Jackie Mason "Middle finger" incident (1964) What was this incident about? Mason allegedly gave host Ed Sullivan the finger on air. What happened because of this? Sullivan was clearly infuriated by this, and banned Mason from future appearances on the show, Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial TV work for the next two decades. Was he able to work elsewhere? Mason was given a single comeback appearance on Sullivan's TV program two years later, and Sullivan publicly apologized to him, Did that help his reputation? Sullivan publicly apologized to him, but the damage was done. At that time, Where did he go from there? Mason later appeared on the show five times: What else did he do? Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial TV work for the next two decades.
What other facts in the article stand out to you?
Besides Mason was branded as unreliable,volatile and obscene,failing to get TV works,what other facts in the article stand out to you?
On October 18, 1964, in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mason allegedly gave host Ed Sullivan the finger on air. Footage of the incident shows Mason in the middle of doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, who had placed himself directly behind the camera, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him. Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by holding up two fingers) that he had only two minutes left, and to cut his act short, as the program was about to cut away due to having been partly pre-empted by an impromptu speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson that the show carried. Mason--clearly distracted--began working his own fingers into his act to make fun of the situation, and pointed toward Sullivan with an index finger, a thumb, but not (as Sullivan mistakenly believed) his middle finger. Sullivan was clearly infuriated by this, and banned Mason from future appearances on the show, canceling Mason's $45,000 ($355,000 in current dollar terms), six-appearance contract. Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger; he later said that he had not heard of the middle finger gesture at that time. To clear his name, Mason filed a libel suit on the grounds that Sullivan had defamed him at the New York Supreme Court. That court dismissed most of Mason's complaint. Both Mason and Sullivan appealed to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division (which reinstated three additional causes of action against Sullivan) in June 1966. He was nevertheless banned from the show for a period of time. Sullivan asserted that Mason was unpredictable and could not be trusted. Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial TV work for the next two decades. There was no ruling on the merits, merely a determination that Mason's suit could proceed and that he would be given an opportunity to prove his claim. Mason was given a single comeback appearance on Sullivan's TV program two years later, and Sullivan publicly apologized to him, but the damage was done. At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, "It is a great thrill ... and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again." Mason later appeared on the show five times: April 23, 1967; February 25, 1968; November 24, 1968; July 22, 1969; and August 31, 1969. Mason later said: "It took 20 years to overcome what happened in one minute". CANNOTANSWER
He was nevertheless banned from the show for a period of time. Sullivan asserted that Mason was unpredictable and could not be trusted.
Jackie Mason (born Yacov Moshe Maza; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an American stand-up comedian and film and television actor.

His 1986 one-man show The World According to Me! won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ace Award, an Emmy Award, and earned a Grammy nomination. Later, his 1988 special Jackie Mason on Broadway won another Emmy Award (for outstanding writing) and another Ace Award, and his 1991 voice-over of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown" won Mason a third Emmy Award. He wrote and performed six one-man shows on Broadway.

Known for his delivery and voice, as well as his use of innuendo and pun, Mason's often culturally grounded humor was described as irreverent and sometimes politically incorrect.<ref name=autogenerated2>Zeke Jarvis (2015). Make 'em Laugh! American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries: American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries Make 'em Laugh! American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries]</ref> A critic for Time magazine wrote that, throughout his career, Mason spoke to audiences: "... with the Yiddish locutions of an immigrant who just completed a course in English. By mail."

Early life
Jackie Mason was born Yacov Moshe Maza on June 9, 1928 (according to the 1940 NYC census), in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth and last son (and only son born in the United States) in a family of six children of strict Orthodox Jews. Mason came from a long line of rabbis, which included his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his great-great grandfather."A Mason by any Other Name," Jewish Book World (2006).

His father Eli Maza and his mother, Belle (Gitlin), were born in Minsk, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s with the rest of Mason's family; his father died in 1959. A Jewish refugee organization helped his father find a position in Sheboygan, as it needed a rabbi. When Mason was five years old, his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, largely so that he and his siblings could pursue a yeshiva education, where he grew up on Henry Street, Rutgers Street, and Norfolk Street.Ken Gross (February 23, 1987). "Too Much of a Ham to Remain a Rabbi, Broadway's Jackie Mason is Now the Toast of the Town", People There, his parents and their friends all spoke Yiddish.

