Top 5: Like Eagles Above a Forest of Freedom

Filed under: Luncheonette

Hey, it's the Fourth of July. I should do a bunch of patriotic songs, huh?

Instead of that, how about I go see the Feelies and Sonic Youth play a show in Battery Park and leave you with five more songs that have been stuck in my head since last Friday?

After the jump, Ladyhawk, Young Jeezy, and more.

Continue reading "Top 5: Like Eagles Above a Forest of Freedom" »

-- Jacob Ganz

11:25 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | comments (0) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Monday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Happy Fourth of July! See you cats Monday.

 

-- Ian Chillag

11:10 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | comments (2) | e-mail post

Langhorne Slim Plays the Real Bryant Park

Filed under: Video

In recent years, Langhorne Slim's combination of thoughtful lyrics and energetic live performances has earned him a reputation as an up-and-coming folk rocker with a punk sensibility. A while back, he came by the BPP for an interview and in-studio performance.

Afterward, he and his band wandered out into Bryant Park, one of Midtown Manhattan's most beloved green spaces, in the middle of the lunch rush. With little fanfare, they set up in the park and started playing. Some people slowly turned their chairs in the direction of the music, while others barely glanced up from their salads. In the end, most of the unsuspecting crowd applauded. Some grabbed pens and paper to write down his name, so they could ask their kids about him.

-- Win Rosenfeld

10:56 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | comments (1) | e-mail post

Statue of Liberty Moves to Kearney, Nebraska

Filed under: Stuff We Love

Volunteers help the statue lift her soon-to-be-golden lamp.

Brad Norton, courtesy of Kearney (Neb.) Hub

I'm a sucker for the Statue of Liberty.

Something about tired, poor, wretched masses yearning to breathe free really touches me. All four of my grandparents were immigrants from Poland and Latvia. I like the idea of the green lady watching over them -- and steerage passengers from all over -- as they pulled into New York Harbor nearly 100 years ago.

I climbed up to her torch when I was a kid. And, a few years ago, I got to prowl around her island after hours with a friend who was working for the National Park Service.

But, there's more than one Statue of Liberty. Plastic versions welcome tourists to Manhattan souvenir shops. There used to be a metallic blue, duct-taped version in front a Brooklyn hardware store near my house. I'm still mourning a crown that graced the top of a funky, now defunct, downtown restaurant.

Still, there's hope. Turns out I'm not the only extreme fan of the Statue of Liberty.

This week, thanks to a man named Ward Schrack, an eight-foot-tall statue was erected as part of a Veterans Memorial in Kearney, Nebraska.

Schrack is a longtime member of the Boy Scouts, but 57 years ago, when the organization celebrated its 40th anniversary by putting up aluminum lady liberties around the country, he missed out. A few years ago, Schrack found a liberty statue in Missouri and enlisted local scouts to raise funds to transport the statue, which had a dedication ceremony last night.

And, yes, the torch will light up.

-- Laura Silver

8:31 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | comments (0) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Patriotic Song Manuscript Found at Flea Market

Filed under: Links From the Show

A rare manuscript of the song "America" (My Country 'Tis of Thee) was sold at a New York flea market for $10.

It's the BPP's Most.

Youngest "Brady" interview unflattering / Cardiac arrest: Man faked heart attack when dinner bill arrived / Dona Ana County kidnapping a hoax / Transgender "man" gives birth /

-- Laura Silver

6:03 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | comments (0) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Friday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

-- Win Rosenfeld

2:58 PM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (5) | e-mail post

Proving That Adolescents Really Do Know Best

Filed under: Luncheonette

Nothing breeds confidence like never having failed.

-- Laura Conaway

1:52 PM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (4) | e-mail post

Yes, They Do!

Filed under: Personal/Private

Courtesy of the Oregonian

 

I'm basically terrified of flying. A couple of summers ago I was in Portland, Ore., freaking out about getting on a red-eye back to D.C. So I called my Mom. One of the rational, reassuring things she said was: "Lauren, planes don't just fall out of the sky."

So I was feeling pretty good about that until I opened my hotel room door and found the Oregonian on the floor with this headline: "It just fell out of the sky."

