April 30, 2007
Tenet-cious G
When President George W. Bush accepted CIA director George Tenet's resignation , the president said, "George Tenet is the kind of public servant you like to work with." You have to wonder if the President knew at that point that he was going to publish a rather contentious memoir , alleging (among other things ) that the Bush Administration -- particularly Vice President Dick Cheney -- was determined to attack Iraq no matter what the intelligence showed. Today, White House counselor Dan Bartlett called Tenet "a patriot" but went on to say his allegations were incorrect. He's not the only one critiquing the former CIA director as self-serving ... we'll talk to Mike Scheuer , founding head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, about how he sees Tenet's claims. Others in the intelligence community have criticized him too, (check this out). What do you think of Tenet? Willing scapegoat, or "patriot?"
Barrie Hardymon
1:58 PM ET
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04-30-2007
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Mommy Wars No More
We get a lot of books sent to us for the show, and lately there's been a theme to many of the pitches we get from publishers... the long-fought "Mommy Wars." It's a battle made out to be diaper bag versus briefcase, as new moms tussle over what's best... staying at home to raise kids, or returning to work. A new twist came up on Sunday: In an op-ed in the Washington Post E.J. Graff argues that the mommy wars are a figment of the media's imagination... driven by the need to sell more copies, rather than the need to report facts. Is she right? Do you face this issue, or is it just media hype?
Scott Cameron
1:53 PM ET
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04-30-2007
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Confronting Criminals
Ever heard of restorative justice ? I hadn't, really, till recently when Talk of the Nation director Gwen Outen brought up Minnie Driver's new movie, Take restorative justice , a theory in criminal justice that posits the best healing and rehabilitation for victim and perpetrator can happen when the victim is given an opportunity to make his or her pain known to the criminal. It can happen in a courtroom during the trial, or after the guilty party has done his/her time... and personalizing it raises all sorts of questions. Would you want to talk to the person who stole your car or worse? Would you do it because it would make you feel better, or because it could help the perpetrator? If your conversation makes the guilty feel less-so, have you lost something? I've been fortunate enough that I haven't really had to take on questions like these, but if you've ever been wronged, what do you think?
Sarah Handel
1:08 PM ET
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04-30-2007
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Minnie Driver Can Sing
As promised, we are going to talk about the new movie Take Charles Oliver, and star Minnie Driver. I have to admit, I'm a huge Minnie Driver fan, and I'm totally addicted to her new show The Riches she'll sing a song from her new album , that also appears in the movie's soundtrack. Enjoy! Update: After performing this weekend, Minnie's voice isn't up to a song. But she'll still join us and take your questions.
Barrie Hardymon
12:47 PM ET
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04-30-2007
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Essay Arrest: Paranoia or Prevention?
Given what happened at Virginia Tech , lots of school administrators are a little on edge these days. So, when Allen Lee , a high school senior and "A" student outside Chicago, turned in a free writing assignment complete with references to "shooting everyone" and having "sex with the dead bodies," the school had him arrested. Now, charged with two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, he can forget about his dream of fighting for the Marines... they discharged him from the enlistment program because of the charges (he can reapply if charges are dropped). For his part, Lee says he just followed the teachers instructions, and "exaggerated his feelings." His dad is frustrated: "I don't see how somebody can get charged by writing their homework. The teacher asked them to express themselves, and he followed instructions." But, with a line directed at the teacher saying, "don't be surprised on inspiring the first cg (Cary-Grove High School) shooting," his English teacher, principal, and the police chief say the charges are appropriate. With all the heat Virginia Tech is under for not catching on to Seung-Hui Cho's disturbing behavior before he killed 32 people, was the school justified in having Lee arrested? Or is this a classic case of misdirected paranoia?
Scott Cameron
11:12 AM ET
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04-30-2007
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April 26, 2007
White? Black? Asian? Other? YES!
Here's an easy one: What do Barack Obama , Mariah Carey , Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter have in common? They all come from multiracial families. And they're just some of the most famous examples of how race, culture, and identity are changing in this country. Our first hour today will look at what it means to be multiracial in today's America. If you're multiracial, how do you define yourself? And how does the public define you?
Scott Cameron
1:38 PM ET
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04-26-2007
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Bored? Try Bard!
For those who think that Shakespeare isn't fun,language we have shunned --Elizabethan slang for purse. )panel to explain why to converse Rosalind ...Macbeth , or like his famous nagging wife .spice to life!Mercutio's song might vex the FCC.
Barrie Hardymon
1:37 PM ET
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04-26-2007
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Does Your Kid Know What You Do All Day?
