From IMPRESARIO: The Man Who Really Doesn’t Want Us to Invade Iraq
Veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer makes two appearances in town today as part of his “The Folly of Attacking Iran” tour. He hopes to clear the air about Iran and explain that — like in any rocky relationship — we don’t have to be friends, we just have to tolerate each other.
Why did you get involved with this tour?
As a staff reporter, I was not able to beat my spoon on the highchair. That’s one of the reasons I left the New York Times. … I wanted to be sure if the United States got involved in a military confrontation with a country I knew something about, I would be free to speak about it. I do not want to wake up and hear that missiles are falling on Iran and think that “You didn’t do anything to prevent this.”
Veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer makes two appearances in town today as part of his “The Folly of Attacking Iran” tour. He hopes to clear the air about Iran and explain that — like in any rocky relationship — we don’t have to be friends, we just have to tolerate each other.
Why did you get involved with this tour?
As a staff reporter, I was not able to beat my spoon on the highchair. That’s one of the reasons I left the New York Times. … I wanted to be sure if the United States got involved in a military confrontation with a country I knew something about, I would be free to speak about it. I do not want to wake up and hear that missiles are falling on Iran and think that “You didn’t do anything to prevent this.”
The double entendre possibilities are endless: Twin brothers arrested for numerous area burglaries also moonlight as gay porn stars. Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney, 25, have been arrested and charged with allegedly breaking into area businesses by drilling holes in their roofs. Their acting chops may prove a very lucrative asset in prison. [
Jrzy 2 B a ltl sfer: Starting Saturday, Jersey cops can pull you over if they catch you talking on, listening to, or texting with a handheld cell phone while driving. “There will be no grace period,” says State Police spokesman Capt. Al Della Fave. You have been warned. [
Widener scarier than the Ayatollah: Apparently fearing a terrorist eruption, Widener University put on an excessive show of tactical police force for a talk yesterday by Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, who was “absolutely horrified” by “assault rifles [and] tracker dogs” meant to protect him. Rushdie later spoke at the Kimmel without incident or accompanying invasion force. [
The last time we checked in with Silvertide, Northeast Philadelphia’s great rock-and-roll hope, it was 2002 and they’d just signed with Clive Davis’s J Records and were bidding their hometown goodbye at South Street’s Theater of Living Arts, where most of the band members weren’t old enough to drink. Much has changed since then — the TLA is now the refurbished Fillmore, and backstage before their show on Saturday, singer Walt Lafty (pictured at Saturday’s soundcheck) exuded a sense of been-here, done-this calm as he chain-smoked on a couch. Then he stretched out his long legs, and his knees crunched like Rice Krispies in a bowl of milk. “Did you hear that?” he moans. “That’s what I get for jumping off amp stacks every night.”
Teen critical after shooting over snowball: A 16-year-old boy remains in critical condition after he was shot on his birthday yesterday by a motorist who accused him of hurling a snowball in the city’s Feltonville section. No arrest has been made. [
