Your favorite moment might have been Carol Burnett as Scarlett O’Hara with a curtain rod sticking out of her drapery-made gown... Or her turn as the working class, Eunice, who exchanged hilarious barbs with her momma... And that trademark Tarzan yell still reverberates across TV history.
Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 4/9/10, Host: Robin Young... Also, read about a hilarious encounter with Jimmy Stewart in an excerpt from the book.
Yes, living in Southern California is a little like having bees in your head... Or your attic.
But there you are.
Audio: Berger & Prescott publish podcasts on Facebook. Mike's house is the one that went from eco-friendly to EPA Superfund Site in 1 day.
Geoff Edgers had an unusual midlife crisis. Approaching age 40 he went on a mission to reunite the favorite band of his youth, The Kinks. Problem is: the band’s two founding brothers, Ray and Dave Davies, haven’t spoken to each other in years. Undeterred, Edgers set off on a quixotic quest to bring the brothers together and documents his effort in a film called, “Do It Again.”
Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 4/8/10, Host: Robin Young.
The final encore 9-23-79, on the Low Budget tour in Providence RI
Before he hit from the first tee, this Nike ad hit the TV.
In haunting black & white... In the voice of his late father...
Tiger blinked, but stood silent.
"It's brilliant" say ad execs, while "Creepy" has been a more common reaction from the general public seeing the first commercial from Nike, the largest sponsor to stick with Woods through the scandal.
There was substantial media controversy, YouTube parodies and heckling flyovers as distractions, but Tiger tried to overcome both disgrace & layoff, and completed opening round play in front of an appreciative gallery at minus 4 in his quest for a fifth green jacket.
While any major pro tourney is a challenge, the protective bubble at Augusta National is unlike any other... In part because the club is already hypersensitive to criticism of discriminatory white men only membership policies excluding applicants by race, and by sex.
Woods may enjoy a polite reception on the course, but there it stops.
With continued after-effects from 2008's economic setbacks, public resentment has deepened towards Wall Street and especially the ultra-profitable, ultra-connected greedy giant Goldman Sachs.
Live At the Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri on June 25, 1991 They Can't Explain
Financial forces have already spent millions on ads and lobbyists to spin regulation as just another government takeover... A proven dog whistle for the right wing, who bought the line on heath care reform.
NPR’s economics correspondent Adam Davidson has spent the last two years breaking down the financial crisis with clear, simple language. But Davidson is stymied by regulatory reform, which has proven resistant to even his brand of explanatory journalism.
Vanity Fair magazine commissioned Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down," to profile General David Petraeus, architect of the successful surge strategy in Iraq and now leader of U.S. Central Command, the theatre which includes responsibility for Afghanistan.
What the writer found was a four star soldier, scholar and statesman. A master of war with a Princeton PhD, not only fit for command but in physical shape that'd put someone half his age to shame... Needless to say, Bowden was impressed.
Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 4/6/10, Host: Robin Young.
Darius had a thing about voicemail... It pissed him off.
So when he spotted a friend on the next block just after leaving a message for him, he decided to connect old school.
"REGGIE!" He bellowed.
Reggie didn't react... Maybe he didn't hear.
Darius kicked it up a notch. "REGGIE!"
Still no reaction... Maybe the motherf***er was voice-screening as well as call-screening.
"HEY, REGGIE!" Louder still.
I wondered if Reggie had gone deaf... From having friends like this. But he must have reacted. Although I didn't hear the response... Or much of anything else... After Darius, my ears needed recovery time.
"TURN ON YOUR PHONE!"
And he must have, because the shouting stopped.
Dangerous disrespect diffused, the two friends continued walking... Absorbed in cellular conversation channeled through a tower, which was farther away from both of them than they were from each other.
Next week, the Pulitzer Prizes will be announced, including the most coveted — the prize for public-service journalism. Past winners have included such landmarks as the New York Times for publication of the Pentagon Papers; and the Washington Post’s coverage of the Watergate affair.
April 8th is the day my Dad died... It was Good Friday that year.
We had thought his flu-like symptoms were what they seemed, so as I set up a vaporizer in the bedroom I used to share with my younger brother, he said "You're a good son, lad," And I wished him a good night, hoping he'd be more comfortable.
