Anthony Lane

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Anthony Lane

The accidental inclusion of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a secret group chat of senior U.S. officials has been described as a breach of national security without historical precedent. This is not the case. 1252 B.C., eastern Mediterranean, Saturday nightOdysseus: O.K., we’re in. Diomedes: In where? Odysseus: Troy. We’re inside the walls. They bought it. Menelaus: By the golden toenails of Athena, we’re in Troy? In a freaking horse? Odysseus: Sh-h-h. Keep it down, dummy.

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Anthony Lane

Every age, we kid ourselves, gets the Shakespeare it deserves—or, with any luck, the Shakespeare it badly needs. Take a famous example: to read about the Federal Theatre Project’s production of “Macbeth” that opened at the Lafayette Theatre, in Harlem, in 1936, performed by an all-Black cast and directed by Orson Welles, is to be overwhelmed by a sense of something that had to happen. Any witch could see it coming. But what about eras of even greater distraction and disarray?

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Anthony Lane

The circumstances surrounding the death of the actor Gene Hackman, at the age of ninety-five, have yet to be explained. On February 26th, his body was discovered at his home in Santa Fe, as was that of his wife, Betsy Arakawa. It is estimated that they both had been dead for more than a week. Foul play has not been entirely ruled out. The front door of the house was unlocked. It is less than fitting that an air of enigma should attend the final act of Hackman’s life.

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Anthony Lane

There are certain books that bide their time, like plants, waiting decades to flower. If you’re lucky enough to have an Agave americana on your land, wary enough to stay clear of its sharp-toothed leaves, and patient enough to hang around for anything from eight to thirty years, you will be rewarded, at last, with the sight of its butter-yellow blossoms.

2 months ago | source.colostate.edu | Anthony Lane

During his first stint with Colorado State University, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack played a central role envisioning CSU Spur as a new kind of university campus that would engage learners of all ages in problem solving and discovery related to food, water, and human and animal health.