Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:12:48 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Ruth Graham :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Ruth+Graham istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/television-ponders-our-childrens-children/80522/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST From "Rebel Without a Cause" to "Thirteen," pop culture focusing on teenagers traditionally tends toward the alarmist. Youngsters on screens big and small are forever driving too fast, running with the wrong crowd, and getting pierced in all the wrong places. In reality, though, adults today don't have much to fear from the teenagers in the house. As David Brooks observed in his important 2001 Atlantic Monthly article "The Organization Kid," the youngest generation of Americans is cheerful... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/love-comes-lately-falling-out-of-love-and-into-bed/79936/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The great Polish-born chronicler of 20th-century Jewry, Isaac Bashevis Singer, wrote in the introduction to a 1981 collection of his short stories: "Unlike the novel, which can absorb and even forgive lengthy digressions, flashbacks, and loose construction, the story must aim directly at its climax." Jan Schütte's meandering new film, "Love Comes Lately," based on three of Singer's stories, falls short of that, but its digressions can be nonetheless sweetly transporting. The main plot, which... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/clooney-leaves-the-mudslinging-on-the-field/74176/ Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST From "Philadelphia Story" through "Dumb and Dumber," one of the most tried-and-true cinematic formulas is the competition between two men for the same woman. Another is the ragtag underdog sports team that goes up against a bigger team that's all brawn and no heart. "Leatherheads," which stars and was directed by George Clooney, smashes those two threads together and drags them to good effect through the rollicking early days of professional football. One of the men in the equation is Jimmy... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/who-hears-a-ham-handed-horton/72965/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST The new computer-graphic-animated film "Horton Hears a Who!," like Dr. Seuss's beloved children's book, on which it is based, begins its story on the 15th of May in the Jungle of Nool. Almost everyone born after the book was published in 1954 knows what happens next: "In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing, enjoying the jungle's great joys, when Horton the elephant heard a small noise." The rest of the story is spun from the reverberation of that small noise, which... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/no-boys-allowed/72544/ Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Little girls in the movies have come a long way, baby. In the beginning, there was Shirley Temple, adorable and precocious and curly-haired. Then came Elizabeth Taylor, adorable and precocious and brunette. Seventy years later, we have arrived at Dakota Fanning, adorable and precocious and blond. That's why it's so refreshing to meet Amelia, an 8-year-old girl who is one of the stars of "Girls Rock!" The documentary, opening in the city today, introduces us to a brand new kind of young girl... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/tracking-down-a-spider-on-the-web/70158/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Did you ever imagine that just by reading a film review you could become guilty of jaywalking? It's true: For every word of this review you read, I will take one more step into the middle of the street, and into oncoming traffic. By the end of this paragraph, I'll reach the yellow line, and it will be your fault. It's this dubious logic with which the new thriller "Untraceable" attempts to implicate all Internet surfers — and the movie's own viewers — in a series of gruesome murders. Jennifer... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/take-the-money-but-dont-run/69769/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Was there something in the Perrier during the filming of "Father of the Bride"? The 1991 film seemed like a pleasant family comedy at the time, but evidence suggests it compromised the creative instincts of its stars. Once two of the most likable and intelligent movie actors around, Steve Martin and Diane Keaton descended to making such pap as "Because I Said So" (she), "Cheaper By the Dozen" (he), and "Father of the Bride Part II" (both of them). Now Mr. Martin, whose excellent new memoir... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/under-the-skin/69202/ Wed, 9 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST One of the lesser-known benefits of keeping a diary is that it allows the writer to hijack another man's biography. In science writer Bill Hayes's new book, "The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy" (Ballantine, 250 pages, $24.95), "Anatomy" illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter, an engaging diarist, nearly walks off with a story that was meant to follow the textbook's author, Henry Gray. But the ultimate star of the disappointing new book, unfortunately, is Mr. Hayes himself. Ostensibly, "The... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/where-history-is-not-as-it-seems/68512/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Though it boasts its share of high-tech gadgetry, the landscape depicted in "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is in many ways sweetly old-fashioned. The plot hinges on one man's quest to preserve the good name of his great-great-grandfather. The titular treasure is cherished not for its monetary value, but because, as one character exclaims, "This is going to give us incredible insight into pre-Columbian history!" Just as many clues come from dusty history books as from Google. And the... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/reality-by-design/66319/ Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST It's been a tough week in the land of television. Tina Fey is on strike, Steve Carell won't cross the picket line, and "The Daily Show" has gone dark. The specter of eternal reruns looms uncomfortably close. The calamity is multiplied by the fact that we're in the middle of sweeps month, meaning we should be drowning in all-new episodes of our favorite shows with special guest stars and dramatically dying regulars. Try not to think about it. Indeed, it's in harrowing times like these that we... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/digging-into-the-upper-crust/65749/ Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST How do Americans think of our wealthiest fellow citizens? Are they to be scorned or admired? The answer may be even more radical: Perhaps we think they are not so different from the rest of us. A 2003 Gallup poll said 31% of Americans expect to be rich within their lifetime. In a poll conducted this year, 73% of teenagers said they expect to earn "plenty of money" as adults. "All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make — and Spend — Their Fortunes" (Knopf, 416 pages, $26.95) is at its... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/veteran-who-knows-his-rights/65341/ Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The very existence of "Music Within," the year's best movie about the development of hiring guidelines for the Department of Health and Human Services, is somewhat baffling. The new film imposes all the dramatic highs and lows of traditional biopics like "Gandhi" and "Ray" on the life of a man whose online biography describes him as a "consultant, keynote speaker, professional trainer, and author of numerous curricula and training guides." It is not, on its face, a story waiting to be told. The... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/going-trendspotting/63859/ Wed, 3 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The pollster and political consultant Mark Penn takes credit for popularizing the term "soccer moms," influential suburban voters who care more about health care than defense. In fact it was Susan Casey, a Democrat running for the Denver City Council in 1995, who first used the term in a political context. But when Mr. Penn hauled it out during President Clinton's reelection campaign, touting it as the cycle's key demographic, he became responsible for cementing its place in the sociopolitical... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/heaven-can-wait-in-this-kingdom/63587/ Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST The opening credits of "The Kingdom" scroll over a stylized timeline, interspersed with newsreel-style footage that traces Saudi history onward from the kingdom's creation in 1932. We see Saudi Arabia and America becoming increasingly intertwined, the rise of Islamist resistance, and Colin Powell perched uncomfortably in a palatial room. (And did I see a Star of David morph into a star on the American flag?) Finally, an animated bar graph shows that in 2000, Saudi Arabia was the world's no. 1... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/of-marsupials-and-men/61889/ Wed, 5 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST In 1829, the gathered members of Australia's first scientific society selected as their motto: "Quocunque aspicias hic paradoxus erit." Or, "Whatever one examines here will seem a paradox." In his new book "Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature" (Grove Press, 248 pages, $24), zoologist Tim Flannery brushes aside this statement as an inadequate, misguided kind of Australian biological exceptionalism. The phrase, he writes, "well... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/prada-takes-bids-for-ultimate-sample-sale/58116/ Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Even the most ardent runway watchers are not sporting Prada's Fiocco dress this season. The sleeveless dress is a stunner — with a faded green embossed bodice, full wool skirt, and a red doublestitched belt — that can't be found in Prada stores, on eBay, or even on net-a-porter.com. That's because the dress never made it to production; It was only a prototype, or sample, for fall 2007. Today, it can be yours. Prada announced yesterday that it would begin auctioning online 24 pieces from its... