During her tenure as food critic for the New York Times, she ate as many as four restaurant meals per day. But not in the same sitting. That would have been silly. She once tasted all 1,196 products in Bloomingdale’s food department – not a bar bet, an article. And a darn fine one. We … Continue reading »
Category Archives: Old Masters
Episode 61: Mayor David Dinkins
David Dinkins is the son of a barber and a domestic. After leaving the Marine Corps, he attended Howard University on the GI Bill, graduated cum laude, then earned a law degree while working nights. In 1989 he was elected the 106th mayor of the city of New York. Among his many accomplishments, it was … Continue reading »
Episode 56: Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein was born in Brooklyn in 1919. For the next 94 years he wrote and co-wrote terrific movies for big stars: Fail Safe with Henry Fonda, The Train with Burt Lancaster, The Magnificent Seven with everybody—Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson. The Front, with Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, is … Continue reading »
Episode 41: Norman Rush
Randy encountered Norman Rush through his terrific first novel, Mating, winner of the 1991 National Book Award. It is, among other things, a novel of ideas that actually has some. Many. And it explores them with real insight into the human heart. His new novel, Subtle Bodies, was published on September 10th. He lives near … Continue reading »
Episode 28: Al Jaffee
Cartoonist Al Jaffee is the creator of the Mad Magazine Fold-In and Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. He waas 92 when recorded this conversation, the magazine’s longest-running contributor, partly explained by his remark, “Serious people my age are dead.” PERSON: Harvey Kurtzman PLACE: The Muthaiga Country Club, Nairobi, Kenya THING: A MAD fold-in Continue reading »
Episode 16: Ed Asner
Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Kansas City, where Orthodox Jews were thin on the ground, Ed Asner is an Army veteran, athlete, political progressive and much admired actor. Best known to people Randy’s age as Lou Grant, a new generation discovered him as the voice of Carl Frederickson in the animated feature Up. … Continue reading »
Episode 8: Ed Koch recut
When Ed Koch was mayor of New York, from 1978 to 1989, I’d often see him around town – in a Chinese restaurant, at the movies – where he was happy (or at least willing) to talk to us ordinary New Yorkers. The city was his home, not someplace he passed through in an … Continue reading »
Episode 6: Sir Roger Bannister
A neurologist, he kept a phrenology head in his office as a reminder of human folly. “The human mind is filled with instances of ridiculous ideas which have taken hold.” And by the way, in the spring of 1954, he became the first man to run a four-minute mile. A conversation from our vault, refurbished … Continue reading »