The Oregonian was nice enough to send us the image of that front page. If you care about airline safety obsessively like I do, check out this morning's interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Andy Pasztor.

-- Lauren Spohrer

11:48 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (1) | e-mail post

With Headlines Like These, Who Needs Frenemies?

Filed under: Election 2008

This little headline may have gotten lost among all the other John McCain headlines yesterday:

McCain denies roughing up Sandinista

Is it just me, or is that the headline equivalent of "When did you stop beating your wife?"

The story, first reported in the Sun Herald, a coastal Mississippi newspaper, goes like this: Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, claims that he witnessed a confrontation between McCain and a Sandinista while on a diplomatic mission to Nicaragua back in 1987.

Here's what Senator Cochran told the Sun-Herald:

McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention. But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever. I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him.

Senator McCain responded to the story at a news conference yesterday by saying, "I had many, many meetings with the Sandinistas. I must say, I did not admire the Sandinistas much. But there was never anything of that nature. It just didn't happen."

Senator Cochran, who once famously expressed his worry about a McCain presidency by calling him "erratic" and "hotheaded," has apparently changed his mind about McCain, though it's hard to tell from this latest anecdote. A spokesperson for the senator says "he wanted to make the point that over the years he has seen Sen. McCain mature into an individual who is not only spirited and tenacious but also thoughtful and levelheaded."

Which, if you read the headlines, maybe didn't work. Here is a smattering of how some news outlets headed the story: McCain's meltdown, McCain's Temper Tantrum Tawdriness (okay, that one is by a blogger), and my personal favorite, "Did McCain really perform the Sandinista snatch?"

-- Tricia McKinney

11:15 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (2) | e-mail post

Do Rainbow Folks Actually Hurt National Forests?

Filed under: Sound Off

Click to watch.

Photos courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

 

This morning on the BPP, we spoke to a U.S. Forest Service official who's in charge of monitoring the yearly festival of the Rainbow Family, an anti-establishment, pro-environmental group.

"I don't think we question their love of the land, which is very similar to ours," said John Twiss, our guest from the Forest Service. "I think what we question the most is the way they gather."

Twiss says the group leaves large amounts of trash and bring other problems you'd expect from gatherings of thousands and thousands of people on remote federal lands.

The Rainbow Family's own website puts it this way: "Some say we're the largest non-organization of non-members in the world. We have no leaders, and no organization."

-- Paul Hechinger

9:54 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (5) | e-mail post

Listener Challenge: The $10 Burger-and-Beer

Filed under: City Living

A guy we know on Twitter, @mjb, wrote the other day: "Found $10 on the sidewalk, free lunch, and free beer after work."

And we're thinking, in what city, guy? It turns out MJB lives in Washington, D.C., where his job was springing for lunch that day. But @faerirose says you could pull it off in Omaha, if you stick to basics like Budweiser.

Help us with this one, people. Where you live, can you buy a burger and a beer for $10?

-- Laura Conaway

9:43 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (18) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under:

Scientists say watermelon yields Viagra-like effects. The yellow variety is the most potent.

It's the BPP's Most.

Crocs cited in lawsuit over girl's injuries at airport / Three Cheers for July Second / Storms wash salad dressing into basements / Google Trends: esoteric / 'Kite Runner' star's family feels exploited by studio

-- Meena Ramamurthy

9:00 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (1) | e-mail post

Alison Checks In: On Being Biracial

Filed under: Maternity Leave

Shalom, my brutha

I once overheard a woman ask her friend, "Why does Obama identify himself as black when he is half white?" Their discussion ranged from how Barack Obama's appearance led to assumptions about him, to how choices were made for him based on his looking like a tall skinny black guy, to the way race has historically been determined this country.

My husband and I discussed all of these above as we awaited the birth of our son, Isaac. How will we make sure he feels secure about who he is? Will he be clearly identifiable as either white or black? Will I have to wear one of those "I'm not the nanny" t-shirts? Will he have a bar mitzvah?

