Elementary 'In Character': Squirrel

Nominated by Mark, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, Asheville, N.C.
From A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin

Squirrel, a stray dog from A Dog's Life, is an important character because she represents kids like me. I have been a foster child for four years. She and I have been through the same things. We have both moved from house to house, family to family and life to life in hopes of a family. Squirrel and I have been separated from our big brother and mom.

We were hopeful with each family we moved in with but were then disappointed when we had to move again. Squirrel and I kept going because we knew there was a family waiting for us out there, somewhere in the real world.

Both of our stories have happy endings. Two months ago I was adopted into a loving family and at the end of the book, a nice lady adopted Squirrel.

Hear Mark read his essay:

11:28 AM ET | 05-27-2008 | permalink | comments (27) | e-mail post

 

Elementary 'In Character': The Grinch

Nominated by Morgan, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, Asheville, N.C.
From How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Have you ever been like the Grinch? If you said no, you're lying.

One big thing in America is greed. It's not like the flu that you catch -- you're born with it. Everyone has a little Grinch in them. Sure, we haven't stolen Christmas, but we've all been greedy -- like kindergarteners fighting over blocks, or the world over money.

Most people act like the Grinch sometimes -- greedy, sad, alone, wanting a friend -- but we always seem to find ourselves. Sure our hearts aren't two sizes too small, and we don't live in a snowflake. But like the Grinch who changed and helped Whoville, we can make a change in our community.

We all must sacrifice to make a difference in our community. The Grinch sacrificed his own happiness for the Whovillens. We might have to sacrifice our happiness for the happiness of others.

Hear Morgan read her essay:

11:02 AM ET | 05-27-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post

 

Elementary 'In Character': Cassie Logan

Nominated by Isabelle, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, Asheville, N.C.
From Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Cassie Logan is a 10-year-old African-American girl living in Mississippi in the 1930s. In her childhood, she has to look past skin color and racist actions to help improve her acceptance in society.

Throughout the book, Cassie experiences many different forms of racism. When she feels discouraged, her father affirms what she already believes: she must accept some things "the way they are" but fight to change those things most important.

Cassie is a great America fictional character because she perseveres and overcomes obstacles in her life. She conquers her doubt and is not afraid to fight for the values she believes in. Americans should do the same. This would make the world a more accepting place.

Hear Isabelle read her essay:

10:35 AM ET | 05-27-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

 

Elementary 'In Character': Bobby Pendragon

Nominated by Jacob, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, Asheville, N.C.
From the Pendragon series by D. J. MacHaler

Bobby Pendragon is a 15-year-old boy. He mysteriously finds out he's a traveler (a person who goes to different places in different galaxies). His home goes from Stony Brook, N.Y., to nowhere.

One of his traits is bravery because he will do anything -- even if it is his worst fear -- to help others. Another trait is brains because he always is strategizing to avoid fights (though half the time they don't work). My favorite trait of his is his humor because it makes me laugh.

I really like Bobby because he has a lot of positive characteristics about him. He will usually take suicidal risks for others, if needed. He is also helpful in saving his friends.

I think it would be good for other students because it shows you what life is like. It also helps you by showing you that things die.

Hear Jacob read his essay:

10:35 AM ET | 05-27-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Elementary 'In Character': Junie B. Jones

Nominated by Jennice, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, Asheville, N.C.
From Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth by Barbara Park

My favorite character is Junie B. Jones because she is a character that expresses herself. Junie B. Jones is secretive -- she does not say out loud what she is thinking.

But the reader knows.

She uses her journal to express her true inner thoughts. Her inner thoughts are so hilarious -- so are mine.

My favorite book is Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth because in the book, Junie opens her mouth a lot and keeps on talking (like me). She's not the type of person who cares what people think of her. She has lots of friends, she's a little goofball, and she likes to play around, have fun and do wild things.

Sometimes Junie B. Jones and I are misunderstood, but the best part is I bet she is really nice and a kind person -- like me!

