Buying your parents’ house can seem like a good idea, but Mom and Dad may not like what you’ve done with the place.

The Hand-Me-Down Home

Tony Avent, a nurseryman in North Carolina, loves challenging assumptions about what plants can grow where.

The Plant Hunter

Lawmakers are keeping their distance from Goldman Sachs and its well-connected lobbyists.    

Goldman and Its Lobbyists Spurned in Fight on Bill

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s insult of a potential Labour voter, caught live on microphone, could cost his party votes.

In British Race, a Stray Remark
Haunts Brown

Germany’s exposure to Greek debt, estimated to be $37 billion by Barclays Capital, already exceeds the $11 billion the country would lend to Greece as part of an initial European Union bailout plan. 

Already Holding Junk, Germany Hesitates

A new project researches the remarkable trove of endangered tongues that have taken root in New York.

Listening to (and Saving) the World’s Languages

President Obama increased his administration’s role in the cleanup, while officials were concerned that the oil slick could reach shore as soon as Thursday evening.

White House Takes a Bigger Role in the Oil Spill Cleanup

Some of the city’s most captivating open houses these days are in theaters featuring plays and musicals set in New York apartments.

Now Onstage, Spaces to Lust For

The Colombian city that fueled the fiction of Gabriel García Márquez is embracing the famous author and spinning its surreal mystique into a modern destination.

Love and Cartagena

Germany needs to salvage Greece to stabilize the euro, and thus protect its own export industry. It’s a monetary strategy that has a lot in common with China’s.

Save Greece, Protect Germany

Federal regulators are moving to arrange mergers as several bank failures become likely.

Puerto Rican Lenders Face Their Own Crisis

The horrorcore group Insane Clown Posse has inspired Internet videos that poke fun at its music and fans.

Kidding the Clowns Online, but Who Will Laugh Last?

“Please Give” is Nicole Holofcener’s latest comic drama of spiky manners.

Holding Up a Mirror to Women, Thorns and All

Sherie Rene Scott’s “Everyday Rapture” is a smashing little show that reminds us of why so many of us keep going back to Broadway, even though it’s broken our heart so many times.

A Semi-Star Torn Between Two Superstars

With signs of a turnaround, the European Central Bank may have to raise interest rates to slow inflation, perhaps harming a recovery in Greece.

In Europe, a Delicate Decision on Rates

Cole Nahal and Garrett Bowser are coping with a down economy by staging old-fashioned “happenings” in other people’s apartments.

Two Designers Without Work Stage Roving Events

Corrections

The time may have come for the financial community and investors to put less emphasis on what ratings agencies say.

Ratings Agencies Are Overrated

Julia Roberts is still one of the world’s biggest stars, but these days the family comes along on the film shoots.

Mother and Mega-Star, Happily Balanced

The last of three co-op apartments owned by Walter Cronkite is sold.

A Studio Is Added to a ‘Cronkite Portfolio’

The Upper East Side apartment of Lynn Pressman Raymond is sold.

Toy Executive’s Apartment Sells

When American album sales for last year were tallied up, Taylor Swift edged out Susan Boyle, below, for the No. 1 spot.

Susan Boyle Tops Global Sales Chart

“The Kennedys,” the coming History channel mini-series, has found its lead actors to play the central members of the family. Greg Kinnear, top left, an Academy Award nominee for “As Good as It Gets,” will play John F. Kennedy; Barry Pepper, top right, (“Saving Private Ryan”) will play Robert F. Kennedy; Tom Wilkinson, above left, an Emmy Award winner for “John Adams,” will portray the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy; and Katie Holmes, right, (“Batman Begins,” “Dawson’s Creek”) will play Jacqueline Kennedy. The mini-series, produced by Joel Surnow, a creator of the Fox action series “24,” has been criticized by historians who were provided early drafts of the scripts by the filmmaker Robert Greenwald, who has made liberal-leaning documentaries. The historians said the scripts had historical inaccuracies and presented an unflattering picture of President Kennedy and his family. History plans to show the eight-hour mini-series next year.

Kennedy Casting Set for TV Mini-Series

Lawyers for Roman Polanski filed a motion seeking access to the sealed transcript of testimony by a prosecutor about a judge’s sentencing plan in the sex case against Mr. Polanski.

Polanski Lawyers Seek Prosecutor’s Testimony

The media conglomerate positive results, helped by cost cuts, may signal a recovery from weak advertising in the recession.

Viacom’s Profit Up 37% as Ads Return

Avigdor Arikha was a Romanian-born French–Israeli artist, printmaker and art historian.

April 29, 2010

Headlines from April 29, 2010

The Hand-Me-Down Home

The Plant Hunter

Goldman and Its Lobbyists Spurned in Fight on Bill

In British Race, a Stray Remark Haunts Brown

Already Holding Junk, Germany Hesitates

Billboard 200

My World 2.0

Congratulations

Need You Now

Raymond V Raymond

Year Of The Black Rainbow

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 29, 2010