As a teenager, Mason worked as a busboy at resorts in the Borscht Belt in New York's Catskill Mountains. He recalled: "Twenty minutes, at the Pearl Lake Hotel. I broke all the dishes. They made me a lifeguard. 'But I can't swim', I told the owner. 'Don't tell the guests', he says."

In 1953 Mason graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in his double major of English and sociology from the City College of New York.Joseph Dorinson (2015), Kvetching and Shpritzing: Jewish Humor in American Popular Culture, McFarland At age 18 he became a cantor, and at age 25 he received semikhah from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and was ordained a rabbi (as his three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been). He led congregations in Weldon, North Carolina, and at Beth Israel Congregation in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.Adam Reinherz. "End of an era; Soon all that will remain will be Beth Israel's history legacy", The Jewish Chronicle He said that in synagogue, "I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot of gentiles would come to the congregation just to hear the sermons." Three years later, after his father died, he resigned from his job as a rabbi in a synagogue to become a comedian because, he said, "Somebody in the family had to make a living.""All About ... Jackie Mason", Jackie Mason; The Official Site, Retrieved July 14, 2014

Career

Early years
Mason wrote most of his own material. A sampling of his humor is his commentary on doctors: "That's a great profession, a doctor. Where else can you ask a woman to get undressed and then send the bill to her husband?" And his commentary on what is important in life: "Money is not important. Love is important. Fortunately, I love money." As well as his ruminations on pleasing people: "You can't please everyone. I have a girlfriend. I think she's the most wonderful person in the world. That's to me. But to my wife ..."Aubrey J. Sher, The Stand-Up Comedy Festival: Send In The Clowns And on trust: "My grandfather always said that I shouldn't watch my money. That I should watch my health. So while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather." And on fidelity: "Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."

He was a comedian at the Fieldston Hotel in Swan Lake, New York, in the summer of 1955. Mason was let go because his act was considered too far ahead of its time. The patrons had not been exposed to a comic who seemed to be ridiculing them. A few years later, Don Rickles came along, but at that point audiences had become open to this type of humor throughout the Borscht Belt. He adopted his stage name after appearing on the Barry Gray radio show. He performed at New York City nightclubs (where he was earning as much as $10,000 ($ in current dollar terms) a week), and on The Steve Allen Show, his first national TV appearance, in 1962, and the Tonight Show with Steve Allen, as well as on The Perry Como Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Garry Moore Show. The William Morris Agency advised him in 1962 to take elocution lessons so that he could shed his heavy Yiddish accent, but he refused.

Mason made several appearances as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s. He claimed to have been on the episode which featured the American television debut of the Beatles, although research does not bear this fact out. Mason revealed during his appearance on the BBC show Desert Island Discs, in March 2012, that at the time he did not think much of the group, referring to them as "four kids in search of a voice who needed haircuts". In 1962 he came out with his initial LP record, a best-seller entitled I'm the Greatest Comedian in the World, Only Nobody Knows It Yet, followed by I Want to Leave You with the Words of a Great Comedian.Bob Rolontz (August 10, 1963)."Clay Talks a Nice Fight Disk," Billboard

In the Desert Island Discs interview, he also related how Frank Sinatra and a group of others once came to his show in Las Vegas and Sinatra started heckling his act. Mason made uncomplimentary comments to Sinatra until he "and his whole group" left. When asked whether he thought it was naïve to do that, given Sinatra's connections with "the Mob", Mason said, "No, I said to myself...what could they do me?" He went on to describe how shots were later fired into his room which cracked all the windows. The police did not pursue an investigation.

"Middle finger" incident (1964)
On October 18, 1964, in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mason allegedly gave host Ed Sullivan the finger on air. Footage of the incident shows Mason in the middle of doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, who had placed himself directly behind the camera, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him. Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by holding up two fingers) that he had only two minutes left, and to cut his act short, as the program was about to cut away due to having been partly pre-empted by an impromptu speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson that the show carried.

Mason began working his own fingers into his act to make fun of the situation and pointed toward Sullivan with an index finger, a thumb, but not, as Sullivan mistakenly believed, his middle finger. Sullivan was infuriated by this, and banned Mason from future appearances on the show, canceling Mason's six-appearance contract worth $45,000 (). Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger; he later said that he had not heard of the middle finger gesture at that time.

