New York Magazine August 24, 2015

1 "Should she win the U.S. Open next month," wrote Kerry Howley in her cover story on Serena Williams, "she will have swept all four grand slams in a calendar year, cementing her reputation as the greatest women's player of all time and making her a serious contender for the greatest athlete of her generation" (“The Unretiring Serena Williams,” August 10–24). Some readers used the article as a launchpad for their own assessment of Williams's storied career, arguing that the tennis star is chronically underestimated by the media and sports fans. "Like many people who are the best at something," wrote commenter sraw, "Serena doesn't get enough credit because she makes it look easy." Writing for the website Mic, Jamilah King argued that the photographs accompanying Howley's story were a…

AS THE REPUBLICAN-primary race moves into the fall, Donald Trump is exhibiting signs of becoming, if not a conventional candidate, at least a better-organized one. "I have a much more traditional campaign than people think," he told me on August 18, two days after his campaign released the first in a series of position papers he's set to unveil. The bar is low—anything beyond winging it would signal a more traditional campaign. Trump knows this. His inaugural paper, which calls for Mexico to pay for a border wall and America to eliminate birthright citizenship, is so extreme that it appears to mock the concept of position papers, which is partially the point. "I don't think the people care about it, because they believe in me," he said. Nonetheless, it has…

SOMEHOW, THIS SCRUBBY, tangled-looking root costs as much as a pretty good Swiss watch. Over the past decade, prices for wild ginseng—used both medically and superstitiously to treat an array of maladies—have been rising, and predictions for the 2015 harvest (beginning in September) indicate that they could reach as much as $1,400 per pound. Security cameras are scanning parklands; poaching is rampant; and diggers are starring in reality shows like Appalachian Outlaws and Smoky Mountain Money. CLINT RAINEY What exactly is ginseng? The roots of American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and its close Asian cousin (Panax ginseng) both have long-standing reputations as folk medicines, especially when harvested from wild plants. Studies have suggested that ginsenosides, the active ingredients in ginseng, can boost immunity and mood, reduce some cancer risk, and lower…

ON A MONDAY IN MID- August, 47-year-old Boris Becker is hobbling across the lobby of the Marriott in Mason, Ohio, where the pro-tennis caravan has pitched its tent for the last hard-court tune-up before the U.S. Open. If his shockingly reduced gait (owing to two hip replacements and a steel plate in his right ankle) is the cost of hurling his 215 pounds at passing shots like a goaltender, then it seems too high. But how do you set a fair price on seizing tennis immortality by winning Wimbledon at 17? Becker has been cooling his heels in Ohio for two days, waiting for Novak Djokovic, whom he coaches, to arrive from Montreal, but there's no hint of impatience; in fact, after nearly two decades of wandering in the wilderness,…

THIS INTERVIEW was condensed and edited from two conversations, the first conducted July 29 and the second August 7. We’re five months from the release of The Hateful Eight on December 25. How close to finishing are you? We've got a little bit more than an hour finished right now. I just got back from seeing an hour of the movie cut together. Are you happy with it? I'm not committing suicide yet. It is what it is. We're rushing and trying to get to the end. Then you go through it and try to make it even better. But first, you just get to the end. Every movie I've ever done, there has always been some date we were trying to meet, whether it was…

1 “The last really good one I got was on ‘Django.’ We were struggling with the length of the movie, and I cut out a section that I thought might move things along. Amy Pascal at Columbia was like, ‘In the script, wasn't there a scene where Schultz explains to Django the history of Siegfried and Brynhildr?' I go, ‘Yeah, I thought I could lose that.' She said, ‘No, I think that's kind of important.' So we tried it, and she was right. It was important. That was a good note.” 2 Tarantino at the box office:Reservoir Dogs (1992) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,832,029 Pulp Fiction (1994) . . . . . . . . . . . . .…