November 23, 2009 Issue
Cover Story
The Gift List ’09
Our annual anxiety-relieving guide to matching perfect gift with
delighted giftee, including 100 gifts under $100 that outperform their price tag; three ways to donate (time, stuff, or money); cakes
that end the feast unforgettably; a shoppers’ exit poll; and more.
On the Cover: Photograph by Andrew Eccles for New York Magazine. Set dresser: Angela Kyriacou. Puppet rigger and
groomer: Andy Gent. Animator:
Brad Schiff.
Features
I Dream of Diane
What do you do with the grief and guilt when your wife drives the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway with a van full of kids and a body full of alcohol, and ends up in a crash that kills eight? You put her in a shrine.
Blood Brothers
Robert Sanchez and Felix Aponte had a lot in common, including Sing Sing and bad luck. So when Robert needed a kidney, it seemed like a chance to save both their lives. Until bad luck struck again.
The Obama Diaspora
When Barack Obama’s half-brother George releases his autobiography early next year, he may transition from Kenyan bad boy to best-selling author. How are the fellow members of the far-flung First Family adjusting to their sudden associative celebrity?
Intelligencer
Three’s Company
A history of the threesome on TV, in movies, and in life.
Hedgies Unhinged
Hedge funders, the Ayn Randian rock stars of the financial boom, fall to Earth. Hard.
Art Moralists
Give the New Museum a break.
The Neighborhood News
Our roundup of news from around the city.
60 Minutes With Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon
At the kitchen table in the Dakota with the world’s most famous mother-son music collaborators.
Stranded With Olivia Wilde
The ridiculously sexy 25-year-old actress is, believe it or not, a reader.
Scrappy Scrambler
Eight-year-old Ashima Shiraishi loves to rock climb.
Columns
There Is Crying in Basketball
Yes, it’s shaping up to be a tragic season at Madison Square Garden. But true Knicks fans will endure.
Strategist
The Best Bet
Gift ideas for everyone on your list.
The Restaurant Review
Oceana morphs from a cozy townhouse restaurant into a cavernous expense-account joint.
In Season
Crabapple mostarda from i Trulli chef Patti Jackson.
Hunter-Gatheress
The Spotted Pig’s Annie Myers might be the city’s only official restaurant forager.
Culture
The Book Review
Nabokov never wanted us to read his unfinished last novel. Unless, thrillingly, he did.
The Kindness of Strangers
Liv Ullmann and Cate Blanchett reinvent Blanche Dubois.
The Movie Review
You thought you were depressed�and then you saw The Road.
Top Bunny: Ian McCulloch
The Echo & the Bunnymen front man is famous for his eviscerating wit.
Twilight, Take Me Away!
Teenage vampires and the mothers who love them.
The Art Review
And Performa 09 lifts the curtain on its creative delirium.
The Classical Music Review
City Opera comes home, looking reassuringly like its old self.
The Music Review
The astonishingly diverse jazz legend gets the boxed set he deserves.
Agenda
Bake It or Fake It
Blue Smoke offers oven-ready Thanksgiving pies.
Departments
Comments: Week of November 23, 2009
Readers sound off on Andrew Ross Sorkin, Nicolas Cage, and more.
The Approval Matrix: Week of November 23, 2009
Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.
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