Esquire articles from January 2009

Esquire archives from January 2009

November was a month of endorsements.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] November was a month of endorsements. We backed 550 things, including a candidate in every, major political race, an Amish pie, and one superlative-deserving woman: Halle Berry. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

So beautiful, she'll make you feel close to your checkout girl.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The November issue announced 2008's Sexiest Woman Alive, Halle Berry. Your photo shoot with Halle was the hottest thing (1) I've ever seen. Thank you. GREG CROSS Bellevue, Wash. I love Halle. I've...

Our next president.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... Also in November, we endorsed someone from every congressional and gubernatorial race in the country and, for the first time in our seventy-five-year history, a candidate for president: Barack Obama ("Esquire Endorses America"). Your...

Wait, what do you mean?(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I think your endorsement of Obama will bring more change than you bargained for. BILL HANLON Broomall, Pa.

Oh.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... Obama? Thanks. I'll start saving now for my tax hike by cutting out buying your magazine. DENNIS WHITE Pacific Palisades, Calif.

The Esquire Hall of Fame.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... January marks the retirement of a design element we've come to cherish: the composite figures on the contents page. In honor of their extraordinary service, we've inducted the best of them into our (hitherto nonexistent) Hall of Fame. ...

Correction?(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... As part of "Esquire Endorses America," we named (3) the ten worst members of Congress. One of them was Representative Joe Baca (D). of California. about whom we said, "As chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Baca steered CHC funds to...

Correction.?(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Correction notice)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... Scattered throughout the November issue were endorsements of other ideas and products, like Nicorette for nonsmokers and a geographically limited strain of soda. Your normally impeccable overseers missed something in your endorsement of...

What they've learned: the quiz.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Even with forty-eight pages devoted to the brilliance of this year's Meaning of Life issue, we still didn't have room for everything. See if you can match the outtake with its source. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (a) Luis Guzman ...

Those responsible: Woody Harrelson's daughters.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Correction notice)
January 1, 2009... IN ADDITION TO articles editor Ryan D'Agostino and writer at large Cal Fussman, who edited and interviewed the majority of the issue's What rye Learned subjects, we had two very special contributors this month: Woody Harrelson's daughters. Two...

Whoever heard of an irrational German.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... For one week, editor at large A. J. Jacobs ignored the impulses of his flawed brain--which he compared to a 1976 Dodge Dart with faulty brakes and a missing headlight--and made only rational choices ("The Rationality Project, "November), even...

Ask Nick Sullivan: a preview.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)
January 1, 2009... Starting next month, fashion director Nick Sullivan will have his own column to answer your style-related questions, which you can submit at esquire.com/talk. As much as I would love to own a Gucci suit or a Burberry jacket, as a college...

The arbitrary update: Tim Fagan.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT'S BEEN three years since we announced Los Angeles's Tim Fagan as the winner of the first (and only) John Mayer Song Contest. Fagan beat 2,212 other aspirants by transforming a set of Mayer's lyrical scraps into a...

Read this book. Get jealous.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)(List)
January 1, 2009... And maybe a little inspired. For his new book. Rich Like Them (January 5 from Little, Brown), Esquire articles editor Ryan D'Agostino knocked on doors in America's wealthiest neighborhoods and asked the occupants how they'd gotten there. What...

Two things to do at esquire.com.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Get ready for the NFL playoffs. Every Thursday at esquire.com/football, Fox Sports commentator Peter Schrager previews the weekend's big games, with insight from players like Adam Vinatieri and Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor. Plus: constant,...

Elsewhere in the bin.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... As I walked into the theater to see Charlie Kaufman's new movie, Synecdoche, New York, I had high expectations of esoteric and atmospheric comfort. Boy, was I wrong. I walked out stuck at the bottom of an unvaried, colorless funk. It stuck...

Watches for Garry.(This Way In: THE SOUND & THE FURY)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I've always enjoyed your magazine, but "Esquire's Guide to Watches 2008" (November) got me riled up. I have a problem spending more than $1,000 on a watch, much less $30,000. Are there any good options for those of us on a tighter budget? ...