This post might be subtitled... "Or Why Sarah's Dad Never Came to Career Day" (trust me, it's not nearly as sad as it sounds).
Like so many kids who grow up in the D.C. area, I was never clear on exactly what my Dad did for a living. There are about a billion secret government agencies in these parts, which means lots of moms and dads can't really talk about what they do. Sure, they might be able to say, "I work in an office" or "I work with computers" or even "I work with submarines in naval intelligence," but it's not quite the same as "I'm a garbagewoman" or "I'm a doctor for people whose feet hurt." Lacking complete information, my classmates usually decided one of two things about what my Dad was up to: either he was like Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies , or he was Batman . Somehow, these options sounded equally plausible at the time.
So, in honor of "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day ," we're talking to some moms and dads, sons and daughters, about what the kids think the parents do all day, and what the parents want the kids to learn about work. We've got a studio audience of kids, GW basketball coach Karl Hobbs and his basketball playing daughter , and even guest host Rebecca Roberts' mom, Cokie (you may have heard of her). What did you think your parents did... were you even close? What do your kids know about what do you do? Do you secretly (or not-so-secretly) hope they'll follow in your footsteps?
Sarah Handel
1:12 PM ET
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04-26-2007
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Secrets of a Guest Host
I've kept a lot of seats warm at NPR when the real hosts are sick or on vacation. It's fun to do other people's jobs for a few days -- it satisfies my dilettante instincts, and I get to leave while it's all still exciting and new. It's kind of like renting a beach house for a week. You get to enjoy the sunshine and the novelty of a new place, but leave before the hot water heater explodes.
Not to beat a tortured analogy into the ground, but Neal Conan has a really nice beach house here at Talk of the Nation . In the first place, he has by far the neatest office I've borrowed here at NPR. Neal's many books are actually on his bookcase. And there are whole square feet of desktop visible between the stacks of paper. I don't think I can adequately describe how unusual this is. With the staggering volume of mail that comes in for a show like Talk of the Nation , most offices look like a recycling bin just exploded close by.
This beach house/radio program (okay, now even I have lost the thread of this analogy -- what were we talking about exactly?) also has a pretty amazing team of people who are capable of conjuring a radio show out of thin air. Seriously -- there have been mornings when we have no guests and no prospects at 9am, and a kick-ass show with rock star guests at 2pm. It's impressive. I don't know if the folks here just pretend they have nothing booked, when really the whole show has been set for weeks, or whether they know some radio jujitsu they're not sharing with the guest host. I suspect the latter.
Whatever they're doing (leaving crackers and little tiny shoes out for the radio production elves at night? It wouldn't shock me) they're doing it well. And it's been a joy and a treat to participate for a few days. I hope you all have had half as much fun as I have.
Rebecca Roberts
10:45 AM ET
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04-26-2007
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April 25, 2007
Political Junkie: It's Official
John McCain made it official this afternoon... he's announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination. Nobody seems surprised, but can he win? Democrats are busy getting ready for their first big debate tomorrow in South Carolina. And, here in Washington, both parties are squabbling over a funding bill for the Iraq war. President Bush says he'll veto any measure that includes a timetable for withdrawal. And the vice president and the democratic leader in the senate are bickering back and forth in the media. If it's Wednesday, it must be Political Junkie day... Ken Rudin stops by to talk all things politics, and a little Rich Little , too.
Scott Cameron
1:45 PM ET
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04-25-2007
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Got Something In Your Eye... or Did Rudy Just Get In The Game?
The first time I had the experience of seeing a boy tear up at a movie was in high school... Brian's Song was on TV, and several of the boys from our football team (including, but not limited to the defensive line) were sniffling quietly. Listen, we all know the movies that girls tear up for... usually it involves either Julia Roberts or Debra Winger dying at the end. But what are the movies that make men mushy? What are the movies that men feel like they have a pass on... Rudy , Hoosiers ... (and I swear, an old boyfriend of mine teared up at Titanic ). What kinds of movies does a man feel free to shed a tear over?
Barrie Hardymon
1:25 PM ET
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04-25-2007
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How I Learned To Shave My Legs With Conditioner And Other Stories
Here's a glance at what's on tap in Seventeen magazine this month.
Turn to p. 117 to get Scarlett Johansson's flirting moves!
Flip to p. 42 to score great deals and look like a star!
Dating Clinic: See Pete Wentz's love tips on p. 102!
Perfect Skin Tips: Say goodbye to breakouts once and for all on p. 70!
