocaded jacket and seated. The other stands on a witness-like podium. They are arguing about status and advancement. The…
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A husband too far
Read more: A husband too farQuick-take snapshots and hastily faxed letters were only part of the story. Birthdays feed on ghosts. Sifting through an antique chest I come upon the 86-page manuscript of a play written by the woman I was once married to. She sent it to my Monte Carlo office in April 1994.…
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21st century fox
Read more: 21st century foxBerlusconi: Facilitated by those who swore to stand united his way. To North Americans, Italian politics is contaminated by complication. But getting a handle on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s latest burst of studio-boss impunity isn’t hard. A true boss has no rivals, which in turn begs displays of condescension to…
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Waiting for the Barbarians
Read more: Waiting for the BarbariansThis fresco by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, now housed in the Vatican, captures the meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun in 452 CE. In 1992, historian and biographer William Manchester published a powerful, if brief, popular history of medieval Europe and how a continent then so steeped…
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A day in the life
Read more: A day in the lifeWithout the warm sun, without light, without sight, one tries to go on. January 15, early morning: Queer, sullen days in the city of sun, whole rows of them, their darkness casting a pall over all early stirring. Rainy winter weather is far from unusual in Rome, but these days have…
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February sun
Read more: February sunA cat and a man come out for the sun. Finally, a resplendently sunny midwinter day in Rome — after weeks in which the sun seemed to have gone on some sort of exploratory cruise beneath the nearby Mediterranean. A day such as today, with its premature hints of spring,…
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