To calm the waters roiled by this weekend’s renewal of the national pastime’s greatest rivalry, Frank Coffey of etruesports.com tries to show how we can all get along.

The Top 11 Great Things Sox and Yanks Can Do Together

11. Arrange haircut intervention with Manny

10. Serve Petrocelli Puttanesca and Penne Pepitone in one another’s clubhouses
 
9. Everybody go over to Bill Lee’s for a high-spirited pancake breakfast
 
8. Give away “It’s only a game” pins with every beer sold
 
7.  Stretch out one another’s hammies before games
 
6. Write joint letter to Roger Clemens requesting he only wear Astros apparel
 
 

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Intern Amanda Wills has been spending her free time in New York haunting art galleries. Here’s her report on an exhibition of the pop art great Roy Lichtenstein:

Roy Lichtenstein once referred to the women he painted as idyllic beings conceptually made up of black lines and red dots.  “I see it that abstractly, that it’s very hard to fall for one of these creatures, to me, because they’re not really reality to me,” the master painter said.  “However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a clichéd ideal, a fantasy ideal, of a woman that I would be interested in.  But I think I have in mind what they should look like for other people.” 

The Gagosian Gallery of New York just wrapped its showcase of Lichtenstein’s creations of these ideal women in the exhibit “Roy Lichtenstein: Girls.”  In depicting the ideal woman, Lichtenstein may have had the same thought process as Playboy. As his widow Dorothy said in the exhibit catalog, Lichtenstein often expressed his own feelings through the non-threatening cartoons he illustrated, while still having compassion for the female psyche.   

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Seth Fiegerman, intern and historian of the sexual revolution, has spent hours watching the new film Eight Miles High!, about the sexy German model and groupie Uschi Obermaier. Here's his interview with the actress who plays Obermaier...

There just aren’t enough movies this summer about groupies. Thank heavens for Eight Miles High!, a film that details the real-life story of Uschi Obermaier, a gorgeous German model from the 1960s who seduced some of the most famous men of the era- including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Obermaier became the symbol for Germany’s sexual revolution. We talked with the beautiful Natalia Avelon, the actress who plays Obermaier in the movie.

PLAYBOY: What attracted you to play the part of Uschi Obermaier in this film?
AVELON: The biggest attraction was to play my first main part in a movie. I loved the script, the director and the rest of the cast, and it was really exciting to get involved in the wild 60s. I knew it would be the best time of my life! And of course it was!

PLAYBOY: What does her character mean to you personally?
AVELON: I respect anybody who follows their goals and dreams. Someone like Uschi was and still is a beautiful and sexy woman with a great sense of humor. She had a colorful and exciting life. I would call her a "gourmet of life". She tasted all the best that life could offer. Just like me: I am a bon vivant, too. We have many things in common.
 

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We were aware, if only vaguely, of the Portuguese habit of dropping an ice cube into a glass of red wine. So this passage in Kingsley Amis’s must-read Everyday Drinking was not a total surprise:

If the red strikes you as thick, dark and heavy, feel no shame in cutting it with the local bubbly mineral water; worth trying in part of Italy and Spain. And/or add ice. Nay, stare not so; we are not talking about vintage burgundy. The cheaper Portuguese reds are better iced, as the locals know. 

So during the couple of vicious heat waves we’ve already seen in New York City, we (and by this we mean I, Josh Robertson) have been dropping an ice cube into our regular everyday wine -- which we won’t call “cheap” but which we will grant (per Amis) is “cheaper” than at least one other thing in the store. People have looked at us funny, but come on -- drinking a beverage at “room temperature” in a poorly-ventilated New York apartment in mid-June is really no different than drinking a warm beverage. A warm red on a hot day is the opposite of pleasant. But what to do -- swear off red wine until the fall? 

Today at nytimes.com, Eric Asimov offers that drinking red wine chilled does not make us complete troglodytes.  

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As the theologian George Michael put it, "Ya gotta have faith." Our correspondent Ben Conniff weighs in.