Hear Jennice read her essay:

10:33 AM ET | 05-27-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Harold C. "Rabbit" Angstrom

From the Rabbit novels by John Updike
Nominated by Cory Harris

The psyche of the mid-twenties male seems to be no different now than it was in 1960 when John Updike's Rabbit, Run hit the shelves. At 26, I am the same age as Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is as that novel opens, and like him I sometimes feel like escaping. The road goes for miles both ways and things just might be easier if I left it all behind.

The fact that Updike's seminal protagonist attempts this, though, is the wondrous thing about the work. When I immerse myself in Rabbit, I hate him and his selfishness, his indecision, and his fixation on past glory and present inconveniences.

But then I close the book, I can't help but feel a little dirty to realize that I have a little Rabbit in me. You can ditch those you're supposed to love, but they're going to get hurt -- and you're certainly not emerging unscathed, either.

Tags: Coming of Age | Literature

11:32 AM ET | 05-14-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Morticia Addams

From Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons, and later, TV'sThe Addams Family
Nominated by Laura Colwell

I was a weird little girl and a weird teenager and now I'm a weird woman. I'm perfectly happy with that -- thanks to Morticia Addams.

In one gracefully ghoulish persona, Morticia is at once mysterious, playful and literate - and she is completely at ease with herself, in love her own unusual world.

It's nice to have the acceptance and admiration of others, but I'm with Morticia on this one: it's so much better to be at peace with whatever you are and your own lot in life than to perpetually chase after someone else's ideal. If you can surround yourself with interesting people while you're at it, so much the better.

5:46 PM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Matilda Wormwood

From the novel Matilda, by Roald Dahl
and movie of same name
Nominated by Sydney Meader

Matilda Wormwood didn't have an easy childhood. The daughter of the wicked Harry and Zinnia Wormwood, Matilda was neglected and forced to bring herself up into a cruel world filled with rude big brothers and evil school principals. With no one to turn to in the real world, Matilda turned to books. A brilliant child, Matilda could read by the age of 3 -- and was reading literature by 4.

When I was first introduced to Matilda, I was immediately intrigued by her. As a 7-year-old, I thought she was the most amazing person in the world. Smart, brave, and kind, she was exactly the kind of girl I wanted to be. It didn't hurt that she had magical powers and was triumphant in her fight against the monstrous Miss Trunchbull.

Never in my life have I felt as much admiration towards another character as I did towards Matilda Wormwood.

11:57 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Zack Morris

From Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell, created by Sam Bobrick
Nominated by Alejandra O'Leary

Zack Morris was both my hero and my heartthrob when I was growing up with television in the early 1990s. Sure, lots of girls wanted to kiss Zack, but I don't think there was any young Saved by the Bell fan of either sex who didn't want to be Zack Morris.

Conniving, blonde, lusty, morally impressionable, and ultimately vulnerable, Zack was the narrator of everyone's life on Saved by the Bell. He could manipulate the universe by calling a "Time out!", invent a "wave meets shave" hairstyle, meet D-list celebrities like Casey Kasem at a Dance Contest, have at least four "best friends" (Jessie, Slater, Screech, and Lisa) and charm the pants off of both his nemesis Principal Belding and the beautiful Kelly Kapowski. (Though he would never literally charm her pants off!)

In Zack's world, a kiss is the apex of all satisfaction. Zack Morris proved that you can be innocent and impressionable, but also intelligent, dynamic, and thrilling, all at the same time. He is the Puck of my generation.

Tags: Comedy | Coming of Age | TV | Teens

10:49 AM ET | 03-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jeffrey Lebowski (aka The Dude)

From The Big Lebowski, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Nominated by Mat Cloak

How can a single, unmotivated and unemployed bum possibly be appealing to the masses?

Because despite having his favorite rug urinated upon ... despite being forced to take a bath with a weasel ... despite having a nut-job friend who cannot stop relating everything to Vietnam, The Dude seems to always keep his cool.