Sigh. (If I had a dollar for every time a teen or womens magazine had promised "once and for all" to rid me of 1) breakouts 2) cellulite 3) someone's cheatin' heart, I would have enough money to find a cure for all three.) Well, once upon a time... there was Sassy magazineSassy ... and remembers the days of the Sassy cult, it's called: How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter To The Greatest Teen Magazine Of All Time .Sassy fan, who went on to start Venus 'Zine why Sassy changed your life! Also, what do you think is the natural offspring of Sassy ... Bitch ?Bust Jane ?
Barrie Hardymon
1:21 PM ET
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04-25-2007
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No Vote for You!
It's one of the thorniest issues in the smallest of districts... voting rights for Washington, D.C. Currently, the District has no representation in the Senate , and just one, non-voting member of the House -- the inimitable and indefatigable Eleanor Holmes Norton (Seriously, click that link. It's her appearance on Comedy Central that aired last night, and it is laugh-out-loud funny. I was just roaring with laughter at my desk and without even looking, (guest host) Rebecca was just like, "Let me guess: Eleanor Holmes Norton's appearance on Colbert ?"). Anyway, Congress has passed a bill that would give D.C. a vote (and balance it with another vote for Utah)... but is it constitutional to give a vote to a non-state? On the flipside, should the District's more than half a million taxpayers have no voice in how their money is spent? And what about the remaining 250 million Americans out there - do you even care ?
Sarah Handel
1:19 PM ET
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04-25-2007
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Players Behaving Badly
I've been to exactly one NFL football game in the last 10 years... a Washington Redskins game that didn't have a happy ending. Still, even I can rattle off names like Pacman Jones , Chris Henry , Tank Johnson ... and not because of anything they did on the field. Some fifty NFL players got themselves arrested in the last 15 months or so... on charges related to guns, drugs, assault, vandalism, drunk driving, etc, etc, etc (there's a whole website dedicated to players' bad behavior ). To crack down, the league came up with tougher rules ... including lifetime bans on repeat offenders and even penalties against teams for the off-field mayhem of their players. And this weekend it's game time... the NFL draft will put the new rules to the test, in theory. Will teams change the way they pick players? Most say they will . But, if the scoreboard is in your teams favor at the end of the fourth quarter, do you care that the all-star defensive back shoots up a nightclub in his off-time?
Scott Cameron
8:27 AM ET
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04-25-2007
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April 23, 2007
The Long Memory of the Web
Much has been made about the online connectivity of the students at Virginia Tech... how they instant messaged each other from underneath desks and created memorials to the victims on Facebook. It certainly adds another dimension to the conversation we often have on our airwaves about the privacy generation gap and the web . Students have put so much information about themselves on the web through their Facebook and MySpace pages that it made each victim much more human, much more easily accessible. NPR had pictures up of each student within days after the shooting, and we were able to write mini-bios for our show the next day. I had the heartbreaking anthropological job of finding what was on the web about each student... and I was surprised by how glad I was that these young people had left a trail for me, or anyone who wanted to mourn a little, to find. (On another note, I was also surprised that a common trope: "Any predator can find you on the internet!" turned out to be patently false... especially Facebook. It was impossible to get into the pages of the victims... all the information I culled was from the memorial sites that were made public.)
I have often argued with my own parents about the value of being so easily found on the web... I think the "ick" factor for them is mostly about privacy ("WHY would you want strangers to know anything about you?"). I'm not going to deny that I felt a little creepy reading through the comments about these young people... but in the end, I was glad that I knew that Ross Alameddine was a stickler for grammar, and that Emily Hilscher made too much calamari for her Spanish class. If the gunman and his illness made him dehumanize these students so much that he was able to murder them... then I'm glad that they not only exist, but are still so devastatingly human in the long memory of the web.
Barrie Hardymon
4:36 PM ET
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04-23-2007
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Target: Guns
A week after the Virginia Tech massacre, it's as predictable as the post-tragedy media blitz... the post-tragedy gun debate . The "what-ifs" abound: what if Seung Hui Cho hadn't been able to get the guns? What if the students could have carried their own firearms? Surprisingly, the gun laws vary from state to state, and from campus to campus. Hindsight is 20/20, but when it comes to guns, the target is unclear... what do you think the right policy is, given that these terrible incidents don't actually happen that often?
