On the Containment of Children

The state budget this year plans reductions of $1.2 billion for schools. The New York Times reports that hundreds of teachers and librarians will be fired.

By Ben Letzler | Apr 7 12:00 am ET

The Progressive Reaction

There is a book to be written about the behavior of cultural producers after September 11. It will be an inventory of grotesques as lugubrious, moralizing and overlong as anything in Solzhenitsyn.

By Ben Letzler | Jul 31 12:00 am ET

Dusty Dreams, Tawdry Town

You are soaking in the whirlpool tub at the Comfort Inn, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

By Ben Letzler | Jul 17 12:00 am ET

Against The Postwar

By Ben Letzler | Jun 20 12:00 am ET

Talking movies: Discussing Visconti's Senso

When the introduction of a half-dozen complimentary six-foot subs from Milano Market into the Schapiro Hall lounge created a natural setting for a symposium, Spectator film critics Ben Letzl

By Ben Letzler and Franklin Laviola | May 3 12:00 am ET

A Sleazemonger Gives Back

I want everyone who reads this to donate to the Columbia College Senior Class Fund.

By Ben Letzler | May 3 12:00 am ET

Mo Money, No Problems

Spectator's suspended production gives me a rare chance to cheat: I can review All About The Benjamins, the new "action-comedy" starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps, after having read the compet

By Ben Letzler | Mar 14 12:00 am ET

The Sweet Autumn of the Documentarian

Along with the various other positions The New York Times has taken over the years, they may now be anti-Stratfordian.

By Ben Letzler | Feb 15 12:00 am ET

Three Puffs for Revolution

An outsider arrives in a venal and corrupt society. Denigrated and excluded, he
rises up in righteous anger to proclaim his own humane values, and by dint of

By Ben Letzler | Dec 7 12:00 am ET

Mythological Grandeur Qi Shu Fang and Peking Opera

Peking opera (jingju or jingxi, "theater of the capital,") is usually said to have been born in 1790, when the Sanqing drama troupe first brought its innovative art to the grand festivities in Beij

By Ben Letzler | Oct 11 12:00 am ET