The Passion of the Mick: the Wrestler is Mickey Rourke's resurrection and redemption, yes. More important, it's a nearly flawless performance by a fine actor.(Film)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Let's put this on the table right away: As far as I'm concerned, Mickey Rourke is a schmuck in the old-school sense-a squinting organ, a thing that feels but doesn't think. A permanently wounded beast, a scar with...

Technique of the month: documation.(Man at His Best: The Culture)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The arresting images above, from the Israeli documentary Waltz with Bashir, are powerful mostly because of what they could have been--stills of Israeli men recounting the 1982 Israeli-Lebanese war. That's the problem...

Best squabble.(The Awards)(Excerpt)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... SIRIO: Can you tell me what all you geniuses were up to now? MARCO: We were trying to get this restaurant open! You can't open up the curtain with people who don't know their lines. You can't. And expect to get a good review. We're just...

The only 100 days that mattered: in his first three months, FDR fought against naysayers and saved America. Now Obama's turn.(Books)(Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barack Obama)('Nothing to Fear')(Book review)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] During the Great Depression, when 16 million people were out of work and 1.5 million were living in shantytowns, President Herbert Hoover insisted that the free market was the only engine of prosperity, that the poor...

Sure thing.(SHORT, SHORT FICTION)(Excerpt)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... When I got down to my last sixty-one bucks, I knew it was time to go. My room rent was paid for that night, and they wouldn't lock me out until ten in the morning. I couldn't die with money in my pocket. I put fifty on the nose of a...

Who's up for a second wife? A thousand words about our culture.(Man at His Best: The Culture)
January 1, 2009... Tolstoy began "Anna Karenina" with the famous line "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Which sounds terrific but is bullshit when you think about it. Unhappy families are all booze and cheating and...

Funny joke from a beautiful woman.(Man at His Best: The Culture)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... As told by ODETTE YUSTMAN A GUY WALKS into a doctor's office with a duck on his head. The doctor asks, "Can I help you?" The duck says, "Yeah, get this guy off my ass." ABOUT THE JOKESTER: Odette Yustman landed her first acting gig at...

Topics for further discussion.(Man at His Best: The Culture)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... * The current standing of Mickey Rourke's career relative to those of his costars in the 1982 film Diner. * Those being Steve Guttenberg, Kevin Bacon, and Paul Reiser. * What it would have been five years ago.

How to be a host.(DRINKING)
January 1, 2009... WHEN YOU INVITE FRIENDS to your house for dinner, you don't show them where you keep the groceries and the kitchenware and let them feed themselves as best they can. And yet when they come over for cocktails, it's perfectly acceptable to steer...

Martini glasses.(THE COMPLAINT)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THEY STARTED out sensible enough. A sturdy little stem to keep your warm fingers away from the cold cocktail. A restrained, four-ounce bowl--big enough to give you more than a couple of icy, invigorating sips but not...

Sex.(Man at His Best: The Instructions)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sometimes when I drink, it makes me last longer, occasionally so long that I have a hard time finishing. Other times, I'm so drunk, I can't get it up. How can I make sure I find the right balance? There's no...

Answer Fella: yodeling, ringing ears, sugar lust & pink slips.(Man at His Best: The Instructions)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Esquire's Answer Fella believes that there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who don't ask questions, fearing they'll look stupid. So ask Answer Fella anything. If he doesn't know the answer, he'll find out...

Don't just buy. Shop.(HOW TO SHOP)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WALK INTO almost any Louis Vuitton store and the first thing you'll see is luggage. Trunks, suitcases, and carryalls of infinite variety, the cornerstone of a vast leather-goods empire and catnip for the thinning...

For your workplace.(HOW TO SHOP)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [1 SUIT] * Check the seams on the inside of the jacket. If they're hand-sewn, you'll see one single thread running in a wavy pattern; if they're machine-sewn, you'll see two threads joined in a chainlike pattern. Handsewn stitches are...

The view from the floor: a former salesman's guide to shopping with success.(Man at His Best: Style)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Issue a challenge: Put the salespeople to work for you instead of just dismissing them with a curt "No!" Ask them to find your size, to color coordinate, and, one of the things that always irritates me, to take the pins out of dress shirts...

For your weekend.(HOW TO SHOP)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [1 LEATHER JACKET] * Good leather will look soft and supple, while cheap leather will look shiny and coated. * Check for a good lining. Cotton is best, but synthetics like rayon work, too. [2 SWEATER] * Check the label for...

