Only institutions that go about the old-fashioned business of taking in deposits from customer A and lending them out to customer B should be called banks. The rest should call themselves what they are. 'Parlors' would be appropriate, or 'dens' - words more suitable to venerable betting pursuits.
Financial institutions like to call what they do trading. Let's be honest. It's not trading; it's betting.
It's no surprise that the Bush administration's bullying swagger and blithe ignorance have caused much of the Muslim world to hold the U.S. in rock-bottom regard.
Many of the architects of the Vietnam War became near pariahs as they spent the remainder of their lives in the futile quest to explain away their decisions at the time.
Cod is more responsible for the discovery of the New World than almost anything else. Drove the Vikings across the North Atlantic, and John Cabot discovered America by looking for cod.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi looks in the mirror and sees a playboy of the old school. And men such as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charlie Sheen no doubt look at Berlusconi and think, 'Role model!' Women, of course, know otherwise. They see him as an aging, pathetic buffoon.
Every man in the back of their minds would like to own a bar or a racehorse.
I think being Canadian helps you as a journalist in America, because you're sort of on the outside watching this big party going on, and you're sort of taking mental notes as it goes on. I think if you're in the party the whole time, you don't notice it as much. And I think Canadians are very good observers of American culture.
As a father of five, I sometimes feel I've spent a lifetime watching Disney musicals.
Water-boarding can result in damage to the lungs and the brain, as well as long-term psychological trauma.
We really care about photography at Vanity Fair.
The shelf life of a movie actor or actress is so short, it's like milk.
I walk down the street and people don't go, 'my God, there he is.' I lead as normal a life as you can lead in New York City.
Where past generations had film cameras, scrapbooks, notebooks, and that part of the brain which stores memories, we now have a smartphone app for every conceivable recording need. The thing is, all that time you spend logging and then curating the quotidian aspects of your daily life is time taken away from actually doing things.
In an age when all that was old seems new again, Bernard DeVoto's The Hour couldn't have made a more timely reappearance. This book reminds me of one of the joys of being an adult-cocktail hour!
After the collapse of Wall Street in the 1920s, the culture stopped being all about money, and the country survived and ultimately flourished.
The fact is, unlike a lot of writers, I credit the people who help me. A lot of writers out there have a ton of researchers and they don't get credited in the book.
It could safely be said that Iraqis are dying at a faster clip since the American-led invasion and occupation than they did during the last decade of Saddam Hussein's rule.
My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here's an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences.
Moping is an unattractive attribute in a man.
Most of us have learned the hard way that there are very few things you can absolutely count on in life.
Stationery is addictive. I get mine made in Paris at Benetton, and writing on it gives me a strange thrill.
I don't think you can be a credible, modern candidate for president without making the environment a major part of your platform.
In this age of 24-7 headlines, the term 'newsweekly' seems almost quaint.
I think the movie business is in trouble. It's all movies that you've seen before. Everything's a remake; they want things that are familiar rather than things that surprise you.
