March 12, 2012 Issue
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Cover Story
Best of New York 2012
Our obsessively vetted annual guide to the very best of everything this city has to offer�where to find New York’s most outstanding food, home help, shops and boutiques,
bars and entertainment, child’s play, and beauty and health meccas.
Inside, you’ll discover dumplings as chewy as soft pretzels, a showcase for rookie rappers on the rise, a one-stop vintage shop, a three-story hardware store that’s open all night, braided updos, chicken-raising classes, eyebrow makeovers, a Scandinavian play space, and much, much more.
Plus: See a slideshow of our cover contenders.
On the Cover: Steve Powers for ICY signs.
Features
�When in Doubt, Seduce�
At 80, director Mike Nichols is one of the rare EGOTs (an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winner). So why take on a high-stakes revival of Death of a Salesman? Because there are some stories�charming, dark, and charmingly dark�he still needs to tell. By Jesse Green
Unlucky 800
When John Liu was elected comptroller, he was embraced as a hero in his native Flushing. Now engulfed by a campaign-finance scandal, the first Asian-American to hold citywide office is vowing to clear his name. �I understand the stakes,� he says, �the risks of being who I am.� By Mark Jacobson
The Case(s) Against Law School
Law schools are churning out a record number of graduates at a time when the legal-job market has run dry. Are would-be lawyers just being naïve? Or, as a series of class-action suits allege, are they getting conned? By Matthew Shaer
Intelligencer
Brocelets Through the Ages
Bracelets are back in for dudes, fueling a surge in men's accessories that has forecasters predicting twenty-year sales highs.
The Martyr Wing
Olympia Snowe and the myth of the noble-but-marginalized centrists.
Middle School Is Just Like High School
Teacher-score scuttlebutt.
The Neighborhood News
Our roundup of news from around the city.
63 Minutes With Jack Dorsey
Between meetings with the founder of Twitter and Square, who says cashless is nothing�he wants to get past plastic too.
Columns
Wait Until Next Year. Or Next. Or �
Thanks to the Wilpon-Madoff mess, Mets fans could be in for an ugly drought.
Culture
The Wider Lens
What makes Mad Men great? Not period details or plot twists.
The Special Relationship
Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss explain the Don-Peggy dynamic.
I Can See Alaska From My Backyard
Julianne Moore didn’t just play Sarah Palin�she fell for her.
Mark Who’s Hardly Ever Home
Actor-director-writer-producer Mark Duplass is having a very busy 2012.
The Movie Review
Friends With Kids is the best breeder movie in years.
The Art Review
The Whitney Biennial’s curators consider the post-crash afterlife.
Agenda
The Big Piroshki
After establishing a restaurant empire in Moscow, Andrey Dellos has infiltrated the Russian Tea Room’s midtown turf.
Departments
Comments: Week of March 12, 2012
Readers sound off on the Republican primary, gay history, and more.
The Approval Matrix: Week of March 12, 2012
Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.
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