Category Archives: Uncategorized

Earlier today, Mexico came out with a press release with a far-from-natty headline: "Mexico Announces Clearing Spreads, Reference Yields and Preliminary Proration Factors in Connection With Its Invitation for Offers." The first sentence, written in fluent and incomprehensible legalese, is … Continue reading →

Thomas Kuhn has a lot to answer for. Ever since his book, people writing about science love to talk about conflicting views, rather than the much more realistic and boring facts, whereby models are slowly honed and refined. Now, that … Continue reading →

I went to Chubo last night. Just like every other time I’ve been, the meal was wonderful. The menu is inventive without being pretentious; the service was friendly and knowledgeable; the food was utterly delicious. It’s pretty much the perfect … Continue reading →

Frank Bruni is impressed by the name and typography of Whym, a new restaurant on 9th Avenue. At least, he likes it more than he does the food. I stopped by recently for dinner, curious about the food, curious as … Continue reading →

Manhattan’s flower district, on 28th Street, is not long for this world. What the merchants needed – a whole city block with easy truck access and non-astronomical rents – simply can’t be found in these days of frothy residential real … Continue reading →

"No Top 10 Car is American" says Consumerist today – but it’s more than that. Every last one of the Consumer Reports Top 10 autos is Japanese, even the top pickup truck. America is now far more worried about its … Continue reading →

Let’s say you lose $900,000 to Nigerian 419 spammers back in the 1990s. What are the chances that you would ever fall for such a thing again? This time for another $2 million? According to Louis Gottschalk’s declaration, he had … Continue reading →

Nick Denton has done it. Jason Calacanis has done it. Even Jake Dobkin has done it. If they can do it, I can too! I want to build a blog empire for profit! But how should I do that? Where … Continue reading →

This weekend’s issue of the New York Times magazine is devoted to real estate. Wonder how many times the word "blog" appears. Apparently the mag is over 200 pages, which means lots of porntastic ads for new developments: may they … Continue reading →

Guillermo Nielsen, Argentina’s finance secretary during that country’s endlessly-drawn-out debt exchange, has the cover story of Euromoney magazine this month. (Sorry, it’s behind a subscriber firewall.) "Nielsen reveals all," says the headline, which might be over-egging the pudding a little, … Continue reading →

Well, since it seems to be the subject du jour, here’s Laren Spirer’s take: Mario’s cherished lardo, which is nothing more than pork fat, was served in a china dish on a silver tray next to the butter, a fabulous … Continue reading →

Leventhal was right, of course: Del Posto got its inevitable three stars. On the other hand, Leventhal was wrong. Reading the review, there’s no nitpicking, no on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand. In fact, I’ve never read an NYT restaurant review which makes me want … Continue reading →

Ben Leventhal handicaps the NYT review of Del Posto, due on the web at midnight tonight: "The safe money is on three stars. The betting man takes 50-1 odds on two stars and 100-1 on four." Either of which I’d … Continue reading →

No one likes it when something they do for a magazine gets spiked. Bill Robinson, a New Yorker illustrator, did a cover for the magazine to tie in with Mardi Gras, and it ultimately got bumped for a more topical … Continue reading →

The long-awaited All New felixsalmon.com will be here Real Soon Now, so I’m experimenting with shorter entries. Do not be alarmed.

It’s good to see that global financial markets can still get volatile occasionally. Last week the Icelandic krona fell 9% in two days for no real reason: the plunge was precipitated by a ratings downgrade from Fitch. Of course, people … Continue reading →

Nublu, the nightclub on Avenue C between 4th and 5th Streets (I won’t link ‘cos the website resizes one’s browser) has long marked itself with a blue light above the door. Now, a block down, between 3rd and 4th, there’s … Continue reading →

Statistics are hard, as Charles helpfully pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago. But one has the idea that techier people grasp the relevant concepts more than your standard arty journalist might. And then one reads Paul Boutin … Continue reading →

One year ago, Jason Kottke gave up his $10,000-a-month web design gig to become a full-time blogger. A good website, he assured us, was about to get much better: The goal is to use the increased level of focus and … Continue reading →

I hosted a wine contest last night. Thirteen people came, and each brought two bottles of wine. We all tasted one of the bottles, while the other bottle was put into a prize pool. (Hat tip to Gothamist for the … Continue reading →

Simon Dumenco is not a lazy columnist. But even the most avid columnist has an off week, when he simply can’t think of anything to write about. The worst solution to this problem is the "I can’t think of anything … Continue reading →

I’m in New York and loving it. Quite a contrast from last time I visited, a fortnight after having returned from Antarctia the first time, constantly getting rushed at by honking cars while staring at the rooftops and fire escapes … Continue reading →

According to Nick Kristof of the New York Times, MIT’s Kerry Emanuel is a "hurricane guru". Conveniently, Mr Emanuel published a major hurricane study in Nature just before Katrina hit the US. What did that study say? According to Kristof, … Continue reading →

Grey mizzle across the country, a hanging mist, traffic fluidly moving through the capital’s centre, commuters buying coffee, picking up the free paper, listening to their ipods. Schoolchildren on a train, the first day of term after the summer, a … Continue reading →

I dedicated my Ph.D. thesis ‘to the hydroxyl radical, omnipresent but ever elusive, you have a wicked sense of humour’. In retrospect, this may seem a little theatrical. But at the time I truly felt that I had been chasing … Continue reading →