Barrie Hardymon
1:00 PM ET
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04-23-2007
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The Opinion Page: One of Us
Last week at this time, we were all glued to our TV sets, watching the awful news out of Virginia Tech. As the number of dead and injured grew, we all understood the depth of the tragedy, but nobody knew the identity of the killer. As the day wore on, and rumors leaked out that the shooter might be Asian, many Asian Americans felt a sense of dread. And, when Seung-Hui Cho was identified, some in the Korean American community confronted a sense of shared responsibility. In an op-ed last week in the Los Angeles Times , Edward Taehan Chang, himself Korean-American, argued that he will not be able to completely shake his sense of responsibility for the tragedy, but he will try. The real lesson of Blacksburg, he says, is that we all need to reach across ethnic lines and racial boundaries to help people see that violence is never the answer. Is this sense of shared responsibility common among ethnic groups? Do you feel worse if you resemble the perpetrator of a crime?
Scott Cameron
12:59 PM ET
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04-23-2007
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Yeltsin Remembered
Sometimes the story of a fallen leader is best told through his or her own words... So today we're going to bring back some archival cuts of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin in the first hour. Then, in hour two, we'll bring on Russia expert Michael McFaul to give us a historical perspective of the man and his legacy. Do you have personal memories of Yeltsin and the tumultuous 90s... the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the coup attempt, the constitutional crisis, the food shortages?
Sarah Handel
12:58 PM ET
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04-23-2007
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The Tricky Semantics of the Abortion Debate
Last week, the Supreme Court's ban on the procedure called "intact dilation and extraction," (or "partial birth abortion" by its critics) added fuel to one of the most polarizing issues heating up the airwaves. It's a very confusing issue... particularly since some doctors don't even really understand what the ban will and will not allow. This hour we'll talk about what the ban means... and why this method of abortion is so controversial. For a fascinating primer on the issue, I highly recommend this Harpers article from 2004 ... it's not for the faint of heart, but it's really interesting to read, given the day's news.
Barrie Hardymon
12:57 PM ET
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04-23-2007
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A Day on the Hill
One of the best things about my job is the little part of my bio that says "back-up director." This means that while I don't often get to direct the show itself, save when the director goes away on a remote, or takes some time off, I often get the opportunity to direct coverage of things like press conferences and hearings. Sometimes, this takes me to exotic locales like the Hart Senate Office Building , where I directed coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales 's hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
What does that really mean? Well, let me set it up for you. First, it means I get the best folks in the building packed into a tiny little "booth" - essentially, a skybox for the hearing room. Our engineering and IT folks get there first and set the space up to function as a mini studio. I lucked out, drawing Tom Marchitto and Mike Czaplinski -- engineer and IT pro extraordinnaire -- and we had everything we needed. Neal hosted with "buddies" Ari Shapiro and Nina Totenberg (when I said I got the best, I meant it!), with Nina taking over for 10 solid minutes while Neal ducked out to join Talk of the Nation as a guest (anyone who's ever heard Nina's SCOTUS reports knows that she's a storyteller par excellence, so the time flew). Their seats in our little birds' nest above the hearing room gives them an advantage, since they can really set the scene for the listener, describing the grimace on a witness's face, the attire of interested parties in the viewing area, even which Senator is conferring with whom when the microphones are off. And thanks to the tenacity of super-booker Susan Lund, we even got a sweet interview with committee chair Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to close out the show... a grand finale that meant 7 people in our closet/studio, but the Senator was gracious and affable. I'm always happy to wrap up and stretch my legs at the end of a long day in our pint-sized perch, but there's nothing that compares to being there, on the hill for all the action.
Sarah Handel
8:32 AM ET
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04-23-2007
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April 19, 2007
Gonzales Under Fire
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced a tough morning of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee today ... with more to come this afternoon. In an opening statement , Gonzales defended the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, but acknowledged that the process could have... and should have... been handled differently. There were several tense moments, and harsh criticism from senators, including several Republicans. Gonzales is not only defending his particular actions in this case, but also making a broader case for keeping his job. If you've been following the testimony today, what do you think? Should he resign, or has he put those calls to rest?
Scott Cameron
1:02 PM ET
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04-19-2007
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Ask Amy: A Difficult Subject
My seven-year-old niece is visiting this week, and this morning, while were were munching our cereal, I flipped on Morning Edition report about the mass shootings Monday at Virginia Tech. It turned out my sister had already told her about the "sick man" who had killed so many people, but it made me wonder, how do you talk to kids about this kind of event, especially when it happens in their world, at school ? We'll talk to Amy Dickinson about it today (it is Thursday), as well as a child psychiatrist... so if you have questions about how to talk about this horrifying event with kids of any age, post them here.