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is such an idealistic character because he is everything that the workingman is not. His life is stress-free, without restraints such as a job, a woman -- or pretty much any obligations. His time is consumed by "rolling" (spending time at the bowling alley) and drinking white Russians.

The Dude reminds America that if he can stay calm while in the mix of an unbelievably sticky ordeal, we can make it too.

So as the wise Dude likes to say, "Just take it easy man."

Tags: Comedy | Movies | Reluctant Hero | Underdogs

6:06 PM ET | 03- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Francie Nolan

From A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Nominated by Susan Bell

It was my mother who introduced me to Francie Nolan, the main character of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She read the book to me when I was 11, Francie's age at the start of the novel.

Though I lived in a small town in 1960s California, completely different than pre-World War I Williamsburg, I felt connected to Francie. She was a bookworm, visiting the library for entertainment, vowing to read every book in the collection -- one of my childhood goals. Though our environments diverged dramatically from that point on, I shared many of the same feelings of disappointment and joy that Francie experienced.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Francie Nolan" »

Tags: Literature | Movies

11:00 AM ET | 03- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jay Gatsby

From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nominated by Denise Abbe

Jay Gatsby epitomizes the American Dream. Here is a man who grew up in poverty, always wanting to be somebody, meeting the love of his life in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I, having that woman (Daisy) profess her love for him and promising that she would wait for him ... only to find her later married to Tom Buchanan while Gatsby fought overseas.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Jay Gatsby" »

Tags: Literature | Romantic Heroes

1:42 PM ET | 03- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Captain America

From Marvel Comics, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Nominated by Kevin Spooner

When I think of a fictional role model and hero, I immediately find myself thinking of Captain America, as he has always seemed to be a focal lens for the issues of the day that have preoccupied our nation.

He has maintained his relevance constantly from the 1940s, when he served as a banner behind which our nation could rally to fight the Axis powers, to modern times, when he stood up to (and was subsequently martyred by) his own government for adopting invasive and unconstitutional principles.

He has always served as a symbol of strength and honor for our nation. He's the pinnacle of what an Everyman can achieve, as resilient as his unbreakable shield. Captain America captures what is truly great about us as a people.

Tags: Animation | Comics | Fantasy | Superheroes

6:23 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Carroll "Toddy" Todd

From Victor/Victoria, directed by Blake Edwards
Nominated by Chris Nelson

Why choose a gay cabaret performer in a Julie Andrews musical set in 1930s Paris? Well, for an 11-year-old boy sitting in the dark next to his mother in 1982, he meant everything!

Toddy was warm, loving, and yes, fabulous, but he was more than that: He was presented as utterly normal. He was the perfect best friend, he enjoyed a good laugh at his own expense, he even got a hunky boyfriend! If you don't think that a role model like that wasn't important to a pre-teen during the Reagan years, you need to get out more.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Carroll "Toddy" Todd" »

Tags: Movies | Musicals

5:30 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Nan Wu

From A Free Life by Ha Jin
Nominated by Valerie Mendenhall Cohen

Nan is the main character - "hero" would be quite the wrong word - of this brilliant novel about Chinese immigrants in America. Nan is the absolute antithesis of some personae mentioned in the "In Character" series (you know, gun-toting saviors, corporate bad-guys in good suits, well-groomed dogs, and so on).

Nan does not prevail over nasty people, nor does he perform brave deeds in dangerous situations. No, he simply puts his head down, day after day and year after year, with a patience that is in the end far braver than the startling acts of other "heroes."

Continue reading "Your Turn: Nan Wu" »

Tags: Literature

2:25 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Hank Stamper

From Sometimes A Great Notion. Book by Ken Kesey, movie directed by Paul Newman
Nominated by Wayne Thompson

A woman I once knew said that this novel saved her life -- she read it while in the hospital being treated for cancer.

"What's it about?"

"Its about a family that runs a sawmill."

