BBC Online: A Cambodian youth performs a backward dive into the Tonle Sap lake in Phnom Penh, in front of the country's Royal Palace.
Photo: Lars Klove for The New York Times
Melamine plates: $36 for a set of four dinner plates, $28 for a set of four salad plates, $15 for a set of four coasters at utilitieshome.com.
Andrew Sullivan:
[I]t's remarkable that a first-term senator's proposals on Iraq, having been decried as defeat and surrender by McCain and Bush, came to be endorsed by the Iraqi "government," and that McCain and Bush had to adjust their own views accordingly. It's rare that any American politician who is not president would bring hundreds of thousands of foreigners into the streets of Berlin. It's rare that a Democratic nominee would be endorsed by the most successful young right-of-center politician in Britain, and be hailed by the conservative president of France. It's rare that such a newbie could pull off a complicated and pitfall-laden foreign tour without any noticeable gaffes or blunders. McCain is attacking Obama as a celebrity because Obama gave him no opening to attack him as an incompetent or unready on the world stage.
The fundamentals of the Obama campaign remain impressive to me. I have a feeling they will endure, even when the McCain camp sustains some tactical victories. In the end, this election will be decided on the core issues. On these, Obama still retains a serious advantage.
Highly, especially for Jim Thompson fans.
Also recommended from NYRB: Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock.
Photo: John Loengard/Time & Life Pictures, via Getty Images
Reinhardt working on one of his “black” paintings in July 1966.
NYTimes:
From his notebooks and letters, we know how Reinhardt siphoned off most of the oil from his oil paint to achieve a powdery surface. We also know that he added small quantities of color to his blacks in order to differentiate them. And we know how he applied his paint with carefully layered strokes to create the illusion of an unstroked surface. The black paintings are delicate: the mere touch of a finger leaves a permanent imprint. Their fragility contributed to them being perceived, and valued, as pure things in a corrupted world.