Barrie Hardymon
1:00 PM ET
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04-19-2007
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The Muslim Brotherhood
It's a secretive organization devoted to spreading a fundamentalist version of Islam throughout the world. It preaches peace, but also offers support for suicide bombings and inspiration to violent jihadists. Newsweek journalist Michael Isikoff and colleague Mark Hosenball tracked down some of the most dynamic personalities in and around the Brotherhood . And in a documentary for PBS, were left wondering: Should the U.S. befriend or be-foe the Brotherhood?
Sarah Handel
11:04 AM ET
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04-19-2007
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Crackberry Outage Horror Stories
Yesterday's Blackberry outage helps explains why my Wednesday morning commute was a little crazier than usual. The blank stares of crackberry withdrawal is unmistakable (it sure seemed to me like there were more traffic accidents, and I'm sure more than one person walked into an inanimate object while installing new batteries on the go). The best (worst?) story of the great Blackberry outage of 2007 , though, was from this guy . Losing your primary connection to the outside world is tough enough, but losing your girlfriend because of lousy tech support seems just plain wrong. Any other horror stories from yesterday morning... meetings missed, deals blown, dates lost?
Scott Cameron
9:58 AM ET
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04-19-2007
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April 18, 2007
Blogosphere debates airing of Cho video
Almost as soon as NBC aired the video sent to it by Virginia Tech killer Sueng-hui Cho the blogosphere was responding. And not everything it was saying was particularly kind to NBC.
At the Webloggin blog the site's editor said that by airing the video Cho had "won."
Don't get me wrong here; I think the video and manifesto are newsworthy. I just think there are perhaps better ways to handle their release. I am opposed to the piecemeal release that NBC is already subjecting us to. It seems to me that NBC will be making this the story as opposed to the tragic and needless death of the innocent victims of Cho.
I truly want to understand what may have triggered the planned methodical killing but I don't want to do anything that would validate his actions. He was clearly mentally ill and the signs were there for many to see.
Not everyone, however, was so quick to condemn NBC's actions. Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing (and a contibutor to NPR's Day to Day ) has created a comprehensive package about the video as well as commentary from other blogs about Cho's actions.
Here is a breakdown of what NBC received from Cho, courtesy of The Watcher blog at the Chicago Tribune. The Associated Press also offers an extended version of the video that was shown by MSNBC.
Tom Regan
7:17 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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Predicting Violence
As we heard on the show yesterday , the suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shootings showed signs of trouble long before Monday. VT Professor Lucinda Roy told us that she was "very concerned" about Seung-Hui Cho and tried to reach out to the police, and counselors, to try to get help. Back in 2005, we heard this morning, Cho reportedly was accused of stalking two female students at VT. He was also taken to a mental health facility over worries that he was suicidal. All of which makes you wonder, could this have been prevented? Nobody knows for sure what drove Cho to violence on Monday morning, and we will likely never know. But, can violence ever be predicted?
Scott Cameron
2:17 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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Political Junkie
The attorney general may be nervous about his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow, but that's nothing compared to the butterflies Ken Rudin gets when he faces off against Neal Conan every Wednesday. Yes, it's political junkie day, and there's plenty to talk about. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, of course, faces a grilling in the senate tomorrow. There's a race for the governor's mansion in three states, including post-Katrina Louisiana. And the Virginia Tech shooting has taken on a political angle, as well. We'll talk with Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), about the renewed focus on gun control.
Scott Cameron
2:16 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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Wait, What Was I Writing About?
Yesterday, when I was leaving work, I kept everybody waiting for at least five minutes while I searched for my car keys. I emptied my purse, turned out my pockets, retraced my steps, and came up with nothing (don't you hate it when something jangles in your purse, and it's NOT your keys? I want to ban change for that reason ALONE). It turned out that I had forgotten that I'd purposefully put them on a certain corner of my desk just so I wouldn't lose them... and then piled a bunch of papers on top, helpfully. The thing is... that kind of thing does happen more as you get older... forties are fabulous, but also forgetful. In the new book Carved In Sand noggin running up to speed .
Barrie Hardymon
2:15 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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A SCOTUS First
The high court.
Source: David Banks, NPR
It's hard to think of anything but Virginia Tech making news today, but it turns out the Supreme Court has... for the first time ever , they've chosen to uphold a ban on an abortion procedure -- in this case, the procedure medically known as "intact dilation and extraction," or what critics call partial birth abortion. There's a lot of confusion about that term, and when and how often women undergo this procedure, and you can find a helpful explainer here . How did the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor from the bench and the addition of Justice Samuel A. Alito affect the decision? Is this a reasonable limit placed on an unfortunate procedure, or a stripping-away of a woman's right to choose? Court expert David Savage (officially, Supreme Court Reporter for the Los Angeles Times ) joins us to sift through the decision and its ramifications.