Hmmm . . . and so it was three years later that I opened its green-lettered white cover, and a wild world of forests, river, men and women opened before my mind's eye.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Hank Stamper" »

Tags: Literature | Movies

9:14 AM ET | 02-26-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Marge Gunderson

From Fargo, directed by the Coen Brothers
Nominated by Laura Toepfer

Marge Gunderson does not fit the mold of movie character cops. She's neither urban nor urbane. She's not hard-boiled or emotionally broken. She eats at the buffet, not at the bar. She's her own woman but doesn't need to demand it, and that's what makes her strong.

It's her strength that remains with me, and she showed me how to be independent while still asking for help. "Prowler needs a jump," is one of my favorite lines in the movie.

But her independence is genuine. She doesn't need to be rescued in the end. Instead, she can sorrowfully and optimistically tell the killer she has captured that it is, in her world, a beautiful day. She helps us to see that it is.

2:45 PM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Frasier Crane

From the TV series Cheers, created by James Burrows and Frasier, created by David Angell
Nominated by Kelly Dean Hansen

When Frasier Crane was introduced on Cheers as a recurring romantic rival, the eventual longest-running character in television history was humbly born.

Kelsey Grammer's inimitable portrayal of the pompous, metrosexual shrink who endlessly engages in self-destructive behavior allowed us to deeply adore the man, flawed as he was. We love Frasier because even though he can't manage his own life, the advice he gives to others, particularly his family, is almost always perfect.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Frasier Crane" »

2:33 PM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Optimus Prime

From the Transformers franchise, created by the Takara and Hasbro toy companies
Nominated by Jennifer Kuntz

As a child of the 80s I learned that the best things in life were supposed to be big, powerful and manly. When it came to TV characters the biggest, most manly, most powerful robot was, of course, Optimus Prime. Mostly it was that voice. A slightly smoky baritone, strong and clear. He sounded like a hero. And he CARED about people. He would put himself in harm's way to protect others. You can call it hackneyed, but when I was 12 it was glorious.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Optimus Prime" »

Tags: Animation | Fantasy | Superheroes | TV

1:21 PM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Tweety Bird

From Warner Bros. Looney Tunes
Nominated by Judy Silva

If I'd been asked if an American fictional character captured in any way who I was, I would've said "no" and chuckled about it. But come to think of it, on a much deeper "inner-child" level, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

Tweety Bird has mesmerized me since I could barely talk on my own. Now I have to wonder if it was something beyond the cuteness of my feathered friend. I believe that subconsciously I could relate. Could it be that my personality was much like Tweety's? Was I conniving, mischievous and an instigator while putting on the premise that I was not any of that? Ask anyone, and they'll tell you I was a sweet, giving, polite and peace-loving child. But was I?

My whole life, I've been like Tweety Bird, conniving and instigating any "Sylvester" unfortunate enough to fall prey to my game. It's true what they say: "Birds of a feather flock together."

Tags: Animation | Comedy

1:02 PM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Seymour Glass

From J.D. Salinger's Glass family stories
Nominated by Andrew Schlewitz

I first read the Seymour stories in my mid-twenties, while working in Guatemala as a Peace Corps volunteer. I had been drifting away from my staunch Lutheran roots, feeling a bit spiritually disoriented, and living abroad in a very difficult job added to that feeling.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Seymour Glass" »

Tags: Literature

3:52 PM ET | 02-15-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Julia Sugarbaker

From Designing Women, created by Bill Kenny
Nominated by Consuelo Hummons

Julia Sugarbaker is "everywoman." When my father was absent and my mother was every woman and man, it was reassuring to see this character that was so like my mother on television. She had a sharp tongue and an even temper, she was glamorous and brilliant, and NOBODY messed with Julia. It helped me to recognize these traits in my mother and appreciate what she did for us.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Julia Sugarbaker" »

3:16 PM ET | 02-15-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Chance (Chauncey) the Gardiner

From Being There, written by Jerzy Kosinski
film directed by Hal Ashby
Nominated by Mark Peterson

