Patrick Sauer

Smithsonian Magazine

Mel Mermelstein Survived Auschwitz, Then Sued Holocaust Deniers in Court

In October 1981, Judge Thomas Johnson made an announcement. After deliberation, he had accepted a fact into judicial notice—a legal term for a fact accepted in a court as true without the need to produce evidence. The Holocaust, said Johnson, was an indisputable fact. For the plaintiff in the case, Mel Mermelstein, ...

Vulture

The Enduring Legacy of Spaceship Rock

Forty years ago, a spaceship touched down in New York City. As the roof to the extraterrestrial pod rose up, a group of men known as the Electric Light Orchestra ascended in the smoke. The band was touring off their smash double album Out of the Blue, but amazingly, their show wasn’t the only one at Madison Square Garden that year to feature an alien invasion.

The Village Voice

The School Battle That Launched Cynthia Nixon’s Political Career

Nearly twenty years ago, on what was already a nerve-racking first day of school, parents of kindergartners attending P.S. 163, a dual-language English-Spanish elementary school on West 97th Street, found a classroom full of glaring safety issues...

Esquire

Chris Hayes Book 'A Colony in a Nation' Explores How Law and ...

Went back to the Bronx with Chris Hayes to eat eggs and talk policing.

The New York Times

The Truth Behind ‘A Bright Shining Lie’

More than 58,000 United States soldiers died in the Vietnam War, but in the world of letters, the death of a single American civilian came to represent the entire jungle quagmire.

Smithsonian Magazine

The True Story of “Operation Finale”

It was late fall in Buenos Aires and Ricardo Klement was an ordinary man living an ordinary life. Every morning, he took the bus to his job as a foreman at a Mercedes-Benz factory, and every evening, he returned to his wife and two children in their suburban home. The mirage that was his very existence shattered on May 11, 1960, when he was thrown to the ground, shoved into the backseat of a car, tied up, gagged, blindfolded, threatened with death, and driven to a safe house for interrogation...

Smithsonian Magazine

A Theory About Muppet Master Frank Oz

I have a pet “Frank Oz Theory” I’d like to share. If you’ll indulge me, it goes like this: More people on Earth have borne witness to Frank Oz’s characters, be it puppet or person, than any other artist in recorded human history.

sports.vice.com

Grant Hill Q&A:

The former Duke star, and newly-minted Hall-of-Famer, talked about famous dunks, why everyone hates Duke, and what it's like boozing with Bill Raftery.

50 States of Blue

One writer’s part in the online mass shooting ritual

Normally, making any list is good for the writerly ego, but this story however, has reached the popularity pinnacle on more than one occasion and I’d just as soon never see it again.

The New York Times

Country Joe’s Obscene Truths

It was time for the second act on the second day of a 1969 music festival in upstate New York, but the band, Santana, was having trouble getting it together. So the M.C. asked a performer hanging around backstage to go out and kill a little time...

Smithsonian Magazine

Hidden in a Basement for 70 Years, Newly Discovered Documents Shed Light on Jewish Life and Culture Before WWII

An incredible story of heroism in the face of horror.

sports.vice.com

How Dr. J and Larry Bird Helped Build a Video Game Empire - VICE ...

EA Sports owes a huge debt to the NBA legends, and the Commodore 64.

Frommer's

Bullets Travel at 1,700 Miles Per Hour. These Stunning Images Capture What Happens After Impact.

Constructing art out of destruction...

RSI Magazine

What the Hell Happened to the Brooklyn Tennis Castle? (Racquet Magazine)

There once was a magical African-American owned tennis joint (with green clay courts!) right in the heart of Kings County. Tupac, Biggie, and Al Sharpton were there, where were you?

Frommer's

The True Story Behind Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Her Mixed-Up Files

Smithsonian

The true story of a kid's lit classic.