Thomas Jefferson

Latest Articles

Health 'n' hops

Is beer good for you?
Thomas Jefferson once asserted that beer, when drank in moderation, "promotes health." Trappist monks in Belgium and the Netherlands referred to it as "liquid bread."
By JOSH SMITH | March 29, 2011

Take a seat and consider the chair

Form + function
Richard Prince's 2008 "Nurse Hat Chair" sits next to a gothic French "Joined Chair" in the first gallery of the extensive "Sit Down!" — book-ending the six centuries of chairs represented in the exhibit.
By ANNIE LARMON | December 08, 2010

Drawing inspiration

Anarchist Seth Tobocman brings radical comic-book to the Lucy Parsons Center
"Die, yuppie scum," chants the long-haired man, to the beat of a pounding drum. "You don't need to fuck people over to survive."
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | June 16, 2010

Relentlessly ringing freedom

Northern New England’s Tea Partiers go local
Amid relentless bell-ringing (“Let freedom ring!” chanted the enthusiasts as they deprived passersby of their hearing and sanity), the Tea Party came to Portland last week to greet President Barack Obama.
By JEFF INGLIS | April 07, 2010

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

The Granite State Gang

New Hampshire transplants live free — or die trying
Big bucks couldn't buy the viral awe and ire that the Free State Project (FSP) scored on August 11, when New Hampshire resident William Kostric arrived outside President Barack Obama's Portsmouth Town Hall meeting with a handgun on his right thigh — "open carrying" is quite legal in the Granite State — and a sign declaring IT IS TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY!
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 26, 2009

Scratch and Whiff

A non-junkie lottery player comes to grips with cardboard crack
I have 53 fully scratched (and completely worthless) Billion Dollar Bonanza scratch tickets sitting in my desk drawer. Each cost $20.
By JIM SULLIVAN | July 17, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

Folk my brains out

Wild and weird
Toby Kamp's 'The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes In Contemporary Art' at The Decordova Museum
By EVAN J. GARZA | May 19, 2009

Letters

GUNNING FOR THE TIMES
Harvey Silverglate’s " The Gray Lady in Shadow " (January 6) was excellent and raised extraordinary concerns.
By | October 27, 2008

Interview: John Hodgman

One man's operating system
Long before John Hodgman became universally recognized as the systems-challenged PC in Apple’s ads, he was writing fake trivia for such publications as McSweeney’s and the New York Times Magazine.
By CLEA SIMON | November 21, 2008

Bad sports

While old and new media are mending many fences, they’re still squaring off in jockland
When historians trace the rise of the blog as the dominant journalistic form of the 21st century, they’ll pay close attention to two recent developments.
By ADAM REILLY | June 18, 2008

Hungry Mother

Beverly Hillbillies food goes to Paris
Platters such as “catfish pâté” can be visually hilarious, but also really delicious.
By ROBERT NADEAU | May 21, 2008

What's left behind

Tap Olé at the Regent, Rachid Ouramdane at the ICA, Prometheus at Boston Conservatory
Tap Olé is less a new-fangled bicultural fusion than a return to tap dancing’s foundational swingtime.
By DEBRA CASH | May 21, 2008

Issues, shmissues

Never mind the complaints about how the media are not focusing on the issues. Historically, they never have.
During the past few weeks, we’ve heard yet more media laments from our self-appointed guardians of political civility, warning us that this campaign is about to go over a cliff.
By STEVEN STARK | May 21, 2008

For real change, the chattering classes need to take a fall

Phillipe and Jorge
The key word of the moment in America is “change.”
By PHILLIPE + JORGE | January 09, 2008

Ego Trippin’

Obama can still win the Democratic nomination — b ut first, he has to get over himself
All the stories chronicling the demise of the Barack Obama campaign are premature, no matter what the current polls say.
By STEVEN STARK | October 10, 2007

Talking to Himself

Alan Alda talks to us about his new memoir and what it means to live a successful life
There’s a scene in Alan Alda’s new memoir that’s hard to forget: Hawkeye, age eleven, shooting terminally ill rabbits to a bloody, dusty death.
By JENNY HALPER | September 07, 2007

Murder most foul

Sports blotter: "This isn't funny" edition
Man, just what the hell is going on in the sports world?
By MATT TAIBBI | June 20, 2007

High time for high principles

Why the Supreme Court should back the bong guy
Every now and then a case comes before the US Supreme Court that has as much entertainment value as constitutional significance.
By EDITORIAL | March 21, 2007

Pressing the case

A limited federal shield law would be better than the post-Libby status quo
In the aftermath of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s perjury conviction last week, the journalistic fallout of the case remains a subject of intense interest for reporters and legal observers.
By JIM TARICANI | March 14, 2007

If terrorists hit Boston

In The Edge of Disaster , a security expert warns that the US is not prepared for future disasters
What follows is a scenario roughly based on two real-world post-9/11 terrorist attacks.
By STEPHEN FLYNN | March 08, 2007

Higgins at large

This article originally appeared in the February 17, 1976 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By GEORGE V. HIGGINS | November 14, 2006

Freedom fighters

The Pillowman at New Rep; 1776 at Lyric Stage
Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, which is getting its area premiere at New Repertory Theatre (at the Arsenal Center for the Arts through October 1), is a superficially clever play.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 12, 2006

Samuel Adams Brewer Patriot Collection

Revolutionary
A nation founded on beer is a strong republic indeed.
By MIKE MILIARD | August 08, 2006

Falwell U

The Moral Majority's higher education
This article originally appeared in the August 4, 1981 issue of the Boston Phoenix .
By JERE REAL | August 03, 2006

Quotes and numbers, March 31, 2006

Bush, basketball and more
6: n umber of nights in a row that Tribe, a popular lesbian/bi/queer night, will be hosted at Felt and Vinalia in coordination with the NCAA Women’s Final Four, which takes place this week in Boston.
By | March 29, 2006

Frontier justice

As the Internet and other shifting technologies dominate our lives, is the EFF the new ACLU?
Log on. Check your Gmail. Click the URLs your friend just sent. One’s a blog entry about electronic voting machines, the other is a news story about warrantless wiretapping. Grit your teeth.
By MIKE MILIARD | February 09, 2006

The Gray Lady in shadow

Could publication of the domestic-spying story lead to indictment of the New York Times ?
Fearful that his presidency could be swept into the same historical dustbin as Richard Nixon’s, an unrepentant President George W. Bush seems intent on prosecuting the sources who leaked to the New York Times the details of his administration’s warrantless domestic spying.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 17, 2006

Culturewatch

A filmmaker assesses the quest for happiness
Saying no is not the same as selfishness. To Thomas Jefferson, the pursuit of happiness was a vital human necessity worthy of inclusion in the Bill of Rights. Jefferson made enjoying one’s life sound downright patriotic.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 09, 2006