Nearly 40 years ago Jerzy Kosinski created a character so self absorbed in his media and his own narrowly-defined life that he wavered between the comic and the pathetic. Circumstances thrust Chauncey Gardiner into the larger world that existed beyond his father's estate grounds. Armed only with his TV remote control and his small subset of knowledge gained from television shows and gardening, Gardiner triumphed.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Chance (Chauncey) the Gardiner" »

11:12 AM ET | 02-15-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Charlotte A. Cavatica

From Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
Nominated by Fran Glick

As an avid reader and a school librarian, I have been fortunate to know many characters in diverse works of fiction written for children and adults. My fourth grade teacher contributed to my development with her daily read-alouds. She chose the best books! It was in her classroom that I met Charlotte A. Cavatica, the heroine of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Charlotte A. Cavatica" »

Tags: Animation | Children's Literature | Movies

3:05 PM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Bender Bending Rodriguez

From Futurama, created by Matt Groening
Nominated by Travis Larchuck

The short-lived and then revived animated program Futurama features a futuristic New York populated by aliens and mutants. So it's ironic that the most human character on the show is a robot by the name of Bender Bending Rodriguez.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Bender Bending Rodriguez" »

Tags: Animation | Comedy | Comics | Movies | Science Fiction | TV

2:33 PM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Tess McGill

From Working Girl, directed by Mike Nichols
Nominated by J.N. Cody

Working Girl's Tess McGill is film's first corporate heroine, a woman who succeeds on smarts and gumption. She burns to climb the corporate ladder, but no clear path for women exists.

Tess was my first career role model. (My generation was told we could be "anything we wanted." Empowering? How about maddeningly short on specifics!)

Sure, our mothers worked: as teachers, secretaries, nurses. Then came Working Girl, with Wall Street energy, paneled board rooms, mergers & acquisitions.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tess McGill" »

Tags: Comedy | Independent Women | Movies | Working Women

11:39 AM ET | 02- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Travis McGee

From the Travis McGee mysteries by John D. MacDonald
Nominated by Frank Almade

Variously described as a beach bum, a knight errant and a ladies man, Travis McGee was a counterculture icon before the phrase was invented. To this northern kid, his Florida world, houseboat life and relationships with women were exotic -- and his quirky encounters with violence attractive.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Travis McGee" »

Tags: Detectives | Literature

9:44 AM ET | 02- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: The Little Engine that Could

From The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper
Nominated by Robert Pawlikowski

I don't know why The Little Engine That Could bubbled up from my past while listening to this series, but suddenly I heard it chugging up the long hill, with the constant mantra, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Continue reading "Your Turn: The Little Engine that Could" »

Tags: Children's Literature

10:57 AM ET | 02- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Harriet the Spy

From Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
Nominated by Amy Cornell

Harriet M Welsch, the savvy word-wise heroine of Harriet the Spy, captured my heart the first time I met her. Harriet, a 5th grader like me, carried a notebook with her everywhere she went as she aspired to be a writer. She took notes on the funny adult world that surrounded her and her frank observations of her friends and classmates at school.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Harriet the Spy" »

Tags: Children's Literature | Girls Next Door

10:25 PM ET | 02- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Indiana Jones

From the Indiana Jones films, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg
Nominated by Matt Barnes

Dr. Jones was everything that made for a strong and likable hero. Nothing stopped him. Not spikes, arch-nemeses or even Nazis. What made his whip-slinging, gun-fighting persona the most amazing for me was that he did it all for the history. He used his brain more than this brawn, even though he was undoubtedly tougher than nails. He got hurt, kept going and complained later. He didn't give up when the going got crazy rough.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Indiana Jones" »

Tags: Adventure | Movies

11:57 AM ET | 02- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Ferdinand

From The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson
Ferdinand the Bull, directed by Dick Rickard
Nominated by Alex Sanchez

My favorite book as a boy went like this: While other bulls loved to fight and dreamed of being chosen for the bullring in Madrid, Ferdinand preferred to smell fields of flowers. When by mistake, he was put into the ring to fight, he wouldn't. He stubbornly sat there, smelling the flowers in the women's hair, until there was nothing to do but send him home.

