A key step to securing peace will be to wean Afghan farmers off growing poppies. “This is a bad way to make money. It trains you for no other occupation. When a father feeds a boy with money from poppies, he will grow poppies too. He’ll have no other skill. We have no carpenters, no […]
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Grandpa Joe and Secretariat: A Christmas Story
In mid-October, he’d seen his beloved Charlie Rose interview Diane Lane and John Malkovich. Ever since that interview, he’d been carrying with him the notion that he would see this movie at his earliest opportunity. Never mind his preceding fondness for the racehorse and its moment in history–there was also *Diane Lane* to consider. (It […]
The Face of Pain
From 2003: In her dazzling “Autobiography of a Face,” Lucy Grealy detailed her quest to reclaim her jaw, disfigured by cancer. Suddenly, she was the toast of literary New York, beloved for her quick wit and wild streak, saluted for her grit. But her endless surgeries left her so weak, impoverished, and dependent on drugs […]
The Courage of Jill Costello
After a promising junior season as a coxswain at Cal, she learned she was in the late stages of cancer. The next year was her best. “When she asked her doctors about rejoining the team, they looked at her as if she were crazy. Crew? She’d need all her strength just to make it through […]
What Good Is Wall Street?
Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless. “I asked him how he and his co-workers felt about making loads of money when much of the country was struggling. ‘A lot of people don’t care about it or think about it,’ he replied. ‘They say, it’s a market, it’s still open, and I’ll sell […]
Live Your Best Life Ever!
Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live Your Best Life Ever!
The Place of Women on the Court
In late February, three weeks after she had an operation for a recurrence of cancer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went to Barack Obama’s first address to Congress. Given the circumstances, it wasn’t an event anyone expected her to attend. She went, she said, because she wanted the country to see that there was a woman […]
A Place Where Cancer Is the Norm
Some 90,000 patients and their families arrive in Houston at the world’s largest freestanding cancer hospital from around the world, often leaving behind jobs and stashing children with relatives for months. Some rent apartments or stay in mobile home parks near the hospital.
A Roller Coaster Chase for a Cure
At what may be a watershed moment in understanding genetic changes that cause cancer, a small band of doctors is doggedly testing a drug known as PLX4032.
After Long Fight, Drug Gives Sudden Reprieve
The trial of a melanoma drug offers a glimpse at a new kind of therapy tailored to the genetic profile of a cancer.
