Word: riches
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...18th century, Jonathan Swift was criticized for his satirical essay A Modest Proposal, which suggests that poor Irish treat their children like food and sell them to the rich. Swift was not promoting cannibalism or infanticide: he thought his audience would understand the absurdity of such ludicrous ideas. Does the New Yorker really believe Obama is a Muslim extremist and his wife a terrorist? No, but the editors thought Americans were smart enough to interpret the utter ridiculousness as an exaggeration--one that fits well into this increasingly overdramatic presidential campaign. Lauren Tighe, SAGINAW, MICH...
...Breena Clarke; out now Calling all book clubs! Clarke, whose debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was a 1999 Oprah pick, scores again with this Civil War--era saga, set in Washington. She tells the deeply affecting story of a family of freed slaves in an evocative, historically rich book that brings the turbulent period alive. The author neither averts her eye from, nor sugarcoats the truth about, the uphill struggle for dignity in this gritty town...
Until recently, France's iconic museum wouldn't have dreamed of rolling out the red carpet for international partygoers, however rich, let alone--quelle horreur!--allowing food and drink to be served in a gallery. Fund raisers may be standard practice at American museums, but then no American museum is like the Louvre, which has served as the state-funded bastion of high culture in France for much of its 800-year history. A succession of French Kings built their art collections there, and in 1793, shortly after the French Revolution, it was turned into a museum that...
...times are changing, state funds are tight, and the Louvre has an ambitious director named Henri Loyrette, who is seeking to pull the venerable institution into a new era. Tapping rich people around the globe for funding is just one of the changes he's brought about since becoming director in 2001. Armed with a vision of the Louvre as a beacon of culture that is both accessible and global, he has set in motion a dramatic opening to the outside world. So far, that includes signing a deal to create a Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi--a franchising concept...
...past 30 years, a period of disdain for governance - even Bill Clinton said, "The era of Big Government is over" - that reached its nadir in the sloppiness of the current Bush Administration. It is an era that has been marked by a growing disconnect between the very rich and the middle class (median family income has dropped by an estimated $1,000 during the Bush years). And it is an era when even the most rudimentary responsibilities of government have been neglected - like keeping up the country's infrastructure, and not just its roads and bridges but also its educational...