A few minutes later, my mother heard him gasping for breath and recognized the same peculiar sounds she'd heard about three years before, when he had survived an aneurysm that burst in his chest.
So I dragged my Dad out of what had been my bed, and performed CPR as Mom called an ambulance. He was gone before they arrived... And only God knows if he said anything else after I'd left him.
There are times when the best you can do won't help...
But you try, if only to be a good son.
I'd never seen the upstairs part of the parish where we held his funeral, the following Monday... I'd only been to the basement where they held mass, confession and novenas invoking intercession from Jesuit co-founder St. Francis Xavier. It was impressive up there and they'd saved some Easter lilies to supplement the funeral flowers.
I didn't know the priest, and I'm not sure if he knew my Dad, but the homily was eloquent and rich with the promise of resurrection and everlasting life. And I wondered if Jesus also might have thought the best you can do won't help... But you try, if only to be a good son.
Whatever his sacrifice did for the sins of the world, it hadn't stopped them from happening anew, and repeatedly... The parish church was one of six in my hometown in the Southern region of the Archdiocese of Boston, and not immune to the clergy sex abuse scandal there.
About 5 years before the funeral, and nearly 30 before it would become another small piece within a stained glass picture of massive scandal, a slightly older guy from my neighborhood told me in pre-adolescence he'd been molested by a priest from the same parish.
It was an odd combination of apology, confession and explanation... His reaction to being a victim had been to become a victimizer, too.
I have no authority to prescribe penance or grant absolution. I'm just an ordinary child of God, not one ordained... Stumbling through life wanting to face my own challenges with character, and other peoples' challenges with compassion... Trying my best to be a good son.
The mine explosion in West Virginia and the tragic loss of life shocked those who pay close attention to coal mine safety... Some had recently marked a mine safety milestone: the nation's safest year ever.
Audio: NPR's Morning Edition 4/7/10, Reporter: Howard Berkes.
Patrick Wall was a special kind of monk; a scandal fixer. But after being sent to four different churches in as many years, covering up for pedophiles, adulterers, liars and embezzlers, he decided to make a change... He now works to expose the church's worst scandals.
Audio: PRI's This American Life, Host: Ira Glass, Producer: Carl Marziali.
His rapid fire jive was an odd match for the early days of underground fm radio, but perfect for fronting the J. Geils Band, where his energetic "pole vaulting" with microphone stands became a trademark in the live shows that were the band at its best.
Peter Wolf is out with a new CD, Midnight Souvenirs, that includes a number of new songs and a few collaborations with Merle Haggard, Neko Case and country singer Shelby Lynn.
Pete Blankfield from the Bronx has had a long career in Rock 'n' Roll, and an unusual road took him there.
Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 4/2/10, Host: Robin Young.
“Midnight Souvenirs” is Peter Wolf’s first CD since his 2002 release “Sleepers,” which Rolling Stone magazine called “”a superb work of soulfulness and delicacy…one of the greatest albums of all-time.” You can see how Wolf brought his new work to life in the following behind-the-scenes films.
An incoming transmission from All India Radio, not India's national radio service, but a band from Australia that makes global ambient music full of rock influences and inviting atmospheres orchestrated by chief radio operator Martin Kennedy.
Audio: PRI's Echoes, an ambient music program on public radio with an extensive archive of audio for download via subscription. Flag of India in food, from Fill Inn.
Patrick Wall was a special kind of monk; a fixer. The Catholic church sent him to problem parishes where priests had been removed in scandals. His job was to come in, keep events from going public and smooth things over until a permanent replacement priest was found.
Audio: PRI's This American Life, Host: Ira Glass, Producer: Carl Marziali.
Kim Jong Il is the dictator. Kimchi is the delicacy.
Boston celebrated the national dish of Korea with its first Kimchi pickle-off. The pungent spicy cabbage brought out plenty of Korean-Americans, farmers and foodies to indulge in fermentation fervor. Audio: PRI's Living On Earth , Host: Jeff Young, Ike Sriskandarajah reports.
Pole dancing might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of competitive sports, but the US Pole Dance Federation thinks otherwise... Competitive pole dancing combines athleticism, grace, and a respectable amount of clothing.
Audio: WBUR & NPR's It's Only Game, Reporter: Karen Given &
Host: Bill Littlefield. The program teased already aired on 4/3/10.