Sarah Handel
2:14 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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Being prepared for an emergency
Andy Carvin, who writes the Learning.Now blog for PBS (and who also works for NPR helping us create new ways for our visitors and audience to interact with us and with each other) writes about how events like Virginia Tech, once again, act as a wake-up call for better emergency preparedness .
I have no doubt that universities that don't have mandatory cell phone requirements or SMS alert systems are going to take the idea a lot more seriously now. But will K-12 schools? I'm skeptical. There is enormous opposition to allowing students to possess phones on campus, even though many parents argue they're necessary for emergency communications.
Some administrations will respond by saying the chances of a real emergency are slim, and students can't be trusted to use them responsibly. Yes, an emergency on the scale of Virginia Tech are few and far between, but smaller-scale emergencies do happen from time to time. When more school shootings happen - and they will happen - it's likely that more parents will be outraged by the fact their schools made it difficult or impossible to communicate with their children. And there will come a time when we will have no choice but to allow our students to carry communications devices. It may not be this month or even this year, but it will happen.
Tom Regan
2:12 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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The role of citizen journalism at VTech
Increasingly, ordinary people who find themselves in the middle of extraordinary events become citizen reporters, thanks to modern technology like cell phones that take digital pictures and video, or social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, or their own blogs.
OhMyNews.com , the South Korean citizen journalism site, makes this comment about the role played by student Jamal Albarghouti , who recorded a much-seen video on his cell phone.
Again, Albarghouti and his cellphone video have shown the power of the ordinary citizen to capture a news event. Granted that the efforts of ordinary people as citizen journalists are a matter for debate, the traditional media still make a reflexively negative comparison between citizen journalism and that provided by professionals. Interestingly, when presented with a citizen who sent an exclusive report to the mainstream media, as Albarghouti did to CNN's I-Report, they insist on wondering, in grudging amazement, "What made you record the event? How did you record it?"
Tom Regan
1:29 PM ET
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04-18-2007
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Hey, You Didn't Read My Email
Regular listeners know that Tuesday is the day we read from your emails and blog posts on the show. Needless to say, this week the news out of Virginia Tech took priority. Rather than filing away some perfectly good emails, though, I thought I'd post them here at the blog instead...
Our conversation last week about Don Imus's crude remarks directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team elicited hundreds of emails. Penny in Phoenix took issue with the argument, and the defense, that Imus just repeated words used everyday in hip hop music:
Continue reading "Hey, You Didn't Read My Email" »
Scott Cameron
11:03 AM ET
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04-18-2007
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The web search for Ismail Ax
Once the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that shooter Sueng-Hui Cho died with the words "Ismail Ax" written in red ink on his arm, it sparked a blogging and web search frenzy to find out what it meant.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the blogosphere was filled with postings about what the words might mean. Technorati.com, a web site that tracks the blogosphere, said that by late afternoon Tuesday, there were nearly 300 blog posts regarding Ismail Ax.
Sadly, after events like this one, some people do things that appear grotesque. The Morning Herald also reports that a TV repair shop owner in Corpus Christi, Texas, registered the domain name http://www.ismailax.com the morning after the shootings.
Tom Regan
9:33 AM ET
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04-18-2007
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World reaction to shootings condemns "gun culture"
The global response to the shootings at Virginia Tech was overwhelming sympathetic toward the victims and their families and just as overwhelming negative towards Americans' fascination with guns.
Some of the most severe criticism came from Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who is one of President Bush's most loyal allies in Iraq. The Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reports that Howard, who is currently in a tough re-election fight, told Australians that he would "ensure an American-style gun culture did not flourish in Australia ."
Mr Howard said the Federal Government had acted quickly after gunman Martin Bryant went on a rampage and killed 35 people in Port Arthur in southeastern Tasmania, Australia, in 1996.
"We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."
Tom Regan
9:14 AM ET
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04-18-2007
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Portrait of shooter emerging
Two days after one of the worst mass shootings in the history of the United States, a portrait of killer Seung-Hui Cho is being to emerge.
The Washington Post reports that when Cho was so disturbing to his professors at Virginia Tech, that when Prof. Lucinda Roy offered to teach him poetry one-on-one, colleagues asked if she wanted protection . Roy also told CNN that she was so worried about Cho's behavior that she went to the police and university officials with her concerns.
