Billions in philanthropy ensure that many monuments to Walter Annenberg will remain when he dies, befitting someone who has achieved what he has. At 91, Annenberg is not only perhaps the greatest philanthropist of the century, but also one of its most accomplished figures.

Upon a base of insolvency, he built an impressive publishing empire anchored by TV Guide, which sprang from instinct and became a near monopoly in its field. Annenberg was no saint, but in "Legacy," Christopher Ogden's biography of Walter and his father, people attest to the son's strong moral center. Read more »

Even before John Harrington announced last month that the Yawkey Trust would sell the Red Sox, it was a Boston given that replacing Fenway Park would require too much time, cost too much money, and ultimately be a disappointment to everyone involved.

One need look only as far as the FleetCenter to know that. Read more »

Before Colin Harrison begins rolling out the 400-plus pages of mayhem and gore in his new novel "Afterburn," he offers up an enormously telling quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre that begins, "Torture is senseless violence . . . "

It's not the quotation itself that's revealing, but Harrison's decision to include it. Read more »

Few circumstances are black and white in T. C. Boyle's collection of short stories, "After the Plague." Except Moira and Caitlin, that is.

They are heiress sisters who evoke Howard Hughes in the way that fabulous wealth can buy absolute insanity. Boyle introduces them via Larry, the gardener who's cultivating his own demise by furthering their design for a world devoid of color. They want all the grass, and flowers, and even the grand old trees on their property pulled up and paved over with blacktop. Read more »

BUYERS’ MARKET
From bananas to batata, bargains abound at Haymarket
The Boston Globe, Oct. 19, 2000

You may think of Haymarket as a place to save dollars, but it's your senses that cinch the deal.

The people you see, the scents you smell, the tastes you anticipate, the languages you hear, the excitement you feel. And when you leave, you'll be richer not only in your purse, but because you've partaken of tradition and escaped from the shrink-wrapped world.

Try getting that at the supermarket. Read more »

SOMERVILLE — Three young caffeine merchants with an attitude are prospering in Davis Square, and just as they arrived ahead of the coffee wave out of the Pacific Northwest, they appear to be slightly ahead of other developments that could bring a renewed vigor to the square.

On Tuesday, their landlord will publicly announce plans to add four theaters to the Hobbs Building, already home to the Somerville Theater, and next month, the first phase of an Asian-theme mall is to open next door. Read more »

I think of the "still-president" (see: Jon Stewart) as one of the worst in our history, and like to think I was in the first million or two to think it. SPB says, of course, that history will treat him much more kindly than anyone outside the White House now expects. Not just good, but a visionary, even. Read more »

James Carville has a good idea (blogged about yesterday on Gristmill.com), and I-I-I know (that's me-me-me) because I had the same idea. In March. In writing. Read more »

From Grist Mill comes this tidbit, a gift for the environmental thinker who had any doubt whom to support in the presidential election. A supporter told John McCain that his energy policy could be summed up as "nuclear, drill wherever you find it," and McCain answered "you just gave my speech. Thank you, my friend."

Wow. Read more »

Three months ago, at a Northeast Sustainable Energy Association public forum in Boston, green PR guru Solitaire Townsend said the movement to overcome climate change needs to tell its equivalent of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, rather than what it’s has been doing, which she called, “I Have a Nightmare.”

Townsend has a good point. Environmentalists have been militating for decades for drastic changes from businesses and consumers, and for most of that time, all it really gained us was a reputation as do-gooder killjoys. Frickin’ treehuggers. Read more »