At a lively memorial for Norman Mailer held yesterday at Carnegie Hall, the esteemed author’s son claimed to channel his father’s spirit, a feat that turned into a tongue-in-cheek impersonation of Mailer that brought the house down. According to the Post, 42-year-old Stephen Mailer, one of nine Mailer children, stepped up to the podium, raised his arms like a revivalist, and shouted "Come on, old man, I'm all yours.”He then fell to the ground as......

At the 1968 Democratic Convention, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and spent most of the week getting their skulls cracked courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million. A year later, eight of the most high profile radicals – guys like Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers' Bobby Seale – were tried on charges of conspiracy and inciting riots. The courtroom was......

Partial cover of the New York Post What would Norman Mailer make of a boxer cavorting in high heels, fishnet stockings, and a fur-trimmed tutu? "I respect most boxers because they're violent people who learned to discipline themselves," opined the late writer. Mailer may be dead, but it's doubtable whether the embarrassment that Oscar De La Hoya faces will ever die. The New York Times framed the situation ably, noting the media alert notifying......

Author Norman Mailer passed away at Mt. Sinai Hospital this morning of renal failure. The deceased writer was the author of more than 30 books, from his debut "The Naked and The Dead," to others including "Armies of the Night," and "The Executioner's Song," for which he won a Pulitzer and the National Book Award, respectively. Mailer was known as much for his out-sized personality as for his writing. The New York Times waxes poetic......

News of Norman Mailer’s hospitalization broke today; the cantankerous and influential author is suffering from severe respiratory problems following a collapsed lung. His children have been keeping a bedside vigil in the critical-care unit of Mt. Sinai Hospital, where Mailer is reportedly still in fighting spirits, thumb-wrestling and cracking jokes. (The Post has more, while New York Magazine looks at the illness in the context of his recent ruminations on spirituality in a new book,......

The NY Times is hinting that Brooklyn may be so over, a theory that seems to be based around Heath Ledger leaving the borough.What if Brooklyn’s recent cachet as the locus for what’s next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards? The number of trendy boutiques, bistros and music clubs in Brooklyn may......

Reader Joseph sent us this screenshot of a Barnes & Noble mailer promoting an upcoming reading from Norman Mailer. It looks like his biography of Marilyn Monroe apparently elevated him to husband-of-Marilyn status! Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, it's all the same! Or maybe it's a way to drum up more interest in the event. Back in 1973, Mailer's Marilyn book landed him on the cover of Time with Marilyn. Mailer says in the article,......

Garrison Keillor noted during his opening speech for last night's National Book Awards that this week is the opening of another Harry Potter film. He said, "Most of us have stood in Barnes & Noble and opened a Harry Potter book, read a few pages and said: 'I could have done that. I could have done that while doing all the other things that I do. Why didn't I?'" An always curmudgeonly and brilliant Norman......

Just what the world was waiting for! The NY Times reports that Arianna Huffington is starting a celebrity group blog with people like "Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman." Huh. Did Huffington read the Businessweek article about blogs changing business and decide, "It's on"? It'll be called Huffington Post, the NY Times article......

Brooklyn resident, angry old man, and famed writer, Norman Mailer, makes his television debut on The WB's Gilmore Girls tonight, in an episode titled, "Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant!" Gothamist has always wanted to put the name "Norman Mailer" in the same sentence as Gilmore Girls. We were hoping that Norman would tell Lorelei that she needs to chill out a little bit or to point out that Rory is actually a pretty bad friend, but......

Sean Desmond, Editor...

Because it's been a while, here are some Republican Convention stories: - New York City hospitals have been stocking up and running drills in anticipation of any sort of incidents they may need to respond to. It sounds like hospitals are going through the plans they put in place after September 11, which is scary and good. Gothamist hopes all they'll have to attend to is some dehydrated protestors and delegates, besides whatever heart problems......

...although, when did they ever go out of style? News that rabblerousing book critic Dale Peck was smacked by Stanley Crouch, who had been Peck'd earlier, outside of precious West Village eatery Tartine is just the latest in adults forgetting the playground adage, "Stick and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me." [Gawker reported the incident, as editor Choire Sicha shares a "shitty East Village rabbit warren with Dale Peck" with......

Four hundred New Yorkers were asked which New Yorkers they hated most. Their top ten with percentages: 1. Leona Helmsley: 71% 2. Lizzie Grubman: 62% 3. Al Sharpton: 60% 4. Martha Stewart: 49% 5. Donald Trump: 47% 6. Woody Allen: 29% 7. George Steinbrenner: 27% 7. Rudy Giuliani: 27% 8. Michael Bloomberg: 26% 9. Arianna Huffington: 22% 10. Tina Brown: 20% 11. Norman Mailer: 13% 12. Bill Parcells: 8% [Via Daily News] Clearly, Gothamist wasn't......