10 things you don't know about women.(Brief article)(List)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1. Never wear skinny jeans. Looking like a fourteen-year old girl with a summer squash down her pants is not sexy. 2. You know what we find really sexy? When you write a thank-you note. That's right, baby,...

November 4, 2008: Atlanta.(journal)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ON NOVEMBER 4, 2008, I flew home after burying my mother in New York the day before. Her name was Frances Junod. She was ninety-two. She died on October 25. She was cremated. Her ashes were buried next to my...

Greenacastle, Indiana.(journal)
January 1, 2009... At 6:20, I rise. This is my way. I squint and stumble down the hallway. I go downstairs for a pee. I barely have my eyes open at times like this. Afterward, my dog stares at me, wanting a walk. "Don't look at me," I say "Just don't" I make her...

Glen Ridge, New Jersey.(journal)
January 1, 2009... I GET ON THE TURNPIKE in the afternoon, heading down to Philly, put on the radio, and tune in to the talkers on AM. Bad idea. Terrible. I understand they hate the kid--hate him maybe even beyond the show they're putting on. But the outright...

Skokie, Illinois.(journal)
January 1, 2009... MY WIFE AND I AGREED to wait until evening to vote, to take this one in together. I dropped her off at the Metra train. But I didn't go home. I drove to my old neighborhood, in Skokie, Illinois, about fifteen miles from where I live now. I...

New York.(journal)
January 1, 2009... THIS WAS MY ELECTION DAY, A friend who thinks I'm apathetic asked me if I had voted yet. Before I could answer, she answered for me: Oh, my God, you're not gonna vote, are you? Do you realize it's your civic duty, and it's a privilege? And on....

Newtonville, Massachusetts.(journal)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I didn't do much on Election Day 2008. I helped get the house ready for the folks who were coming over. I laid into the refrigerator a six-pack of Turbodog from the great Abita brewery in Louisiana and a twelve-pack...

The house that Esquire built.(ESQUIRE HOUSE: HOLLYWOOD HILLS)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Actually, architects from a California-based firm called TempleHome built it. But we teamed up with them, so we'll grab credit. With the help of renowned designers and luxury brands, we turned a $14 million,...

Clint Eastwood: California: actor, director, 78.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 states)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Born in San Francisco and raised throughout northern California, Eastwood attended Los Angeles City College under the G.I. Bill and served as mayor of Carmel from 1986 to 1988. * In the first place, I was taller...

Eminem: Michigan: rapper, 36.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 states)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Eminem still lives and records in Detriot. The title of his movie 8 Mile refers to the road that divides the city's poor and rich neighborhoods. He recently published an autobiographical book, The Way I Am. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] *...

Chuck Yeager: West Virginia: pilot: 85.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 states)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Yeager was born and raised outside Charleston, near the Kentucky border. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We didn't know if we could break the sound barrier. But it was our duty to try. That's the way I looked at it. Now you've got guys in...

Bill Richardson: New Mexico: governor, 61.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a congressman, Richardson once requested a government study of a strange hum emanating from Roswell. * After the campaign, I grew a beard as a rebellion against those consultants who told me I had to comb my...

Alice Cooper: Arizona: showman, 60.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Cooper lives in Phoenix, where he owns a sports bar that serves as two-foot hot dog called the Big Unit. * What most people don't understand is that UFOs are on a cosmic tourist route. That's why they're always seen in Arizona, Scotland,...

Warren Miller: Idaho: filmmaker: 84.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Miller has produced more than five hundred films, most about skiing. He made his first while living in a trailer in Sun Valley, In a hundred years, all new people. If I ask anybody who learned to ski after...

Paris Hilton: New York: blond, 27.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hilton was born in New York City and lived for part of her childhood at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. * There are definitely a lot of misconceptions about me out there. "Oh, she doesn't work. She doesn't do...

Cloris Leachman: Iowa: actress: 82.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Leachman was once a radio personality in her hometown of Des Moines. You never saw my best timing in Young Frankenstein. Because Gene Wilder would just crack up. We'd do it again and again and again, until we...