To clear his name, Mason filed a libel suit on the grounds that Sullivan had defamed him at the New York Supreme Court. That court dismissed most of Mason's complaint. Both Mason and Sullivan appealed to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division (which reinstated three additional causes of action against Sullivan) in June 1966.Barry Avrich (2016). Moguls, Monsters, and Madmen: An Uncensored Life in Show Business

Mason was nevertheless banned from the show for a period of time. Sullivan asserted that Mason was unpredictable and could not be trusted. Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial television work for the next two decades. 

Mason was given a single comeback appearance on Sullivan's television program two years later, and Sullivan publicly apologized to him, but the damage was done. At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, "It is a great thrill ... and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again." Mason later appeared on the show five times: April 23, 1967; February 25, 1968; November 24, 1968; July 22, 1969; and August 31, 1969. Mason later said: "It took twenty years to overcome what happened in one minute".

1965–1985

In 1969, Mason made his Broadway theater debut as Jewish widower Nat Weiss in the comedy play A Teaspoon Every Four Hours, which he wrote with Mike Mortman. It held the Broadway record of 97 previews and closed after its official opening performance (a preview record succeeded by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark with its 182 previews prior to opening). He also appeared in the films The Jerk (1979) and History of the World, Part I (1981).

1986–2011
In 1986, Mason made a triumphant return to Broadway in the two-year run of The World According to Me! which ran for 367 performances in its first run and 203 performances in its second run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, his first of several one-man theatrical shows.Dan Dietz (2016). The Complete Book of 1990s Broadway Musicals It was well received both by critics and the public; Frank Rich, the sometimes harsh reviewer of The New York Times, wrote: "So sue me ... Mason was very, very funny". It won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ace Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy nomination.Romi Oliverio (September 21, 2009). "Jackie Mason's One-Man Show, 'No Holds Barred', To Play Los Angeles' Wadsworth Theatre", Broadway World His special Jackie Mason on Broadway won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and an Ace Award.

Mason starred in the movie Caddyshack II (1988), where his character had the same surname, Hartounian, as his character in The Jerk. In 1990 and 1991, Mason again was on Broadway, this time with his successful two-act show Brand New, which ran for 216 performances at the Neil Simon Theatre, and won him his second Outer Critics Circle Award. Critic Clive Barnes of the New York Post praised the "brilliant" comic and his "totally new from top to tuchis" humor. Critic Mel Gussow of The New York Times remarked on the "exact meeting" between performance and material in which Mason engaged in a comic attack on everyone, including himself, cutting them all down to size.

In 1992, Mason won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his voice-over of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown", making him the first guest star to win an Emmy for his role. Mason also appeared in The Simpsons episodes "Today I Am a Clown", "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", "At Long Last Leave", and "Clown in the Dumps"; the last episode focuses upon Rabbi Krustofski's death and its effects on his son, Krusty the Clown.

One of his Broadway shows, his two-act Politically Incorrect (1994–95) ran for 347 performances at Broadway's John Golden Theater. Critic John Simon of Time wrote: "His method is hyperbole and reductio ad absurdum, but always informed by bitter reason. His irony is a spotlight illuminating our absurdities; his zingers are scalpels laying bare the sickness under the skin. There is a unifying thrust, a focus, a structure: an attack on both liberal hypocrisy and conservative apathy, and on the climate of political correctness that makes it impossible to attack anyone but WASPs. ... Mason is a true satirist in the mold of ... Mark Twain . ... " It was performed during the same period that Bill Maher's late-night, half-hour political TV talk show Politically Incorrect was on the air. Maher brought a lawsuit against Mason's production, which was dismissed as frivolous. Mason was able to use this show title, and it is one of his most successful road productions. Between these shows, Mason played the lead in a short-lived television interfaith sitcom called Chicken Soup alongside Lynn Redgrave.

Mason also put on the Broadway one-man shows Love thy Neighbor (1996–97) which ran for 225 performances at the Booth Theatre (critic Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times described Mason's routines as "roaringly funny"), Much Ado About Everything (1999–2000) which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run in London) and ran for 183 performances at the John Golden Theatre (in this effort Van Gelder described Mason as "convulsing audiences"), Prune Danish (2002; nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event), Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed (2005; for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance), and The Ultimate Jew (2008)."Just the Facts: List of 2003 Tony Award Winners", Playbill

In a 2005 poll to find the Comedian's Comedian, Mason was voted #43 among the top-50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was also ranked #63 in "Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time". He holds the record for the longest-running one-man show in Broadway history and the longest-running stand-up show in the history of London's West End.

