On January 14, 1979, Tommy DeSimone walked into a modest two-story house in Queens, New York, expecting to be made a soldier in the Lucchese crime family. Instead, four men were waiting in the basement. The door clicked shut behind him. He never walked out. His wife, Angela, reported him missing the next morning. His … Read more
On a spring afternoon in 1994, Coca-Cola gathered journalists and analysts at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York to unveil a new product aimed at the most skeptical generation in America. Sergio Zyman, the company’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, leaned into the microphone and delivered a slogan that seemed to reject everything corporate … Read more
Tenkrát v roce 1964 mi bylo právě osmnáct. Bydleli jsme v malém městečku Riverdale Springs, kde se všichni znali a nedělní dopoledne po mši byla posvátná. Otec zemřel o rok dřív při nešťastné nehodě na farmě a zůstaly jsme s maminkou Cecílií samy. Byla to krásná žena, kdysi prý nejžádanější dívka v kraji. Po tátově … Read more
A line of more than 20 wooden boxes, each the size of a house, was deliberately sunk into Lake Erie off Buffalo after 1868. They were timber cribs, framed onshore from squared oak and pine, towed into position, and loaded by hand with quarry stone until they settled onto the lake bed. Army engineer William … Read more
Ett lastat kolttåg är ungefär två och en halv kilometer långt, och i fyrtio kilometer i timmen behöver det över en kilometer för att stanna. Det är ingen gissning. Järnvägen mäter det, trycker det och borrar in det i varje lokförare, för det är det enda faktum som gör allt annat vid en vägövergång sant. … Read more
In February 1945, a Japanese officer sat in a tunnel complex beneath volcanic rock on a small Pacific island, 500 miles south of Tokyo. By the dim light of a lamp, in air thick with sulfur, he wrote about something that had begun to frighten him more than the naval bombardment. His unit had spent … Read more
Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker who became renowned for his uncompromising depictions of the First World War and the fractured society of the Weimar Republic. Alongside artists such as George Grosz and Max Beckmann, he emerged as a leading figure of the New Objectivity, an artistic movement that rejected romanticism in favor … Read more
Die Worte schnitten durch den Festsaal, durch das Klirren der Gläser und den sanften Jazz im Hintergrund: „Ich wünschte, du wärst nicht meine Mutter. “ Isabelle stand am Mikrofon und funkelte mich wütend an. Eigentlich hätte ich eine kurze Hochzeitsrede halten sollen, doch stattdessen hatte meine Tochter den Moment genutzt, um mich vor zweihundert Gästen … Read more
Je m’appelle Harrison et j’ai trente-deux ans. Il y a trois ans, j’ai vidé toutes mes économies, liquidé mes placements et sacrifié mon propre avenir pour sauver la maison de mes parents d’une saisie imminente. J’ai fait ça parce que mon jeune frère avait dilapidé quarante mille dollars de leur argent de retraite dans des … Read more
Florence Pritchette Smith died in New York on November 9, 1965, less than 36 hours after her closest friend, journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, was found dead under suspicious circumstances. The official cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by leukemia. There was no autopsy, no toxicology screen, and no formal investigation. Her body was … Read more