Patrick J. Sauer Online

What if I told you there was once an American businessman so powerful that the powers-that-be helped him overthrow a government just to keep him happy? And what if I told you this forgotten titan of industry made his fortune from the same fruit you cut up and drop in your Rice Krispies?

Zemurray isn't a household name like Rockefeller, Ford, Jobs, or Buffet, but I dare say the Banana Man is the most interesting of the lot. A true American original, the Horatio Alger of the Cavendish set. I spoke with the great Rich Cohen, author of "The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King." It's an amazing story that touches on the every aspect of the American century. I guarantee you will never look at the simple banana--technically, a berry, who knew?--in the same way again.

A few weeks ago, I was working on a piece for the New York Times about the Miami Heat win streak. Odds are, it wouldn't have run, but the thought of finally cracking the Times code and seeing my byline in the paper of record made my head spin.

Carlos Boozer had to go and ruin everything. Couldn't be Derek Rose, or even Joakim Noah, had to be the guy that once went to landlord mattresses against Prince.

BOOZER! (Props to Leol  Dang, though. That dude is legit.)

Here's the annotated version, complete with Ft. Greene's neighborhood drug dealer offering me cocaine as a consolation.

I had the good fortune of speaking with Christa Parravani and Leigh Newman, respective authors of Her and Still Points North. 

Her is the haunting memoir of Parravani losing her identical twin sister Cara to a heroin overdose, fait accompli after she suffered a brutally violent rape. In the aftermath of Cara's death, Christa starts to take on her sister's self-destructive identity. Her is a horrible story beautifully told.

Still Points North is Newman's loving ode to her favorite state--the one that ain't in the lower 48--and the city of Baltimore. After her parents divorce, Newman led two different lives, one in the bear-infested Alaskan wilderness, the other in Charm City prep schools. 5,000 miles apart, her head and heart were never at peace. Years later, it almost cost her the love of her life. Feisty and funny, Still Points North is as refreshing as the water in the Kenai River. 

Both authors were open and engaging. This Biographile gig is very cool. Here then, Q&As with two lovely literary ladies.

(FYI: it's worth checking out the HuffPo comments section for this piece. There's a number of notes from veterans and parents of wounded soldiers.)

(Photo copyright @Nina Berman. All rights reserved.)  

No matter what new technologies develop, singular photos always seem to provide the lasting images that sum up wars on the whole. Matthew Brady's shots at Antietam brought the horror and carnage of the Civil War home, the V-J Day "Kiss" captured the euphoria and relief of the end of the "good war," and the terrifying "Napalm Girl" displayed the barbarity of modern weaponry unleashed on a civilian populace.