New Yorker magazine

(Newser) - If Portishead’s new album comes off as cheesy, it’s only because it’s easily digestible, Sasha Frere-Jones writes in the New Yorker. While the album, Third, is “delightfully abrasive,” the Brits have “accepted that being soothing, despite their perverse streak, is part of what they...

(Newser) - Although she has been eliminated from "America's Top Model," contestant Heather Kuzmich, a consistent viewer favorite, continues to bring attention to Asperger's syndrome. Kuzmich, who has the neurological disorder, says she hopes to keep modeling and become a spokesperson for others with the condition, the New York Times...

(Newser) - Shock jock Don Imus is coming back, but humbled; Ann Coulter got press for anti-Semitism, but lost support; could this be a backlash against crass punditry? Hardly, say the experts, but some see rays of hope. "We're caught right now between extreme political correctness on one end and crude,...

(Newser) - The New Yorker's Ben McGrath finagled an astounding nine minutes with Manny Ramirez, the notoriously fractious and endlessly fascinating Red Sox slugger. In the interview the reclusive Ramirez embodies all the myths about him: He's deeply personal, funny, petulant, and cryptic—besides being, arguably, "the greatest hitter of his...