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from: Paula Throckmorton-Zakaria
to: Fareed Zakaria

The "Home" Section

Posted Friday, March 15, 2002, at 11:08 AM ET

Who are these people?

Dear Fareed:

I saw the newspaper today and—what can I say?—I felt brilliant. There is a story on the effects of the Palestinian conflict on residents. One doctor recommends valium for dogs. Now, that is stress. Either the dog is really beside himself or the people are so on edge, they just can't take one more thing.

Yesterday, I nearly wrote you another e-mail about the paper, but it was too depressing. Terrorism has really put a damper on good gossip. Even the New York Post has no juice. I couldn't tell you where Ron Perelman's last child went to school. And, it was Thursday, which is always a downer because of the "Home" section. I go to that section looking for a little pick-me-up, sort of the same way I go to the lipstick counter hoping that there will be a life-changing shade of mauve for over $20 dollars. And every week I find myself staring at some modernist drivel. In this week's "Home" section there was an article on plastic furniture accompanied by a photograph of a clear couch with plastic buttons, or pimples, or something.

I want to send that section a list of great story ideas. For example, why do people who are never home spend so much money on their kitchens? Single investment banker? $120,000 kitchen. Twenty years ago, he would have hired a cook. Or, why not do an article on the 10 best blocks to live on if you have $10 million, five million, one million, or $100,000 (that block is in Staten Island).

Paula

the breakfast table
entries
1234567891011
from: Paula Throckmorton-Zakaria
to: Fareed Zakaria

The "Home" Section

Posted Friday, March 15, 2002, at 11:08 AM ET
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Fareed Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International and the author of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. Paula Throckmorton-Zakaria designs jewelry and writes occasionally for the Wall Street Journal and other publications. She was president and publisher of the Black Book, a photography journal and sourcebook based in New York.
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