Ben Bradlee's new book, The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

I highly recommend my friend Ben Bradlee's new book, The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams. And because this is what authors and journalists do for each other, I have volunteered to tape a video clue for a contest being run by our mutual friend Scot Lehigh, a columnist for the Boston Globe. Here it is.

What we remember on Nov. 22

Does this one sentence, a quote from the nurse at Parkland Hospital, solve the mystery of what happened to Jackie's pink pillbox hat 50 years ago today?

"Some time later, Hinchliffe said, she learned that she had thrown away the pink pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore that day. It was with the flowers she removed from the president’s stretcher when he was wheeled into the hospital."

You can read the nurse's story in this piece from the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It's difficult to know what really happened in that chaos.

Though there remain many other mysteries from that awful day, what we do know is that Jackie, like her country, persevered. She raised her children, established a career as a book editor -- not for the money but because she enjoyed the intellectual stimulation -- and became a preservation activist to save important buildings such as Grand Central Terminal. Those more life-affirming aspects are always what I prefer to remember each Nov. 22, especially this one.

Jackie After O is Out in Paperback

My book came out in paperback today. The cover photo is by Ron Galella, the papparazzo who stalked Jacqueline Kennedy Onasiss for years. I'll be giving a talk at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca on April 18th to celebrate the soft cover and talk about Jackie's quest to find herself during the tumultuous year of 1975.

Jackie O's Role in Saving Grand Central Terminal

My latest post, on the Atlantic Cities blog, about what celebrities today could learn from Jackie O's fight to save Grand Central Terminal (which turns 100 this month).

Inaugural gowns

Besides the choices of Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, there's been a whole lot of frump that has happened on Inauguration night. This is a great gallery of the gowns worn over the last 50 years. What's your favorite?