His full-length courtroom dramedy motion picture One Angry Man was released in 2010 throughout the US and Canada. Mason's most recent film Jackie Goldberg: Private Dick (2011) was a direct-to-DVD production, released by FilmWorks Entertainment.

Political views
A longtime Democrat, Mason was a registered Republican by 2007. He had spoken out in defense of Donald Trump.

Mason was an admirer of Rabbi Meir Kahane. He openly endorsed Kahane's plan to pay Israeli Arabs unwilling to accept Israeli sovereignty to emigrate. He also served as the honored speaker at a fundraising event for a yeshiva founded by Kahane.

In January 2001, Mason co-founded the organization One Jerusalem in response to the Oslo peace agreement. Its stated cause is "Maintaining a united Jerusalem as the un-divided capital of Israel."

Controversies
In 1991, Mason was criticized by African-American organizations such as the NAACP when he called New York City mayor David Dinkins "a fancy schvartze with a moustache". (Schvartze means black person in Yiddish.) Mason later apologized. In 2009, Mason referred to Barack Obama as a schvartze during one of his stand-up routines, which prompted members of the audience to walk out.

In 2003, Mason co-wrote an article that advised Israeli leaders to threaten the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. Mason and Raoul Felder wrote, "We have paralyzed ourselves by our sickening fear of World Opinion, which is why we find it impossible to face one simple fact: We will never win this war unless we immediately threaten to drive every Arab out of Israel if the killing doesn't stop."

On 2006, Mason filed a lawsuit against the group Jews for Jesus for using his likeness in a pamphlet. His image was used next to the tagline "Jackie Mason ... a Jew for Jesus!?" Mason said in court papers filed in New York: "While I have the utmost respect for people who practice the Christian faith, the fact is, as everyone knows, I am as Jewish as a Matzah ball or kosher salami." Mason asserted that the group was using his image and fame to gain attention and converts. The group responded to the suit by saying, "Shame on him for getting so upset about this." The lawsuit was settled in 2006, with Jews for Jesus apologizing.

In 2012, Mason said that a friend at the time, Kaoru Suzuki-McMullen, attacked him while leaving his apartment on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Suzuki-McMullen said she was attacked by Mason, but she was arrested. Both sides agreed to drop the matter and all charges were dropped against Suzuki-McMullen.

Personal life
On August 14, 1991, Mason married his then-37-year-old manager Jyll Rosenfeld.

Sheba Mason, born in 1985, is the daughter of Jackie Mason. She is also a comedian.

Death
Mason died on July 24, 2021, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for over two weeks.

Many celebrities and other notable figures mourned Mason's death. Gilbert Gottfried called him "one of the best." Fox News personality Sean Hannity remarked that he was "irreverent, iconoclastic, funny, smart and a great American patriot." Actor Henry Winkler tweeted that Mason put on "truly one of the funniest shows I have ever seen .. ever .. thank you Jackie and now you get to make heaven laugh."

Works
Selected TV, film and radio roles
Source:The Ed Sullivan Show (1961–1968) – frequent guest appearancesArchived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – gas station attendantSleeper (1973) – Voice of robot tailor (uncredited)Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: The Stoolie (1974) – Roger Pitman
 The Jerk (1979) – Harry Hartounian
 History of the World, Part I (1981) – Jew #1

 Caddyshack II (1988) – Jack Hartounian
 Chicken Soup (1989) – Jackie Fisher 
 The Simpsons – Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in ten episodes:
 "Like Father, Like Clown" (1991)
 "Today I Am a Clown" (2003)
 "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" (2009)
 "Treehouse of Horror XXII" (2011)
 "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" (2011)
 "At Long Last Leave" (2012)
 "Clown in the Dumps" (2014)
 "The Nightmare After Krustmas" (2016)
 "Flanders' Ladder" (2018)
 "Woo-Hoo Dunnit?" (2019)
 The Fairly OddParents episode "Beddy Bye/The Grass Is Greener" (2003) – Harvey Sandman a.k.a. The Sandman, a.k.a. The Mattress King
 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – The Quandary Phase (2005) – The East River Creature
 The Jackie Mason Show (2005–11) – Host (originally aired on CN8: The Comcast Network; repeats currently airing on JLTV)
 30 Rock episode "The Collection" (2007) – himself (small guest appearance)
 The Drinky Crow Show episode "Aspire" (2009) – Mort Cooper
 One Angry Man (2010) – Jackie Mason
 Jackie Goldberg: Private Dick/ Goldberg – P.I.  (2011) – Jackie Goldberg
 Answer Me This! Episode 206 (2012) – Jackie Mason
 Graham Norton BBC Radio 2 Show (2012) – Jackie Mason
 When Comedy Went to School (2013) – Jackie Mason