Steven Van Zandt: New Jersey: entertainer, 58.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Raised on the Jersey Shore, the E Street Band guitarist played Silvio Dante on HBO's Jersey-based Sopranos. * You gotta have cinnamon in your coffee. Pour it on. * The Super Bowl--they ask us every year,...

Larry Bird: Indiana: legend, 52.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Born and raised in French Lick, Bird starred at Indiana State and is now president of basketball operations for the Pacers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's been a journey, the NBA. It's taken me a lot farther than I ever expected. ...

Woody Harrelson: Hawaii: actor, 47.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Harrelson lives in rural Hawaii in a community that produces its own food and electricity. * When I had just started Cheers, my nerves were ajangle, to put it mildly. I was absolutely terrified. What you're learning is to not show the...

Philip Glass: Maryland: composer, 71.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Glass was born and raised in Baltimore. Glass Box, a recently released retrospective of his career, includes four decades of his music on ten CDs. * I always knew what I wanted to do and I did it. * A very...

Gus Vansant: Oregon: director: 56.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Van Sant lives in Portland, where he graduated from high school in 1971. Cooking for yourself is kind of strange. My father was a traveling salesman. He'd be gone for three or four days at a time. I remember...

Kimberly Roberts: Louisiana: survivor, 27.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Roberts, an aspiring rapper, stayed in her Ninth Ward home during Hurricane Katrina and filmed the storm with a twenty-dollar camcorder. A chance encounter with two filmmakers led to a documentary about Roberts's...

Harry Dean Stanton: Kentucky: actor, 82.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Stanton was born in West Irvine. His films include Alien, Repo Man, Pretty in Pink, Red Dawn, Cool Hand Luke, Wild at Heart, and Escape from New York. He stars in HBO's Big Love. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] That doormat? That doormat? It...

Dwight Schrute: Pennsylvania: salesman.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Schrute is the top salesman in the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin. You cannot buy farmers at a farmer's market. It's super-confusing. To me, success is simply the opposite of failure. Look people in...

John Goodman: Missouri: actor, 56.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Goodman was born and raised in Affton and attended Missouri State University on a football scholarship. * St. Louis was a world of kids. All playing. Playing in the rain. Playing till after the sun went down and you got called....

Wayne Newton: Nevada: singer, 66.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Newton's first Las Vegas performance. * A quick story about Sinatra. A contemporary of his, another singer, brought his new album to Frank one night and said, "Frank,...

Gerard Baker: South Dakota: keeper of Mount Rushmore: 55.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)
January 1, 2009... Baker became the monument's first American-Indian superintendent in 2004. What would you do if you were taken out of your house and sent to some foreign place? Not given the opportunity to speak your own language? In the early days,...

Charlie Daniels: North Carolina: singer, 72.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Daniels was born in Wilmington. His first home had no running water. * I got no axes to grind and nothing to hide. Anything you want to talk to me about, please do. You will not offend me, I promise you. * I am very pro-life. I am very...

Chuck Klosterman: North Dakota: writer, 36.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Klosterman grew up on a farm near Wyndmere and attended the University of North Dakota. His first book was Fargo Rock City. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There's no rivalry between North and South Dakota. I guess we kind of see ourselves as...

Dianne M. Keller: Alaska: mayor: 47.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Keller succeeded Sarah Palin as mayor of Wasilla in 2002. Her second and final term ended in October. I don't think Wasilla will ever be the same. If I could invite anyone who's ever lived to Wasilla for a day, it would probably be...

Lon Solomon: Virginia: pastor, 60.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Solomon leads the McLean Bible Church. To reach its fifteen thousand members, who include Senator Jim Inhofe, Kenneth Star, and Joe Gibbs, the church is adding ten satellite campuses. * My search began in earnest in 1969, when I first...

Brent Scowcroft: Utah: Elder statesman, 83.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scowcroft was born in Ogden, where his father's grocery business served the Mormon communities in northern Utah. * The end of the cold war marked a discontinuity in history. The cold war was a very difficult...

Luis Guzman: Vermont: actor, 52.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Guzman left his native New York for Vermont in 1995. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fourteen years now. I got 337 acres in one spot, and another spot with 127 acres, and I just got me another 109 acres. So I'm like the Boricua land baron of...