USAToday reports that fellow students "laughed nervously" when he read scenes of violence and mayhem in his playwriting class. "I guess you could say the signs were there, and now they're just clear in retrospect," said classmate Stephanie Derry.
McClatchy says authorities are having troubles finding out details about him because he was so isolated. Even very few in the close-knit South Korean community on campus [there are about 750 students from South Korea or of South Korean descent attending Virginia Tech] know much about him.
His roommates, interviewed by ABCNews , said that he was a loner who barely spoke to them. Roommate from previous years (Cho was a senior) said Cho "stalked" three different women and that one of them was so "freaked out by his behavior" that she called the police on him.
Tom Regan
8:55 AM ET
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04-18-2007
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April 17, 2007
Why it's important to be careful
Blogs have been a valuable source of information for NPR and other media outlets since the shooting started yesterday. There are, however, advantages to the old habits of mainstream media (MSM as the bloggers call us). One of them is making sure our the facts check out before you put them publish, broadcast or post them.
Wired reports that many bloggers originally misidentified the shooter in yesterday's rampage at Virginia Tech, linking to "to the LiveJournal blog of a particular 23-year-old gun nut in Virginia." It turned out that this person was not connected to the shootings.
We'll be offline for a few hours. Back later tonight.
Tom Regan
5:25 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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Remembering the Victims
Details on what happened on the campus of Virginia Tech yesterday morning are still coming out. By now you know that more than thirty are dead, at least twenty others injured, and a gunman has been identified. We're also hearing more about who the victims were. And those men and women, young students and dedicated professors, are the focus of our first-hour today. We'll talk with friends and family members, co-workers and professors, about the people they remember . A long-time faculty member will join us. In a sad twist, the shooter was a student in her class.
Scott Cameron
2:00 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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The Great American Novel...
Wanna write that novel? You can do it... says Walter Mosley! Easy for him to say... he's written twenty-five . But he's got some good advice for all you aspiring writers, and some of it is as simple as just do it. Please... if you've got writer's block, ask your questions here... we'll bring them to the master.
Barrie Hardymon
2:00 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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Reports: Gunman left list of grievances
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho left a "rambling and invective-filled" list of grievances in his room.
A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus. Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said that while she didn't teach Cho herself, she had spoken to Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who described Cho as "troubled."
Prof. Rude said she wasn't sure when Cho had been referred for counseling or what the outcome had been.
Tom Regan
1:26 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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Preparing for the convocation this afternoon
The Roanoke Times is blogging about what's happening in the Blacksburg area today, including preparations for this afternoon's convocation in memory of the victims.
Correspondent Ralph Berrier Jr. writes that people are already lining up to get into Cassell Coliseum.
Farther down the street, in downtown Blacksburg, it looks a little like a Virginia Tech Game Day. Plenty of students are crossing streets and walking along sidewalks. Almost every one of them is wearing an orange or maroon shirt or sweatshirt. Near Cassell Coliseum, there are marching band members on the sidewalk and more crowds of orange-and-maroon-clad students.
Not unlike Game Day, there's already a tremendously long line at the front doors of the coliseum. But these people waiting along Washington Street and down Spring Street are in line for the 2 p.m. convocation to mourn Monday's mass shooting that killed 33 people, including a shooter identified as 23-year-old [Seung-Hui Cho], a senior majoring in English at Tech.
Someone is holding a sign that reads "Support Steger," a reference to Tech President Charles Steger, who with other officials has drawn criticism for the decision to continue classes after two students were found shot Monday morning. Two hours later, 31 more died by gunfire and 15 were injured, some as they leapt from classroom windows to escape.
Also, the paper has created a guest book for people to leave their thoughts about the shootings and those who died.
Tom Regan
12:28 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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Partial list of victims
NPR has a partial list of the names of students and faculty killed in Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech university.
Tom Regan
12:18 PM ET
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04-17-2007
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Virginia Tech librarian describes communication problems
A Virginia Tech college librarian (who was working at his library's reference desk when the shootings started) in an e-mail sent to friends after the shooting, talks about how difficult it must have been for school officials to let students, faculty and staff know about the events.
I watched from upstairs, marveling at how many people were still outside, and some in the building who hadn't heard anything. Communication of the event was very much a case of who had a cell phone or wireless device before the bandwidth got constipated. (The campus web server soon crashed, taking down a big chunk of web-based email capacity with it.) I don't know how instructors in class were informed of the events, since the emergency phone message system goes to office phones, not personal ones. With MP3 players taking the place of car radios, I'm not surprised that people in transit across campus would not have heard the newscasts.