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/top-art-collectors-announced/57581/ Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST ARTnews released its annual list of the world's top 200 art collectors yesterday. The list includes 11 new names: real estate mogul Neil Bluhm; Argentine venture capitalist and real estate developer Eduardo Costantini; New York investor Charles de Gunzburg and his wife, Nathalie; Chinese investor Joseph Lau; the chairman and CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt; film agent Beth Swofford, and venture capitalist James Tananbaum and his wife, Dana. New York has more collectors than any city; Thirty-seven... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/hallowed-ground-of-lincolns/55985/ Wed, 6 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Among a certain subset of Illinois fifth-graders whose fathers are American history teachers, meeting Abraham Lincoln is a special occasion. Attending a local Civil War Days festival in the late 1980s, my sister and I had our picture taken with a Lincoln impersonator, and I stood up straight and proud. I suppose I knew he wasn't the real Lincoln — but that hat, that beard! When, a few years later, I saw him pick up a sack of burritos at a Taco Bell — in full regalia, with his wife dressed as... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/national/elizabeths-fashion-faux-pas/53981/ Tue, 8 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Queen Elizabeth II has drawn droves at every stop on her first American tour in 16 years, delighting the colonial crowds with her royal presence and good cheer. She also has frequently dressed like an Easter egg. Why must Her Majesty look so unmajestic? Each daytime ensemble has been equally uninspired and unflattering: a boxy coat in an unfashionable color, usually with primly coordinated trim; a pin stuck firmly over the left breast; a bulky hat; gloves; a pearl necklace, and the same black... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/not-quite-masculine-mystique/51624/ Mon, 2 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Frat-house comedies and late-night sketch shows have long used men drooling over nubile virgins as a standard comedic feature. And the appeal of the female virgin makes a certain kind of evolutionary sense: A man who sleeps with a virgin can be assured her children are his own. But by the crude logic of biology — in which men are naturally dominating and promiscuous, while women are acquiescent and loyal — the male virgin offers no advantages. He can offer no proof of loyalty, and he is not a... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/blame-game/50274/ Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST A line from "All's Well That Ends Well" is repeated throughout Anna Ziegler's play "BFF": "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie." Does that mean the protagonist needs to take responsibility for her past and her future, or that she just needs to get over her guilt? The plot of the unfortunately titled "BFF" — that's shorthand for "best friends forever" in the lingo of high school yearbook signatures — hangs on a compelling psychological mystery that deepens as the play progresses, and ends with... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/scorsese-pans-labyrinth-big-winners/49255/ Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Despite Vice President Gore's exhortation to "go green," last night's 79th Academy Awards were the least earnest in recent memory. This year, Oscar decided not to take itself so seriously. The result was the most genuinely fun to watch ceremony in recent memory. First-time host Ellen DeGeneres proved herself more than worthy to the task that Jon Stewart stumbled with last year. Her opening monologue was irreverent but not superior, and included some genuinely good jokes. The award for "least... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/calendar/rainbow-on-the-red-carpet/49306/ Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST The most surreal moment on the 500-foot-long red carpet leading up to Kodak Theatre last night came when Al Gore — wearing a Ralph Lauren tuxedo — joked with E! interviewer Ryan Seacrest about William Hung, the notoriously tone deaf 2004 "American Idol" contestant. The rest of the Academy Awards red carpet, of course, was all about style. There was a refreshing rainbow of color: Nicole Kidman in bright red, Gwyneth Paltrow in delicate orange, Naomi Watts in buttery yellow (and looking... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/ghosts-of-bad-fashion-past/48929/ Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Though there is much to be said for red-carpet experimentation, sometimes things can go very, very wrong. And unfortunately for the army of stylists pulling (and cutting) the strings to make sure their actresses look appropriately elegant, bad fashion at the Oscars is often the most memorable. There was Barbra Streisand's 1969 ensemble, the year she was nominated for her role in "Funny Girl." She wore a pantsuit that featured sheer black tulle, white collar and cuffs, floppy bow, and... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/dressing-safely-by-committee/48947/ Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST When the actresses attending the 79th Academy Awards walk down the red carpet this Sunday, many will be interviewed about their clothes, only to toss off nonchalant lines like, "I just picked it out this morning," or "Oh, I just thought it was pretty." They might be telling the truth, but it won't be the whole truth. As Bronwyn Cosgrove's exhaustively researched new book, "Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards" (Bloomsbury) makes clear, choosing a dress for the Oscars is now a... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/fire-in-a-crowded-church/48723/ Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST The Montreal band Arcade Fire kicked off a five-night run of sold-out concerts at Judson Memorial Church on Tuesday night, and not everyone in the audience was comfortable with the setting. "Why church?" a man near the front yelled out between songs. Win Butler, who leads the band with his wife, Régine Chassagne, seemed bemused, responding, "Who asks questions like that?" "New Yorkers!" the man shouted back. By the end of the band's radiant set an hour and a half later, no one seemed to mind... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/surreptitious-snapshots/48077/ Tue, 6 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" is one of the bestknown paintings at the Museum of Modern Art. Almost any time of day, a cluster of visitors can be found in front of the 1889 painting, hung on a wall in the fifth-floor painting and sculpture galleries. On Saturday afternoon, "The Starry Night" attracted its usual crowd of admirers at the museum. For many of them, however, the experience was not what it would have been even five years ago: They were taking pictures with digital cameras or... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/big-shoe-store-with-bigger-goals/44598/ Tue, 5 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST Acrobats in body stockings and brand-new shoes twisted in the tall windows of a new boutique in SoHo last week. Inside Té Casan's 7,500-square-foot flagship store, hundreds of people enjoyed a cocktail party hosted by bold-face names including Amy Sacco, Lucy Sykes, and Zani Gugelmann. Yet in the midst of all this revelry, some partygoers were focused on shopping. They had good reason to act quickly. Té Casan shoes are produced in limited-edition batches. For example, only 30 pairs of green... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/clothes-make-the-exhibit/43479/ Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST "She's Like a Rainbow," the new show at the Museum at FIT, doesn't offer much guidance on the historical meanings or uses of color, but it does include some gorgeous gowns in rich colors. Drawn from the museum's 80,000-piece collection, the exhibit offers 150 items, including dresses, textiles, and accessories that span the last 250 years. The first room presents a spectrum of gowns, while the rest of the show is organized in rough chronology. The show was organized by the museum's director... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/new-york/billy-grahams-daughter-brings-crusade-to-manhattan/41541/ Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST The Billy Graham Center is the largest building on the campus of Wheaton College, an evangelical liberal arts college located in the Chicago suburb where this Ruth Graham spent her first 22 years. When I enrolled in the college, my wheaton.edu e-mail address received occasional misdirected missives for another Ruth Graham, who as the wife of Billy Graham can fairly be considered the first lady of American evangelicalism. One message thanked me for my work on a 1950 crusade. I moved to New York... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/light-shines-at-the-met/40179/ Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Painter Sean Scully stood back and admired his handiwork yesterday afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "They're heroic," he said. "In large paintings, the brushstroke is made by the body. So you have to relate to it with your body." An exhibit of his work, "Sean Scully: Wall of Light," will open on Tuesday. In preparation, the museum began hanging paintings early this week. By yesterday afternoon, most of the large works had been hung, and an assistant was applying wall text with a... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-rules-favor-fresh-faces/35624/ Fri, 7 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Yesterday's announcement of the Emmy nominations was full of surprises, in part because of new nominating procedures designed to keep the awards from becoming stagnant from year to year. "Desperate Housewives," whose stars last year made up three of the five nominations for best actress in a comedy series, was shut out of that category. The show also missed out on the nomination for best comedy series. "Lost," last year's winner for best dramatic series, was not nominated for that award. But... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/what-the-devil-is-she-wearing/35084/ Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Though it might make for a convenient title, the devil doesn't always wear Prada. Vogue magazine editor in chief Anna Wintour, whose likeness is a central character in the film "The Devil Wears Prada," in fact wears quite a lot more. When Parsons the New School for Design threw a gala fashion show in honor of Oscar de la Renta recently, Ms. Wintour wore a black knee-length cocktail dress designed by Mr. de la Renta himself. The infamous editor wore a flower-embroidered Christian Dior couture... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/arts-desk-2006-06-27/35107/ Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST The New York Public Library announced two new appointments yesterday to the music and dance divisions of the Library for the Performing Arts. An Australian dance scholar, Michelle Potter, will join the library as curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in August. George Boziwick, who has served as the curator of the library's American music collection since 1991, was appointed chief of the music division. Ms. Potter is currently the curator of dance at the National Library of Australia in... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/big-news-for-small-clothes/34724/ Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Saks Fifth Avenue announced yesterday it would relaunch its petite business, after shuttering the departments across the country at the end of last year. By November, 32 of the 55 Saks stores around the country, including New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Beverly Hills, will carry a revamped petite department. In bringing back petites, "We're focusing on our core customer, a 35- to 55-year-old woman who has a variety of lifestyles," the vice president for communications at Saks, Andree Corroon... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/pressing-matter/34346/ Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST When Whirlpool conducted a national study on household chores last year, the company found that almost one third of Americans would rather go to the dentist than do their ironing. Only cleaning the bathroom was a more hated domestic task. As Father's Day approaches, what better gift that to relieve dear old Dad from such dreaded drudgery? This spring, Brooks Brothers came out with a dress shirt that the company claims needs no ironing at all. The shirts are the first sold in America to be made... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/out-of-the-axemans-reach/34141/ Fri, 9 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Like many real life stories that are writ large on the big screen, the radio show "Prairie Home Companion" has a decidedly plainer face than the one portraying it on screen. But though it may be less glamorous, the future of Garrison Keillor's show is far more secure than the version petering out in the film that opens nationwide today. Part of what makes the real show so successful is its spare production values. The set, in the film and the weekly radio program, is essentially a modest house... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/next-up-for-next-wave/33907/ Tue, 6 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST The Brooklyn Academy of Music announced the lineup for this year's Next Wave Festival yesterday.The festival will take place October 3 to October 16, and features the largest number of productions in the festival's history. Tickets for the festival, which includes theater, dance, opera, and music, go on sale September 5. Among the highlights will be Declan Donnellan directing the Chekhov International Theatre Festival's all-male production of "Twelfth Night," which made its premiere in Moscow... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/doesnt-rhyme-with-orange/32822/ Tue, 16 May 2006 00:00:00 EST When Jergens Natural Glow moisturizer made its debut last year, the company hadn't planned on it becoming the must-have beauty product of the year. The lotion, which creates a soft tan after two to three days of use, was so popular it started popping up on E-bay - and the company's Web site set up a waiting list that grew to almost 40,000. The editors of Allure, Lucky, In-Style, People, and Vogue recommended it enthusiastically, and Women's Wear Daily named it "Breakthrough Product of the Year... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/century-in-design/31935/ Tue, 2 May 2006 00:00:00 EST The exhibit "The High Style of Dorothy Draper," opening today at the Museum of the City of New York, celebrates the old-fashioned idea that well-appointed rooms are a symbol of a well-ordered life. The exhibit, the first retrospective of an interior designer mounted by a major museum, suggests that handsome window dressings are a window to the soul. Just a few blocks downtown from that museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has installed "AngloMania: Tradition and... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/culture-desk-2006-04-28/31798/ Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST The editor of the online magazine Slate, Jacob Weisberg, announced a publishing partnership yesterday with the Perseus Books Group and Atlas Books, whose president is James Atlas. The series of paperback originals will make its debut in June, with the goal of publishing several titles a year. "The three of us sat in a big room and made a list of everything a publisher does, and divided it among the three of us," the president and CEO of Perseus Books Group, David Steinberger, said. "This is a... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/business/france-targets-american-ingenuity/31618/ Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST It's been said that the problem with France's economy is that there is no French word for "entrepreneur." In a tacit acknowledgment of that axiom, the country's president yesterday triumphantly announced plans to revitalize his country's limping economy with $2.1 billion worth of industrial projects. First among them is a new French search engine that he hopes will rival Google. The announcement suggests that President Chirac and his crew do not understand why Google is successful. After Mr... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/fashionable-families/30764/ Tue, 11 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Last weekend, the clothing company Gant unfurled a series of unusual advertisements at its flagship store on Fifth Avenue: The models, seen at left, are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his family, cavorting in Martha's Vineyard. A new image will be unveiled every few weeks throughout the summer, and all proceeds from a special line of merchandise will go to Mr. Kennedy's environmental advocacy group, Waterkeeper Alliance. Gant's director of marketing and public relations, Douglas Geller, said the... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/travel/personal-postage/29854/ Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST After the wedding, there's the honeymoon. And after the honeymoon, the thank-you notes. To add a little honeymoon flavor to that chore, there's a custom postage service from Stamps.com. There (and on the Web sites Endicia.com andZazzle.com) you can turn your digital photos into bona-fide American postage. Just upload your photos to the Web site, crop them, choose from 10 border colors, and pick a postage denomination. It's an easy and creative way to show off honeymoon photos without making... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/arts/mr-stewart-finds-his-footing/28562/ Mon, 6 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST A 78-year-old bastion of sincerity, the Academy Awards are not a natural home for the frequently winking Jon Stewart, the evening's host. Luckily, George Clooney brought enough sincerity for them both. After winning the first award of the night - best supporting actor in "Syriana" - Mr. Clooney first gushed over his fellow nominees. But the back-patting had just begun. Hollywood is frequently accused of being out of touch, he said, and that's a good thing. "We're the ones who talked about AIDS... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/odd-couples/26994/ Fri, 3 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST Fashion week draws luxury brands such as Olympus, W Hotels, and Taittinger as sponsors, along with beauty brands like Pantene, MAC, and Kinerase. But house paint and peppermints are playing a role in supporting designers, too. Jeff Mahshie, the creative director for Chaiken, was shopping at a Janovic store when he noticed a striking Benjamin Moore advertisement in which a woman had a paint can slung over her arm like a purse. "I thought, 'Hmm. Let's phone them up,'" he said. That was a year and... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/brken-up-by-ikea/26328/ Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Two months into their marriage, Andrew Motiwalla and his wife had only a futon mattress to their name and an entire unfurnished house to decorate. And so the blissful couple set out from New Rochelle to the 350,000-square-foot Ikea in Elizabeth, N.J., eager to acquire the trappings of their new life together. But by the end of the day, Mr. Motiwalla had been reduced to a cursing, furniture-throwing wreck in front of his new bride. While trying to assemble the chairs they had lugged home, Mr... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/its-all-too-sexy/25559/ Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST One morning last week, I went looking for a bra. What I needed was one of the rarest of undergarments: the unlined white cotton bra. I soon discovered that simple, functional lingerie is just not acceptable anymore. Even on our most average days - when we have 10 hours of work to do, when we are grumpy, and when no one will see us with our clothes off - we should still be wearing fancy, sexy lingerie. How very French. At the Victoria's Secret flagship store on 34th Street, I could buy a Very... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/mustache-love/24391/ Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Whither the mustache? Not so long ago, it was a sign of macho virility as embodied by Tom Selleck. But in recent decades, it has been viewed as, in the blunt words of the independent and mustachioed filmmaker Jay Della Valle, "skeevy." Right now, however, the mustache is having a moment. Mr. Della Valle's new documentary, "The Glorius Mustache Challenge," in which he chronicles the experiences of under-30 men growing mustaches, will make its premiere Thursday, followed by a celebratory... RUTH GRAHAM http://www.nysun.com/style/very-special-breakup/23658/ Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST The separation of Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson after three years of marriage has been attributed variously to cheating, success, and meddling in-laws. But what if the singing celebrities were just fed up with gift-giving? Breaking up just before the holidays is a savvy way to avoid spending time and money on presents that probably wouldn't be properly appreciated anyway. It's true you'll be missing somebody to snuggle with in front of the roaring fire - but if you spend the money you would...