Television specialsJackie Mason's The World According to Me! (1988)An Audience with Jackie Mason (1990)Jackie Mason on Campus (1992)Jackie Mason at the London Palladium (1996)Jackie Mason: A Night at the Opera (2002)

One-man showsJackie Mason's The World According to Me! (1986–1988)Jackie Mason: Brand New (1990–1991)Jackie Mason: Politically Incorrect (1994–1995)Love Thy Neighbor (1996–1997)Much Ado About Everything (1999–2000)Jackie Mason: Prune Danish (2002–2003)Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed (2005–2006)Jackie Mason: The Ultimate Jew (2008)Jackie Mason: Fearless (2012)

Books
 Jackie Mason. Jackie Mason's America. Carol Publishing Group, 1983.
Jackie Mason. Jackie, Oy!: The Frank, Outrageously Funny Autobiography of Jackie Mason. Robson, 1988.
 Jackie Mason, Ira Berkow. How to Talk Jewish. Macmillan, 1991.
 Jackie Mason and Raoul Lionel Felder. Schmucks!: Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and the Dangerous, and Good Guys Gone Bad. Harper Collins, 2009. 

Video blogging
Mason appeared in over 200 self-written video blog entries on YouTube, in which he gave his opinions on current events and politics. He also experimented with podcasting, and in February 2012 appeared on the cult British podcast Answer Me This!, to promote his West End stand-up show, Fearless.

Legacy
Mason received a special Tony Award in 1987 for The World According to Me!.

Mason won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program for his 1988 HBO special The World According to Me! (also known as Jackie Mason on Broadway). He also won a 1992 Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as Rabbi Krustofsky on The Simpsons, shared with five of the show's regular cast members.

In DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' animated cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, the Aardvark's voice was performed by John Byner as an imitation of Mason.

References

External links

 
 
 Official website archived at the Wayback Machine
 1987 KCRW Radio interview with Bob Claster
 2007 interview (transcription) on Air America Radio
 
 "The Jewish World According to Jackie Mason" March 2020 Jewish News'' article
 Jackie Mason at Find a Grave

1928 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
American Orthodox rabbis
American stand-up comedians
Angel Records artists
Burials at Beth David Cemetery
CableACE Award winners
City College of New York alumni
Columbia Records artists
Comedians from New York (state)
Jewish American male actors
Jewish American male comedians
Male actors from New York (state)
Male actors from Wisconsin
New York (state) Republicans
People from Sheboygan, Wisconsin
People from the Lower East Side
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Special Tony Award recipients
Verve Records artists
Warner Records artists
21st-century American Jews
Karen A. Page (born May 8, 1962, in Warren, Michigan) along with her husband Andrew Dornenburg, is a James Beard Award-winning author of a number of culinary-themed books. Among their books are  Becoming a Chef (1995; 2003, 2nd ed.), Culinary Artistry (1996), Dining Out (1998), Chef's Night Out (2001), The New American Chef (2003), What to Drink With What You Eat (2006), The Flavor Bible (2008), The Food Lover's Guide to Wine (2011), and The Vegetarian Flavor Bible (2014).

Page married Andrew Dornenburg in 1990; the couple lives in New York City.

