Skip to content

Category: Miscellaneous

Published June 8, 2011

Pittsburgh Bleg

I have been asked to present a paper at a conference held in Pittsburgh in July, so my wife and I have decided to turn that trip into our annual vacation given that her new job leaves her too little time to make a trip abroad worth the transaction costs.

We will be spending four days in Pittsburgh, and four days in Ithaca, NY. We both lived in Ithaca while we were in grad school, but neither one of us knows anything about Pittsburgh, although we already have been told that the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Fallingwater was not to be missed. As such, we would love to hear your suggestions as to what to do, what to see, and where to eat.

Published June 7, 2011

Berlusconi and Bunga Bunga

“When I finally met Berlusconi — ‘Mr. Winner, Mr. Machismo,’ as Flavia Perina described him — I was shocked. He is tiny, no more than five feet four inches tall. He wears white eyeliner on his lower lids to make his eyes pop in photographs, and he uses heavy foundation on his face, which renders him the same orangey-brown color as the cast of ‘Jersey Shore.’ His hair is thinning — ‘because I had too many girlfriends,’ he once said, before he got implants — and dyed a vivid burnt sienna. Despite these efforts, he is not a young seventy-four; Berlusconi, in the words of his best friend, is a bit dilapidated.”

This is from an article on Italy’s three-time and current prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in this week’s New Yorker. And here is Ariel Levy, the author of the article, talking about Silvio Berlusconi’s rise to power and political career.