The great New York department stores were once "cathedrals of ... material aspiration". Now they're dying amid a sea of Gaps, Victoria's Secrets, Barnes & Nobles, and Starbuckses.

It took the Vatican 600 years to proclaim Joan of Arc a saint. Why, then, the rush for Mother Teresa?

Reviewed: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the invention of the electric chair.

See, this is why I love The Economist:

And you thought the British were a stodgy bunch.

Where's the beef? A tribute to the big men of the NFL.