Since the book's first publication in 1936, people have praised its message about being true to who you are, being an individual, and being at peace with yourself -- whether you conform to others' expectations or not.

At times throughout my life (I'm now 50) when I've doubted myself or struggled with decisions that went contrary to what others said, I've remembered Ferdinand. His gently powerful example of individuality captivated me as a boy and continues to inspire me to this day.

Tags: Animation | Children's Literature | Rebels

4:55 PM ET | 02- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Flem Snopes

From William Faulkner's Snopes Family trilogy
Nominated by William Dykes

Aside from having one of the most revoltingly evocative names in American literature, Flem is himself evocative of the worst side of the American character: The bright side is frugal, Flem is cheap; the bright side socially mobile, Flem a social climber; the bright side chaste, Flem impotent.

He is the American dragon, snatching up virgins and gold but incapable of putting either to use. Amoral, vulgar, smug, he is also the vision of America we so often see reflected back by foreigners who represent us in art.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Flem Snopes" »

Tags: Literature

4:25 PM ET | 02- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Tarzan

From the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Nominated by Chris Langlois

All I really needed to know, I learned from Tarzan. In the 1950s, Tarzan was my hero. I loved cowboys too, but they relied mostly on guns and horses. What fascinated me about Tarzan was his near nakedness in the face of mortal danger. All he ever fought with were a knife, his muscles, and his wits. Wow!

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tarzan" »

Tags: Adventure | Literature | Movies

4:02 PM ET | 02- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Kinsey Millhone

From the Kinsey Millhone books, by Sue Grafton
Nominated by Brenda Kuhlman

As a kid I was mesmerized by 1960s images of female detectives like Honey West or Agent 99: women who were strong, smart and drop-dead gorgeous in heels. Enter Kinsey Millhone twenty years later, who doesn't own heels. Neither do I. Plus, like me, she cuts her hair with toenail scissors, owns only one all-purpose dress, secretly craves Quarter-Pounders and has a soft spot for octogenarians. Shes not fearless, not always smart. But she does the right thing in the end.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Kinsey Millhone" »

Tags: Detectives | Literature | Working Women

3:58 PM ET | 02- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

The 'In Character' Blog on the Radio

The In Character Blog got another shot at drive-time today -- this time on Morning Edition. Host Renee Montagne read excerpts from this essay on George Jefferson for something like 13 million coffee-swilling NPR junkies -- complete with a clip from the beloved TV series.

Congrats to Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite of Atlanta, Ga., who made the nomination. You could be next -- but only if you've submitted yours.

Tags: Comedy | Rebels | TV | Working Class Heroes

10:57 AM ET | 02- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Spider Jerusalem

From Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Nominated by Max Gartman

Spider is a journalist. [Note: Strong language, possibly NSFW, at that link.] He is the Warrior of Truth. Nothing will stand in his way: not enemies, friends, loved ones, not his own life. He rushes into war zones and police riots and historical reservations to tell the truth and tell it slant. He will not accept being lied to.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Spider Jerusalem" »

Tags: Comics | Science Fiction

3:39 PM ET | 02- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Carrie Meeber

From Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Nominated by Natalie Pappas

Nothing is certain, but I'm about 99.9% sure that Theodore Dreiser didn't create Sister Carrie as a heroine. In the book of the same name, Carrie moves to the big city of Chicago, cohabits with a traveling salesman, runs away with the embezzling manager of a bar, and becomes a chorus girl. She ends up "amid the tinsel and shine" of Broadway, basking in fame but still searching for something, dreaming about "happiness [that she] may never feel."

Continue reading "Your Turn: Carrie Meeber" »

Tags: Independent Women | Literature

4:44 PM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post