Articles
Why millions trusted Dr. Ruth for the most intimate advice
An article in The Washington Post
read…
How I learned to make the most of summer reading
An article in The Washington Post
Read…
Norman Lear, who brought social commentary to the sitcom, dies at 101
An article in The Washington Post
read…
With devastating quips, Dame Edna foretold a vacuous era of fame
An article in The Washington Post
read…
as ‘succession’ ends, let’s unlock its literary meanings
An article in The Washington Post
Read…
Conservatives don’t get liberal America. Where is their ‘Hillbilly Elegy’?
An article in The Washington Post
Read…
How Gay Were America's Presidents? A Ranking
An article in Advocate
Read…
What did Lincoln see in Mary Todd? Maybe that’s the wrong question
An article in The Washington Post
Read…
So What If Lincoln Was Gay?
An article in The Paris Review
Read…
Personal Best: A Paper Trail
"Why don’t you throw it out?” my 14-year-old asks. “Or digitize it or something?”
Read…
Downton Abbey: The Exhibition
Homesick for Downton Abbey? Here's a Way to Go Back There
Read...
Picture Imperfect
An aging novelist contemplates the face he presents to the world
Read...
Obituary for William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52
Read...
Chesapeake
A short story from Louis Bayard
Read...
Obituary for Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard dies: 'Get Shorty' author was 87
Read...
Mom, Meet Dad. He Promises He's Not Going To Break The Kids.
Another day, another New York Times feature—and another plunge into unexamined biases.
Read...
A Tiger Mom Shares Her Secrets
A lot of other tigers ask me: Why do South Chinese tigers raise such successful cubs?
Read...
Can James Franco write? Yes, but ...
The actor's new collection, "Palo Alto," shows promise—and an undeveloped obsession with youth and violence
Read...
Miss Universe and the death of the beauty pageant
Even as a gay man, I couldn't find joy or fun in last night's monument to wax figurines and Donald Trump.
Read...
Having kids made me a movie wuss
I always thought I'd be a rational father. But seeing a child in danger drives me over the edge.
Read...
My antidepressant gets harder to swallow
As studies shed doubt on certain psychiatric drugs, I wonder: Do I really need my little white pill?
Read...
The best "Christmas Carol" ever
Forget Patrick Stewart, Alastair Sim and (please!) Jim Carrey. Nobody gets Dickens like George C. Scott.
Read...
John Edwards' scorned confidant spills
"20/20" turns ex-aide Andrew Young's confessional into a hoary Victorian melodrama with a sex-tape finale.
Read...
Radio Show
National Endowment of the Arts show on Edgar Allan Poe.
Listen...
Crying foul on Martina Navratilova
The tennis star's legal woes remind us that even gay icons have some growing up to do about same-sex marriage.
Read...
Gay marriage, so what?
Maybe I should be more grateful, but the California Supreme Court hasn't told me anything I don't already know.
Read...
Attention, all you memoir fabulists!
In light of recent scandals, we will now require arrest records and stool samples from all autobiographers. And can someone fact-check the Gospels?
Read...
What Mary Cheney should expect while she's expecting
Forget morning sickness and weight gain and get ready for nine months of right-wing hand-wringing and embarrassed silence.
Read...
Open the closets on Capitol Hill
Silence about gay politicians is a relic of an era when gayness meant secrecy and shame. It's a disservice to gay people, to voters, and to the politicians themselves.
Read...
Who is Louis Bayard?
I won on "Jeopardy." I lost on "Jeopardy." For consolation, I turned to the tart insights of 74-game champion and master-geek Ken Jennings.
Read...
Come again!
Our inn had a guest book that should have been rated X.
Read...