A classic, but personally unsatisfactory, retelling of Beauty & the Beast with no bad guys.

As a New Yorker, I find it quite natuaral to be generally cynical about most things. This is perhaps why I found my adventure last night so off-putting. Everything was just a little bit too sweet.
It started with Eatery (798 Ninth Ave., at 53rd St.), one of those neon-sign-in-a-hip-way New American joints that line 9th [...]

A Starbucks Karnak Café is not. It is a coffee house in the true, Enlightenment sense. Set in Egypt in 1967, the regulars in Naguib Mahfouz’s Karnak Café discuss life and politics unendingly. There is, however, one, rather obvious difference between Karnak and other coffee houses.
 Large numbers of the Karnak-goers disappear sporadically. The narrator, who has a [...]

*Part I of a Series on Indian Literature and Non-Fiction

Dear Aaron Sorkin,
I have recently rewatched all 7 seasons of The West Wing and I have come to the dramatic and regretful conclusion that you are an ass. After 4 seasons of writing one of the most well-regarded and rewarded television show in history, you leave. You leave without having given your writers a legitimate [...]

Around Columbia, the Italian restaurant Campo may be known primarily for its drink specials, but the Morningside mainstay has a new claim to fame thanks to Executive Chef David Rotter, who finished second on tonight’s 10 p.m. season premiere of the Food Network reality series Chopped.
The judges were consistently impressed with Rotter’s creativity, but ultimately, [...]