Awards
Received Completion Medal for the Montreal International Marathon, 1990.
Received the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Best Writing on Food for Becoming a Chef, 1996.
Received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Dining Out, 1998.
Received Completion Medal for the New York City Marathon, 1998.
Named Finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Book Award for Dining Out, 1999.
Named Finalist for the James Beard Book Award for Dining Out, 1999.
Named Finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Book Award for The New American Chef, 2004.
Named honorary Culinary Ambassador at The Culinary Institute of America, 2006.
Received the Georges Duboeuf "Wine Book of the Year" Award for What to Drink with What You Eat, 2006.
Received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for What to Drink with What You Eat, 2006.
Received the International Association of Culinary Professionals "Best Book on Wine, Beer or Spirits" Award for What to Drink with What You Eat, 2007.
Received the International Association of Culinary Professionals "Book of the Year" Award for What to Drink with What You Eat, 2007.
Received the James Beard Book Award for The Flavor Bible, 2009.
Received the Nautilus Book Award for The Flavor Bible, 2010.
The Flavor Bible named one of "The 10 Best Cookbooks in the World of the last 100 years" by Alex Munipov in Forbes, April 2011.
Received the 2011 Gourmand Wine Book Award - USA for The Food Lover's Guide to Wine, December 2011.
The Food Lover's Guide to Wine named "The #1 Wine Book of the Year" as chosen by 195 "best of" lists (including those of the Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, LA Weekly, Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Vancouver Sun, and Wall Street Journal) compiled by the website Eat Your Books, December 2011.
The Food Lover's Guide to Wine named "Best in the World" in its category at the 2011 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris, March 2012.
The Food Lover's Guide to Wine one of three books named a Finalist for the 2012 IACP Book Award in the category of "Wine, Beer or Spirits," 2012.
The Food Lover's Guide to Wine one of three books named a Finalist for the 2012 James Beard Book Award in the category of "Reference & Scholarship," 2012.
The Vegetarian Flavor Bible wins the Gourmand World Cookbook Award as Best Vegetarian Book - U.S., 2015.

References
 The New York Times wedding announcement "Karen Page Wed in Boston" (August 26, 1990)
 The New York Times Business section article "Can't Stand the Heat? Get in the Kitchen and Learn How to Manage," on Becoming a Chef as "A Chef's Guide for Executives" (August 11, 1996)
 U.S. News & World Report article "Secrets of the Restaurant Critics," on Dining Out  (November 29, 1998)
 FabulousFoods.com's "Top 10 Cookbooks of 2001," which lists Chef's Night Out as #1 (December 2001)
 The Washington Post citation of Dining Out as "the single best book on the field" (June 11, 2003)
 Restaurants & Institutions magazine article "CEOs in White," on Becoming a Chef's status as a "cult classic" (March 1, 2004)
 Publishers Weekly'''s "highly recommended" review of What to Drink with What You Eat'' (June 19, 2006)
 MegNut.com article on "The Meaning of Celebrity" by Michael Ruhlman, which cites Becoming a Chef (July 19, 2006)
 Chicago magazine article "The Innovators," in which chef Grant Achatz cites Culinary Artistry as his "most-used cookbook" (November 2006)
 Copley News Service wine columnist Robert Whitley on What to Drink with What You Eat (December 16, 2006)
 The Los Angeles Times "Hot List" of bestselling books on food and wine, which mentions What to Drink with What You Eat (January 24, 2007)
 The Toronto Star article "Cookbook Store Cookin' After 25 Years," which named Culinary Artistry one of the store's "Top 10 must-have" cookbook picks (June 18, 2008)
 Newsweek "Book Pick of the Week:  The Flavor Bible" (September 9, 2008)
 Publishers Weekly starred review of The Flavor Bible (September 15, 2008)
  Chicago Sun-Times article "Savor the Flavor," on The Flavor Bible (October 1, 2008)
 People magazine article recommending The Flavor Bible as one of the year's best cookbooks (Holidays 2008)
 KCRW's Ellen Rose on her list of 19 "must-have food books," which includes The Flavor Bible (December 3, 2008)
 "Good Morning America" on "The Best Cookbooks of 2008," which mentions The Flavor Bible (December 23, 2008)
  Publishers Weekly article "Cooking the Books with Ellen Clark," on ''The Flavor Bible'''s surprisingly strong holiday sales  (January 20, 2009)
  Chicago Tribune article "Flavor First," on The Flavor Bible (January 28, 2009)
  Runner's World article "The Athlete's Palate: Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page" (April 2009)
  Oprah Winfrey's O magazine article "The Creative Cook," on The Flavor Bible (April 2009)
 2009 James Beard Foundation Award winners (May 4, 2009)

External links
Official website
Biography

1962 births
Living people
Harvard Business School alumni
American food writers
Wine writers
American bloggers
Northwestern University alumni
21st-century American non-fiction writers A fact is something that is true. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be demonstrated to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means.

For example, "This sentence contains words." accurately describes a linguistic fact, and "The sun is a star" accurately describes an astronomical fact. Further, "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States" and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated" both accurately describe historical facts. Generally speaking, facts are independent of belief and of knowledge and opinion.

Etymology and usage 
The word fact derives from the Latin factum. It was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed"a meaning now obsolete.  The common usage of "something that has really occurred or is the case" dates from the mid-16th century.

