Fast Food That Won the West

How Fred Harvey's whistle-stop restaurants in cowboy country helped build a business empire.

• Excerpt: 'Appetite for America'

Books About Scandals

Now it can be told: Henry E. Scott reveals his favorite books about scandals.

'The Falling Raindrop'

Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews Neil Johnson and Joel Chin's "The Falling Raindrop," a picture book (for children ages 4 to 8) about the adventures of a single bit of precipitation.

Reality Bites

Reality television was no match this week for the real-life drama on display by Democratic congressmen Eric Massa and Patrick Kennedy.

'Greenberg': Losers' Winning Love Story

"Greenberg" scintillates with intelligence, razor's-edge humor and austere empathy for its struggling lovers, while Stieg Larsson's pierced and piercing heroine makes for an indelible "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."

• Clips: 'Greenberg' | 'Repo Men'
• 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

Some Formerly Famous Faces

Two new Broadway plays evoke dearly departed celebs: Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped" and Zero Mostel in "Zero Hour." Neither gets beyond skin-deep impressions.

A Return to Grace

Two new churches designed by Duncan Stroik avoid the modern designs and ersatz-traditional schlock of recent years and return to a more traditional Roman Catholic architecture.

• Photos: Two Churches by Duncan Stroik

In So Many Wonderlands

Which 'Wonderland' is best? David Mermelstein looks at the many film interpretations of the Lewis Carroll classic, including Tim Burton's latest.

• Joe Morgenstern: 'Alice': Half a Wonderland
• Clip: Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'

Songs for Kellys and Cohens

Two recent albums by musician and scholar Mick Moloney celebrate Irish and Jewish life in late-19th-century New York.

• Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?
• McNally's Row of Flats

Happy Halladay's in Philadelphia

Will Roy Halladay, arguably the best pitcher in baseball today, finally get a chance to pitch in the postseason?

Michelangelo: The Frugal Genius

A notorious miser, the Italian artist drew on every piece of scrap he could find, working out visual ideas as well as, yes, poetic verses.

• Photos: From the Mind of Michelangelo

Philly's Big 5, in a Class by Itself

As we enter March Madness, some historic and intense rivalries will get no television play. But the competition is furious, and "every game is like going to the Final Four."

• Printable: NCAA Men's Bracket

Rescuers, Not Invaders

The strange history of failed attempts to resist Islam's spread.

• Read an excerpt: 'The Crusades'| 'Holy Warriors'