Richard Rubin

TK politics … More »

Warhol's appetite as a collector was legendary, but that was only part of the story; he was also, it seems, quite an accumulator. Much of his clutter he picked up casually—on the street or in a theater or a café or a shop he happened to pass—and much of it simply showed up unbidden, courtesy of the United States Postal Service. In that regard he was like everyone else—but on a much, much larger scale. … More »

TK politics … More »

In their case, "out" means way, way out—hundreds of miles, to Earth's surface, where it can be washed the old-fashioned way. Since old-fashioned pickup and delivery are out of the question, though, this task is accomplished by the Space Shuttle, which on a few trips a year to the ISS carries a multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) full of supplies (food, toiletries, clean clothes) and then returns with a payload of dirty laundry and other things that aren't…… More »

That's how it was in Buffalo. While the President lay in a guest bed at the Milburn home, almost everyone else in town was snatching up any item related to the shooting, either for evidence or as a souvenir—the handkerchief Czolgosz had used to conceal the revolver, the handcuffs used to restrain him afterward, the bullets fired and unfired, the scalpels and probes and clamps and scissors the surgeons used in operating on the President. Within hours every…… More »

special collections, lost and found, richard rubin, grand central terminal, train stations, things people leave behind Flotsam … More »

Is the United States quietly, mysteriously, skrinking?… More »