As he gets older, Ike is looking truly bi-racial. After seeing a recent photo, a 50-something friend of mine who is Japanese and Black said he was hopeful Isaac won't have to endure the difficulties he faced as a child. My friend wrote, "This is our time. Barack. Tiger. Halle."

Considering it was only eight years ago that the U.S. Census allowed you to check more than one box for racial identity, I can't help wondering what challenges lie ahead.

-- Alison Stewart

6:42 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (10) | e-mail post

Linkfest: George Washington's Boyhood Home Found

Filed under: Links From the Show

Archaeologists find George Washington's boyhood home, but no sign of a cherry tree or a hatchet.

It's the BPP's Ramble.

Courthouse with dead opossum almost free of fleas / Olympic nightmare: A red tide in the Yellow Sea / Sound of jelly wobbling recorded for architects' competition

-- Laura Silver

5:46 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (0) | e-mail post

Linkfest: Scientists: Watermelon Has Viagra Powers

Filed under: Links From the Show

Scientists say watermelon yields Viagra-like effects. The yellow variety is the most potent.

It's the BPP's Most.

Crocs cited in lawsuit over girl's injuries at airport / Three Cheers for July Second / Storms wash salad dressing into basements / Google Trends: esoteric / 'Kite Runner' star's family feels exploited by studio

-- Laura Silver

5:46 AM ET | 07- 3-2008 | comments (1) | e-mail post

The Rundown for Thursday

Filed under: Tomorrow's BPP

Camera by Meena Ramamurthy

-- Zena Barakat

4:50 PM ET | 07- 2-2008 | comments (4) | e-mail post

Getting Guns Out Of The Closet

Filed under: Sound Off

Americans have carried guns in open holsters since frontier days. This revolver dates back to the 1870s.

Orlando /Three Lions/Getty Images

Today, the BPP spoke to a leader of the "open carry" gun movement. Followers say it's all about openly displaying guns, where people can see them. John Pierce, founder of OpenCarry.org likens it to the gay rights movement.

"One of the reasons we make that comparison," he says, "is that open carry is really gun ownership coming out of the closet."

Pierce argues that a stigma has attached to gun ownership, which he says is really "a wholesome and responsible activity." If more people understood that, he says, the stigma would go away.

-- Paul Hechinger

1:42 PM ET | 07- 2-2008 | comments (23) | e-mail post

Blogger Finds Flaw in SCOTUS Facts

Filed under: News

A major Supreme Court ruling last week on the death penalty was based, in part, on a factual error.

The New York Times reports this morning that the decision, barring execution for people who rape children, drew on a belief that the convicted would now face capital punishment in only six states and not under the federal government. The Times writes:

This inventory of jurisdictions was a central part of the court's analysis, the foundation for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's conclusion in his majority opinion that capital punishment for child rape was contrary to the "evolving standards of decency" by which the court judges how the death penalty is applied.

But as the folks over at CAAFLOG soon pointed out, Congress added child rape to the list of capital offenses in the Uniform Code of Military Justice back in 2006. So now what? The losing side has 25 days to ask the court to look again at the June 25 ruling.

-- Laura Conaway

1:00 PM ET | 07- 2-2008 | comments (1) | e-mail post

Those Happy, Happy Danes

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette

Denmark tops the latest list of the planet's happiest nations.

I'm not saying the livable streets of Denmark's biggest city, Copenhagen, are by any means the sole factor in Danish well-being. I'm just saying I'd be a happier American if our cities looked like the one in the trailer above.

Bonus:
The documentary Contested Streets
Streetsblog, a livable streets resource

-- Laura Conaway

12:06 PM ET | 07- 2-2008 | comments (3) | e-mail post

Video: The Most

Filed under: Links From the Show

Nelson Mandela has finally been taken off the United States' terror watch list. Until now, the anti-apartheid leader and members of the African National Congress party needed special permission to visit American soil.

It's the BPP's Most.

Local and national outbreak of grave robbing / US contradicts itself over its own ID theft advice / Denmark 'happiest' country in the world / Could you pass the latest citizenship test?

-- Meena Ramamurthy

10:21 AM ET | 07- 2-2008 | comments (2) | e-mail post