A letter by George Washington fetched more than $3.2 million at a New York City auction, setting what auction house Christie's says is a world record price for a letter by the first president.
Washington's 1787 letter to a nephew argues for ratification of the newly drafted Constitution.
The buyer at Christie's auction Friday was not identified. The previous record for a Washington letter was $834,500 in 2002.
Earlier, a handwritten poem by Edgar Allan Poe titled "For Annie" sold for $830,500, a world record for a 19th-century literary manuscript. The poem was estimated to sell for $50,000 to $70,000. Also by Poe, a rare first edition of his first book "Tamerlane and Other Poems" sold for $662,500, the highest price ever paid for a 19th-century book of poetry.
----
On the Net: http://www.christies.com
Gail Collins started her new book, "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present," before the historic year of the woman, 2008, when female politicians like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin rose and fell and (in both cases, in different ways) rose again. Authors never know if the topics they choose will still be fascinating and important months or years later, when their books are published, but in Collins' case, the Gods of Publishing Relevance smiled on her.
I got to talk to Collins as part of my debut on Bloggingheads.tv, and you can see most clips of it here. The book opens on the eve of 1960, with the story of Lois Rabinowitz, a secretary who happened to wear slacks to pay a ticket for her boss, and found herself chided by the judge for disrespect. "When Everything Changed" grabs your almost certainly pantsed self right there, and makes you promise to give the book to all the young women in your life this holiday season. It closes with the so-called Year of the Woman, 2008, when Clinton and Palin cracked part of the glass ceiling for women in politics, but left plenty more for women to come, if they dare.
Looking over Collins' dizzying panorama, it's hard to believe women moved so far so fast, and still remain so far from full equality. I talked to Collins about why she thought she started the book the same year the terrific writers of "Mad Men" began their series. Short answer: the pill. Longer answer: Well, watch it.
We talked about how rare it is to see the struggles, and different priorities, of black, working-class and other non-white women depicted in a mainstream book on the women's movement:
I asked whether Collins felt like history was repeating itself in the 2008 Clinton vs. Obama Democratic Primary, in terms of feminists fighting with advocates of racial equality over who got to go first, black men or (mostly white) women:
Finally, in the lightning round: Is Sarah Palin a feminist? Which was more influential, "The Feminine Mystique" or "Sex and the Single Girl"? The biggest feminist legislative defeat: ERA or Comprehensive Child Development Act? And why Billie Jean King is an underappreciated feminist hero:
Unfortunately, it seems that whether it's on the Internet or in real life, Godwin's Law always finds a way to prove itself again. People manage to use Nazi and Holocaust references in the most poorly considered of ways, as if they're unaware of the true horror that was the slaughter of millions of innocent people.
That sort of thing has been happening all too frequently during protests against Democratic healthcare reform plans, and one of the more shocking examples was on display at the protest on Capitol Hill Thursday: A banner that featured a picture of naked, emaciated bodies stacked in a pile, with text reading, "National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany -- 1945."
Now, someone with credibility on the issue that's all too real has spoken out against these comparisons. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author, put out a statement through his foundation's Twitter account. It reads simply, "Elie Wiesel on the GOP Tea Party's anti-Semitism and Holocaust comparisons: 'This kind of political hatred is indecent and disgusting.'"
(Hat-tip to Wonkette.)
The Feel-Bad Movie of the Year: The Road 
Best Advice on Your 1st Novel, Pt. 6; Thanksgiving Edition 
Jodi vs. Mrs. Beeton - Failure Tastes Victorian