Barbara J. Shapiro wrote in her book "A Culture of Fact", how the concept of a fact evolved, starting within the English legal tradition of the 16th century. 
In 1870, Charles Sanders Peirce described in his book "The Fixation of Belief" four methods which people use to decide what they should believe: tenacity, method of authority, a priori and scientific method 

The term fact also indicates a matter under discussion deemed to be true or correct, such as to emphasize a point or prove a disputed issue; (e.g., "... the fact of the matter is ...").

Alternatively, fact may also indicate an allegation or stipulation of something that may or may not be a true fact, (e.g., "the author's facts are not trustworthy"). This alternate usage, although contested by some, has a long history in standard English according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language' The Oxford English Dictionary dates this use to 1729.Fact may also indicate findings derived through a process of evaluation, including review of testimony, direct observation, or otherwise; as distinguishable from matters of inference or speculation. This use is reflected in the terms "fact-find" and "fact-finder" (e.g., "set up a fact-finding commission").

Facts may be checked by reason, experiment, personal experience, or may be argued from authority. Roger Bacon wrote "If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics."

In philosophy

In philosophy, the concept fact is considered in the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge, called epistemology and ontology, which studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality. Questions of objectivity and truth are closely associated with questions of fact. A fact can be defined as something, that is the case, in other words, a state of affairs.Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Proposition 2: What is the case—a fact—is the existence of states of affairs.

Facts may be understood as information, which makes a true sentence true: "A fact is, traditionally, the worldly correlate of a true proposition, a state of affairs whose obtaining makes that proposition true." Facts may also be understood as those things to which a true sentence refers. The statement "Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system" is about the fact Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.

Correspondence and the slingshot argument

Pascal Engel's version of the correspondence theory of truth explains that what makes a sentence true is that it corresponds to a fact.
This theory presupposes the existence of an objective world.

The Slingshot argument claims to show that all true statements stand for the same thing, the truth value true. If this argument holds, and facts are taken to be what true statements stand for, then one arrives at the counter-intuitive conclusion that there is only one fact: the truth.

Compound facts

Any non-trivial true statement about reality is necessarily an abstraction composed of a complex of objects and properties or relations."Facts possess internal structure, being complexes of objects and properties or relations"  For example, the fact described by the true statement "Paris is the capital city of France" implies that there is such a place as Paris, there is such a place as France, there are such things as capital cities, as well as that France has a government, that the government of France has the power to define its capital city, and that the French government has chosen Paris to be the capital, that there is such a thing as a place or a government, and so on. The verifiable accuracy of all of these assertions, if facts themselves, may coincide to create the fact, that Paris is the capital of France.

Difficulties arise, however, in attempting to identify the constituent parts of negative, modal, disjunctive, or moral facts.

Fact–value distinction

Moral philosophers since David Hume have debated whether values are objective, and thus factual. In A Treatise of Human Nature Hume pointed out there is no obvious way for a series of statements about what ought to be the case to be derived from a series of statements of what is the case. Those who insist there is a logical gulf between facts and values, such that it is fallacious to attempt to derive values from facts, include G. E. Moore, who called attempting to do so the naturalistic fallacy.

Factual–counterfactual distinction

Factuality —what has occurred— can also be contrasted with counterfactuality:
what might have occurred, but did not. A counterfactual conditional or subjunctive conditional is a conditional (or "if-then") statement indicating what would be the case if events had been other than they were. For example, "If Alexander had lived, his empire would have been greater than Rome." This contrasts with an indicative conditional, which indicates what is (in fact) the case if its antecedent is (in fact) true—for example, "If you drink this, it will make you well." Such sentences are important to modal logic, especially since the development of possible world semantics.

In mathematics

In mathematics, a fact is a statement (called a theorem) that can be proven by logical argument from certain axioms and definitions.

In science

The definition of a scientific fact is different from the definition of fact, as it implies knowledge. A scientific fact is the result of a repeatable careful observation or measurement by experimentation or other means, also called empirical evidence. These are central to building scientific theories. Various forms of observation and measurement lead to fundamental questions about the scientific method, and the scope and validity of scientific reasoning.

In the most basic sense, a scientific fact is an objective and verifiable observation, in contrast with a hypothesis or theory, which is intended to explain or interpret facts.