Gary Forester: Delaware: toll collector: 38.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Forester, a Wilmington resident, has worked on the Delaware Memorial Bridge for nineteen years. * You put your light on red, you put your cone out. We have a tunnel that runs under all thirteen lanes, and so the collector, if he has to use...

Jeb Bush: Florida: Republican, 55.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * This BlackBerry was in the portrait done when I left office. It was a symbol of how I worked. I received 550,000 personal e-mails when I was governor. * Imagine what it would be like to be Michael Jordan's son...

Wesley Clark: Arkansas General (Ret.): 64.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Clark lives and works in Little Rock, where he grew up. The Boys Club camp director was a former Army guy. One day, when I was a counselor, fourteen years old, he said, "I want all the counselors to the pool....

Rory Stewart: Massachusetts influencer: 35.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Stewart walked from Iran to Nepal, governed provinces in postwar Iraq, and founded a community-development group in Kabul. This month he becomes director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard. The...

Peter Fonda: Montana: actor, 68.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fonda has lived on a ranch in southern Montana since 1975. * I was born famous, so right off the bat, fame meant nothing to me. * I could dig the coolest, straightest ditch you ever saw, but the guys at the...

Phil Bredesen: Tennessee: governor, 65.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bredesen was mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999, and has served as governor since 2003. We asked Bredesen, an accomplished oil painter, for a self-portrait to accompany his interview. He had never done one...

Conor Oberst: Nebraska songwriter: 28.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Omaha native is one of the founders of local independent recording label Saddle Creek. * Airports, hotels, and rock clubs all kind of look the same. * I met Bill Murray a couple of weeks ago. He's exactly what you think. I was...

Chloe Sevigny: Connecticut: actress, 34.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Sevigny grew up in tony Darien but spent her high school weekends in Manhattan, where she met Kids writer Harmony Korine. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The umlaut isn't on my birth certificate. I had this book as a child called Chloe and...

Bode Miller: New Hampshire: ski racer: 31.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Miller was raised in a cabin with no running water in Franconia. People in New England keep things pretty simple. When you get old, it's hard to tell what's memory and what you've kind of created in your head...

Jim Brown: Ohio: athlete, 72.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Brown never missed never missed a game in his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, from 1957 to 1965. * People say, I'm seventy-two years young. My ass. I'm seventy-two years old. But you've got to live to get old. You can't get old...

Duane "Dog" Chapman: Colorado: bounty hunter, 55.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Chapman grew up in Denver and started his first bounty-hunting business there. * First of all, the word I used was the wrong word to use. I thought I was cool enough to be able to use slang words. I'm not. I met an eighty-five-year-old...

Toby Keith: Oklahoma: singer, 47.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Raised in Moore, Keith has "OU," for the University of Oklahoma, painted on the bottom on his hot tub. * When I started singing "Red, White and Blue," the lefties attacked me. And then the Right came in with...

Evander Holyfield: Georgia: boxer, 46.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While training at the Warren Memorial Boys Club in Southeast Atlanta, Holyfield earned extra money selling popcorn at Bravers and Falcons games. * Everything that I do I compare to boxing. * It takes just as...

Jess Jackson: South Carolina: public conscience, 67.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A former high school football star in Greenville, Jackson won the state's Democratic caucuses in 1984 and 1988. * Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters. * When I grew up in...

Rulon Gardner: Wyoming: wrestler: 37.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gardner won the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Olympics by beating Russian Alexander Karelin, who had been undefeated for thirteen years. In 2007, Gardner survived a small-plane crash, swimming in...

The Farrelly brothers: Rhode Island: directors, 50 (Bobby) and 52 (Peter).(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The brothers grew up ill Cumberland, which, like all of Rhode Island, Which is the name of one of their movies. * Bobby: It starts with Pete saying to me, "Hey, did you ever masturbate and you got your eyes...

George Johnson: Maine: lobsterman, 81.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Johnson still lives on the, same piece of property where he grew up, on Bailey Island. * I built this house in '56. I was scared of heights, so I shingled the roof after dark. * You wouldn't believe the...

Quincy Jones: Washington: producer: 75.(WHAT I'VE LEARNED: WISDOM from all 50 STATES)(Interview)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jones moved to Bremerton, a suburb of Seattle, when he was ten years old. You have to find your own joy, don't you? I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday,...