Jesse Wegman
Articles by Jesse Wegman
Rant, With a Side of Recipes
Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin
By Kenny Shopsin and Carolynn Carreño
Alfred A. Knopf, 260 pages, $24.95
I’m proud to say that I’ve never been thrown out of Shopsin’s General Store. This is due primarily to the fact that I’ve never visited it, neither in its two hallowed West Village nooks nor in its current, humbler digs amid the multiethnic scrum of the Essex Street Market. read more »
Tribunal and Error
The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld And the Fight Over Presidential Power
By Jonathan Mahler
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 352 pages, $26
Had you been asked to assemble the legal team to brief and argue before the Supreme Court a case that would result in "the most important decision on presidential power ever"—as one noted court observer called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld shortly after it came down in 2006—your first choice probably wouldn’t have been the odd couple that found itself at the center of this particular constitutional storm: an irreverent, long-winded defense lawyer with attention-deficit disorder who graduated at the bottom of his Navy class, and a brilliant, bullheaded young law professor who didn’t even know where he was supposed to sit in a courtroom. read more »
Bruce Almighty
GREETINGS FROM BURY PARK
By Sarfraz Manzoor
Vintage, 269 pages, $13.95
Among the vast library of written material produced in the wake of Bruce Springsteen’s three-plus decades of superstardom—biographies, hagiographies, magazine profiles, fan testimonials, academic treatises, lyric exegeses, blog and private journal entries—Greetings From Bury Park may be the first to blame Mr. Springsteen for the writer’s inability to get laid.
“If not for Bruce,” Sarfraz Manzoor writes near the end of his sadly unilluminating memoir, “I might have grown up and settled for the love of a sensible girl.” read more »
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Eighties It Girl Ally Sheedy Says No Bacon in Her Breakfast Club
The only vegan member of Congress, Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), was drifting calmly through Cipriani Wall Street on Saturday, May 17, wearing a patterned bow tie, a gold-embossed flag pin and a strangely youthful glow. “I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in,” said Mr. Kucinich, 61, who stopped eating meat decades ago to combat a severe case of Crohn’s disease. read more »
Couric, Uncorked: CBS Anchor Enjoys Night of Naughty Comedy
On Friday, May 9, counterintuitively lewd comedian Sarah Silverman appeared at Columbia University’s Alfred Lerner Hall in a benefit show for Project A.L.S., which raises money for the study and treatment of a not-very-hilarious neurodegenerative disease. Instead, her monologue evoked an old favorite: starving African children. “I don’t send them money,” Ms. read more »
Ambitious Fortune Cookie, Sweet and Sharp, Finally Crumbles
THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES: ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE FOOD
By Jennifer 8. Lee
Twelve, 291 pages, $24.99
I ordered lunch today from the go-to Chinese restaurant around the corner from my office. It came in a large plastic bag that held a large paper bag filled with all sorts of containers: a white, microwave-safe bowl of chicken with cashews; a box of vegetable fried rice; a tightly sealed bowl of hot and sour soup; a small wax-paper bag with one vegetable spring roll; another small wax-paper bag with those crispy noodles; a Ziploc bag thoughtfully packed with a fork, a spoon, two napkins, one packet of Chinese mustard, one packet of soy sauce and two packets of duck sauce, plus a separately packaged fortune cookie; and finally, in its own stapled brown bag, a pint of homemade lemonade. Total cost: $9.48. read more »
How Ruhlman Saved My Thumb (And Your Veal Stock)
Michael Ruhlman plainly intends for Elements of Cooking to be a staple of the amateur home cook’s bookshelf, wedged somewhere in between The Joy of Cooking and Marcella Hazan. It has earned its spot. read more »
The Bloggerina
She’s techno-savvy in a tutu! Meet iPhone spokesgal Kristin Sloan: the New York City Ballet babe who has computer geeks’ hearts doing grand jetés. read more »
Caught in Shelfari’s Sticky Web: No More Friends, Please!
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably received my recent personal invitation to join Shelfari.com. In fact, even if you’re not reading this, you’ve probably received my recent personal invitation to join Shelfari.com. read more »
What It Means When Your Slip Is Showing
At a weekly briefing early in his first term, President Calvin Coolidge noticed a reporter taking notes as he spoke. read more »
No More Cukes!
The sign said “burpless cucumbers.” I had not noticed that my previous encounters with cucumbers were particularly burp-inducing, so I asked how this variety was different. read more »
Squashed Hopes
Avocado squash were new to me, though, so I thought I’d see how they work on an open flame. read more »
Remembering Tom Heftler
A few years ago, I spent an airless week in August interviewing for jobs at New York’s large corporate law firms. The interviews were all the same: precisely 20 minutes long, conducted by a mid-level associate who wanted to know what my strengths were and why I was interested in this firm. Few law students have unique answers to these questions. read more »
Radish Me! Root Veggies’ Raw Truth
It occurred to me that I’d never seen a book about grilling radishes or carrots, but I forged ahead. read more »
My Very Special Summer
Gnawing on Jaws
Sand shark? I’d never heard of it, either. But how often do you get to confront your deepest fears and buy dinner at the same time? read more »
Bite the Bison
Yippee-yi! Eat some buffalo in Union Square. read more »
It’s Not Easy Being Greens
Admit it: You think bitter greens are for rabbits. Would anything else wilfully force down those thick, chewy leaves? read more »
The Rare Taste of the Ramp: You’d Love ’em!
Leek-like leaves stand up for a few weeks in spring. read more »