As a longtime Obama fan, I’ve been preparing for the excruciating anxiety of poll-watching in the months leading up to November’s election. What I wasn’t prepared for was the pain of seeing Obama bend to conservative interests as he attempts to woo independents and moderate Republicans. When I read yesterday’s New York Times headline, “Obama Wants To Expand Role of Religious Groups,” my liberal conscience wanted to reach for an ice pack. 

But wait. As it turns out, the Times headline—in fact, the entire article—was misleading. It implied throughout that Obama simply plans to continue and expand President Bush’s White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives (WHOFBI). Barely allowed in a criminal 5-4 Supreme Court decision, the WHOFBI directs federal money to help faith-based—and only faith-based—charities apply for federal grant money, giving religious groups an automatic advantage over secular ones. Obama’s plan, the President’s Council for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, actually rights Bush’s wrongs. It opens funds to secular community groups as well as religious ones and requires rigorous monitoring to ensure that federally funded charities do not proselytize or discriminate when they hire staff. 

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New Hampshire contributor Kevin Flynn caught the Obama/Clinton love-fest in the little town of Unity in the Granite State. Here's his report:

For the first time since Hillary Clinton’s unexpected January win in the state’s primary threw the presidential contest into confusion, both she and Barack Obama returned to New Hampshire. The event was first-class political theater, but so many of the notes fell flat.

The one-time bitter rivals traveled to the tiny community aptly named Unity.  The rest of New Hampshire does not usually look to this village for political guidance. Or for symbolism. Ironically though, the town’s vote in the first-in-the-nation primary was a bellwether of the rest of the nominating process. Clinton received 107 votes; Obama received 107 votes.

The electoral process is designed to be fair, but not designed to be perfect. The system works, except when there’s a tie. We’ve all heard from the partisans who cursed the heavens about how George W. Bush stole the presidency in 2000. There would have been at least that many who would have spent 2000-2004 bitching about the illegality of Al Gore’s presidency had he won that recount.

In politics, we have become a nation of sore losers. Blame it on either Rush Limbaugh for building a career on being Clinton-contrarian or the liberal commentators who came before him. Holding a grudge is now a legitimate platform position.
 

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Fans of crime novels who don’t know the name Duane Swierczynski would do well to make the acquaintance. Duane has just published his latest novel, Severance Package, a funny and exciting tale of mayhem that updates the Ten Little Indians idea, subtracting some of the whodunit, adding several vats of plasma, and, most interestingly, adding in lots of anxieties about modern office culture. It was a fun read, perfect for the pool, a tad less perfect for your cubicle, and I'm delighted to recommend it. Duane took some questions from us last week.

PLAYBOY: You've written an excellent crime novel (The Wheelman) and an excellent, uh, mad scientist mass murderer novel (The Blonde) , both of which took place on the scenic beaches and mountains of Philadelphia. Severance Package also takes place in Philly, but almost entirely within the confines of a single office building. Where did you get the idea for this novel? Is there a part for Steve Carrell?
DUANE: You’ve just pinpointed why I love setting novels in Philly—all of the beaches and mountains! Actually, this bastard child has many fathers. One was the Valerie Plame case. I wondered what it would be like to work for a company that was a front for a spy ring… and you had no idea. (Because that would be me. Totally.) Also, I’ve had the unfortunately experience of having to fire someone, and it struck me how much it was like a professional hit—you pick the time, the place, the method, then BLAM. A person’s life is changed forever. So I thought, gee, what if this whole thing were a bit more literal? And… okay, I admit it. It’s a naked plea for Steve Carrell’s attention. (Steve. Call me.)

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The story rocking my little town in suburban New York is that of a senior at our high school's graduation ceremony who marked the occasion by mooning the audience.

This act would have been news enough, but then the principal--a fine and dedicated public servant known to me--revoked the young man's diploma and summoned the police, who arrested the lunar exhibitionist and charged him with disorderly conduct and exposure to a person. 

Well, surely we do not wish the pillars of our community to turn into over-boiled spaghetini at the first flash of goofballiness in the first degree. Still, is this really a matter for the criminal justice system? Do we really need to insert the long arm of the law into a case that already has such a vivid anatomical presence? 

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