Authenticities Home and Away

1. I have a piece today in Mediaite about an ill-fated attempt to bring Fox News-style programming to Canada.

 

2.  And in today’s New York Times, Penelope Green graciously nods to my book in her latest piece on “Butch Craft,” the latest fad in manly furniture making:

In an era defined by an appetite for “conspicuous authenticity,” to borrow a phrase from Andrew Potter, author of “The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves,” out this year from HarperCollins, it’s easy to be cynical. Butch Craft could be an arts collective in Bushwick, or maybe a Viking metal band, the phrase peppered with umlauts, or a reclaimed-wood furniture collection produced by bearded hipsters.

    

Feh, Mr. Moss swatted the idea away. “This isn’t an inelegant going back to the rough gesture,” he said. “It’s not a guy going out and making a bed of antlers. It’s a progression toward a very elegant gesture. It’s just that the materials have this toughness and are an alternative means of giving an art content form and expression in a functional object.”

 

3. From the National Review, the entirely predictable explanation for why O'Donnell beat Castle: 

People will focus on O’Donnell for obvious reasons. But I think the real story, and the point Rush and others were getting at is: The results tonight in Delaware are about Mike Castle. He had an R. after his name, but he might as well have been a Democrat. Voters want authenticity. That’s why Murkowski lost. That’s why Castle lost. 

4. Apparently criminals in New York wear Yankees caps. Except EVERYONE in NYC wears a Yankees cap, duh.

5. Canadians are willing to sacrifice during the recession. But they're not willing to sacrifice that much:

A new survey has found that the vast majority of Canadians agree that putting money aside is important for their future, but not if those savings mean that current family and personal pursuits need to be sacrificed.