Dick Summer moved from a distinguished radio career, into a semi-retirement sustained by three great loves: his wife (aka Wonder Wench), piloting his own single engine plane, and continuing to make magic in front of microphones... Plus a lifelong baseball obsession.
I'm a regular listener to his weekly Good Night podcast, just as I wanted to catch what he had to say when I was within radio range.
The podcast is normally filled with the kind of fun things he did on the radio. But when he said "I'd like to make the Fearful Fringe feel safe" I found something more serious I wanted to share.
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you. Much fear in the world, I sense."
-- Jedi Master Yoda (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 1999)
Did you notice that the menace is a phantom?
In 12-step recovery programs, where they seem to have acronyms for everything, fear = False Evidence Appearing Real.
Those who would exploit that fiction for their own political ends are playing with a dangerously furious, fact-free, fear-fueled firestorm... And those of us who live in the West know how frequently & easily even "controlled burns" get out of hand.
I suspect none of us here are old enough to remember both gentlemen, but we'd be wise to read & heed their words:
“It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.”
--H.L. Mencken (American journalist/social critic 1880-1956)
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933)
I, too, sense much fear in the world.
So savor & cherish those moments that remind us a truly United States of America is an awesome thing to be part of & behold... Then, "Play ball!"
For American Catholics, Easter Sunday was a bittersweet occasion due to the latest revelations of sex abuse by priests and cover-ups by the church. As Dean Reynolds reports, the damage is evident this Easter.
What did Pope Benedict say — or not say — this Easter about the widening controversy over sexual abuse by priests? For reaction from the Vatican and elsewhere, host Linda Wertheimer speaks to NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.
In the entertainment industry you very quickly learn something the entire economy experiences every recession, namely that what's generally accepted, in many cases, isn't all that principled.
Her livelihood used to depend on strangers watching Penny Flame. Now she says her life as Jennie Ketcham depends on watching her former porn persona stay in the past... Among the benefits are a year of sobriety, a first monogamous relationship (at age 27) and
an opportunity to teach some of life's harder lessons at Harvard.
Unsexy
In the same issue, the Boston Phoenix compiles an annual list of the 100 unsexiest men of the year. You can view their compilation of the "Proud and Putrid winners" by rank or category. The truly masochistic can see all 5 years in the alternative weekly.
At its holiest time of the year, the Roman Catholic Church is being forced to confront not only the central mystery of the faith -- life after death -- but also a more worldly riddle: What did the Holy Father know, and when did he know it?
Questions about whether Pope Benedict XVI was personally involved, as he rose through the church hierarchy, in sweeping under the rug incidents of sexual abuse by parish priests have put the Vatican on the defensive. A top legal official of the Holy See even felt obliged to argue, in an interview with the Rome newspaper Corriere della Sera, that the Vatican is not legally responsible for any failure by individual bishops to properly handle reports of abuse -- and that, in any event, Benedict is a head of state and beyond the jurisdiction of any foreign court.
A spokesman said that Benedict sees the sex scandal as a "test for him and the church" and is spending Holy Week in "humility and penitence." Another official, Cardinal William Levada, took a much more aggressive approach, releasing a lengthy statement attacking newspaper stories that have sought to investigate Benedict's role. Levada, who is prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- essentially the Vatican's chief enforcer on matters of faith, a post Benedict held for more than 20 years before becoming pope -- singled out the New York Times' reporting as "deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness."
Easter is a time for Benedict, as the spiritual leader of a billion people, to meditate and reflect. Then he must act. It is time for the pope to be comprehensively honest and open about the tragic failure of the church to prevent or punish horrific sexual abuse -- including his own errors -- and he must credibly assure the faithful that such crimes will never be allowed to happen again. Even more urgently, molesters still serving as priests must be defrocked and reported to civilian authorities.
Every year, it's a weekend of emotional ambiguity marking two medical anniversaries with totally different outcomes.
More recently, a life saving surgery. In the distance, a reminder that one of the few potentially life saving amateur tools in which the public is trained fails 9 of 10 times.
The painful truth is that your best may not be enough to save a loved one. But because they are a loved one, you try... And live with the memory through your Sadderdays.
Audio: PRI's Living On Earth , 
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Earthquake, tsunami,
