H.L. Mencken

Man About Town: Valentine's candyland at Sweet! Hollywood

2013-02-09 00:00:00

I'm in my traditional Cupidian buying frenzy leading up to Valentine's Day, my major organs bursting with good intentions, not knowing quite where to turn, getting a little angry about it actually — the frustrations of unbridled romance, bordering...

Book review: 'Holidays in Heck' by P.J. O'Rourke

2011-12-14 00:00:00

P.J. O'Rourke has written so many books of humor that no one is quite sure how many. I have it on good authority that it's 15, but since I finished writing this sentence, he may have written yet another. That's how fast he is. I've enjoyed O'Rourke's...

This Sunday: James M. Cain minus the noir

2011-12-31 16:35:15

Rodriguez: The 'Mad Men' mystique

2011-10-10 00:00:00

Who the heck would want to be like Betty or her ad man ex, Don? That's what I asked myself recently when I passed a Banana Republic window display featuring the retailer's new "Mad Men"-inspired clothing collection. "Are you a Betty?" read a poster with...

Book review: 'Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned' by John A. Farrell

2011-06-26 00:00:00

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned John A. Farrell Doubleday: 400 pp., $32.50 For five stormy, pivotal decades, Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) was a towering figure in U.S. jurisprudence and politics. He served as defense lawyer for the people...

Boomers vs. Gen Xers: Who's had it better?

2011-10-11 16:34:54

Michele Bachmann and me -- like twins!

2011-10-21 16:34:57

$100,000 Kingsley Tufts poetry prize accepting nominations

2011-06-21 16:35:11

A Hollywood Riddle: Why do we always think current movies are worse than ever?

2011-09-08 16:32:47

From the Stacks – 'Facts You Should Know About California'

2011-05-31 16:33:34

The Morning Fix: 'Hangover II' cures Hollywood blues. PBS hacked! Dauman made how much?

2011-05-31 16:33:58

Book review: 'At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing,' edited by George Kimball and John Schulian

2011-03-18 17:02:00

At the Fights American Writers on Boxing Edited by George Kimball & John Schulian Library of America: 517 pp., $35 Part freak show, part sitcom, part mortal combat — ah, yes, behold the world of professional prizefighting, the face-break...

Baltimore had H.L. Mencken, one of the greatest reporters, editors and social critics of the 20th century.

2013-05-01 10:07:13

The author of such bons mots as "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard," Mencken (1880-1956) was a reporter, essayist, social critic, editor and fierce believer in his own profundity.

2013-04-04 00:00:00

H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt courted for seven years -- a slow and uneven romance, according to Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, the Mencken biographer and editor of "Mencken & Sara: A Life in Letters.

2013-01-29 15:07:18