Various scholars have offered significant refinements to this basic formulation. Philosophers and scientists are careful to distinguish between: 1) states of affairs in the external world and 2) assertions of fact that may be considered relevant in scientific analysis. The term is used in both senses in the philosophy of science.

Scholars and clinical researchers in both the social and natural sciences have written about numerous questions and theories that arise in the attempt to clarify the fundamental nature of scientific fact. Pertinent issues raised by this inquiry include:
 the process by which "established fact" becomes recognized and accepted as such;
 whether and to what extent "fact" and "theoretic explanation" can be considered truly independent and separable from one another;
 to what extent "facts" are influenced by the mere act of observation; and
 to what extent factual conclusions are influenced by history and consensus, rather than a strictly systematic methodology.

Consistent with the idea of confirmation holism, some scholars assert "fact" to be necessarily "theory-laden" to some degree. Thomas Kuhn points out that knowing what facts to measure, and how to measure them, requires the use of other theories. For example, the age of fossils is based on radiometric dating, which is justified by reasoning that radioactive decay follows a Poisson process rather than a Bernoulli process. Similarly, Percy Williams Bridgman is credited with the methodological position known as operationalism, which asserts that all observations are not only influenced, but necessarily defined, by the means and assumptions used to measure them.

 The scientific method 
Apart from the fundamental inquiry into the nature of scientific fact, there remain the practical and social considerations of how fact is investigated, established, and substantiated through the proper application of the scientific method. Scientific facts are generally believed independent of the observer: no matter who performs a scientific experiment, all observers agree on the outcome.
In addition to these considerations, there are the social and institutional measures, such as peer review and accreditation, that are intended to promote factual accuracy among other interests in scientific study.

 In history 

A common rhetorical cliché states, "History is written by the winners." This phrase suggests but does not examine the use of facts in the writing of history.

E. H. Carr in his 1961 volume What is History? argues that the inherent biases from the gathering of facts makes the objective truth of any historical perspective idealistic and impossible. Facts are, "like fish in the Ocean," of which we may only happen to catch a few, only an indication of what is below the surface. Even a dragnet cannot tell us for certain what it would be like to live below the Ocean's surface. Even if we do not discard any facts (or fish) presented, we will always miss the majority; the site of our fishing, the methods undertaken, the weather and even luck play a vital role in what we will catch. Additionally, the composition of history is inevitably made up by the compilation of many different biases of fact finding – all compounded over time. He concludes that for a historian to attempt a more objective method, one must accept that history can only aspire to a conversation of the present with the past – and that one's methods of fact gathering should be openly examined. The set of highlighted historical facts, and their interpretations, therefore changes over time, and reflect present consensuses.

In law

This section of the article emphasizes common law jurisprudence as primarily represented in Anglo-American–based legal tradition. Nevertheless, the principles described herein have analogous treatment in other legal systems such as civil law systems as well.

In most common law jurisdictions, the general concept and analysis of fact reflects fundamental principles of jurisprudence, and is supported by several well-established standards. Matters of fact have various formal definitions under common law jurisdictions.

These include:

 an element required in legal pleadings to demonstrate a cause of action;

 the determinations of the finder of fact after evaluating admissible evidence produced in a trial or hearing;
 a potential ground of reversible error forwarded on appeal in an appellate court; and
 any of various matters subject to investigation by official authority to establish whether a crime has been perpetrated, and to establish culpability.

 Legal pleadings 

A party to a civil suit generally must clearly state all relevant allegations of fact that form the basis of a claim. The requisite level of precision and particularity of these allegations varies, depending on the rules of civil procedure and jurisdiction. Parties who face uncertainties regarding facts and circumstances attendant to their side in a dispute may sometimes invoke alternative pleading. In this situation, a party may plead separate sets of facts that when considered together may be contradictory or mutually exclusive. This seemingly logically-inconsistent presentation of facts may be necessary as a safeguard against contingencies such as res judicata'' that would otherwise preclude presenting a claim or defense that depends on a particular interpretation of the underlying facts and ruling of the court.

See also
 Brute fact
 Consensus reality
 Counterfactual history
 De facto
 Factoid
 fiction
 Lie

References

External links 

 

Concepts in epistemology
Concepts in ethics
Concepts in logic
Concepts in metaphilosophy
Concepts in metaphysics
Concepts in the philosophy of mind
Concepts in the philosophy of science
Metaphysics of mind
Metatheory
Philosophical logic
Philosophy of logic
Philosophy of science
Reality
Statements
Truth