Tom Regan
11:58 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Thoughts from a Virginia Tech Graduate
Talk of the Nation 's webmaster Paul Heltzel, a Virginia Tech alumnus, has this personal account of yesterday's events unfolding...
Around lunchtime on Monday, I told the news shift editor at NPR.org I could cover for him while he grabbed something to eat. Watching the wires for just an hour was no big deal. I kidded with him and said: "What's the worst that can happen?"
Soon after, like a cruel joke, I saw a wire report that someone was shot and killed on the Virginia Tech campus. Then, quickly the report was revised... the wires reporting dozens killed with nearly as many wounded. I scrambled to set up the breaking news on our front page.
From 1992-1993, I edited the college newspaper at Virginia Tech, the Collegiate Times. Yesterday, I continually pinged my old college paper's web site. The staff was writing quick descriptions of what was happening on campus. All the traffic they were getting was crushing their server.
I was assigned to work with Noah Adams, who was writing a short Web story about the Virginia Tech campus. "I keep thinking, it feels like the day Kent State became the Kent State," I told him. It was heart breaking.
Paul Heltzel is an associate producer at NPR.org.
Sarah Handel
11:50 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Virginia Tech sports cancelled
Until Monday, most people knew Virgina Tech as the home of the Hokies' sports teams, particularly in football and men's basketball. The Hokies' website carries the announcement that all practices and sporting events have been cancelled. There is an inter-squad spring football game scheduled for this Saturday in Blacksburg (the culmination of the team's spring training sessions) but there is no word yet on whether or not it will be played.
Tom Regan
11:23 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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South Korean media react to news of shooter's nationality
South Korean media have stated to respond to news that the shooter in yesterday's carnage at Virginia Tech was a South Korean national.
The Korean Times provides coverage of the announcement (their site shows it's already the day's mostly widely read story). The newspaper JoongAnn Ilbo provides more information about the shooter , including that the Korean Foreign Ministry said his family lived in Centreville, Fairfax County, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
The official said late last night that he hoped the incident would not "evolve into a racial incident." He said Korean Americans were being urged to take "necessary precautions," but he didn't specify anything further.
The Korean Herald reports that President Roh Moo-hyun sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the shooting.
Virginia Tech has 763 Korean undergraduate and graduate students.
Tom Regan
10:45 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Norris Hall shooter identified
University police have confirmed the identity of the gunman in yesterday's killing spree in Blacksburg. His name is Cho Seung-Hui. NPR is using Seung-Hui Cho. (South Korean convention sometimes call sof the last name to be used first.) He is a registered alien of South Korean nationality. He was born January 18, 1984.
The police chief also said that victims were found in four different classrooms and in stairwells in Norris Hall. Ballistic experts also said that the gun used in the shootings at West Johnson Amber Hall early Monday morning is the same gun used later in the shootings in Norris Hall. Police said they could not yet confirm it was the same shooter in both incidents.
Tom Regan
9:25 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Roundup of blogging comments
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit provides a comprehensive roundup of comments , mostly from conservative but also from liberal blogs and sites, about the shootings and the aftermath.
Tom Regan
9:12 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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A normal day in Iraq
Larry Johnson, who writes the No Quarter blog, makes the following observation - the carnage that happened yesterday in Blacksburg would only be a normal day's death toll in Iraq. He points out that just this past Saturday, 19 bodies were found in Baghdad, while 37 people were killed when a car bomb exploded near the Shrine of the Martyrs in Karbala.
He adds that Americans should think about how they are feeling at this moment the next time a government or military official talks about "a good day" in Iraq.
Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.
The people of Iraq are living in a Marquis de Sade version of Groundhog Day. It is like the Bill Murray movie--the same horrible day repeated with some new, bizarre twists--only not funny. Multiple body counts and explosions and shootings are the daily experience of the people of Iraq. They have been living this hell for four years. Just keep that fact in mind as you mourn the deaths of [32] American students slain in Blacksburg, Viginia.
Middle East expert Juan Cole makes the same observation on his Informed Comment blog, noting that Iraq has two Virginia Tech-like incidents a day.
Tom Regan
8:43 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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All injured students in stable condition
Scott Hill, a spokesman for the Montgomery Regional Hospital - one of the two Blacksburg, Virginia hospitals where 12 students who were injured in yesterday's shootings - is telling the media at this moment that all the students at both hospitals are in stable condition, and one will probably be discharged later today.
Tom Regan
8:19 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Facebook reactions to shootings
CollegiateTimes.com, the news website at Virginia Tech, has a selection of some of the postings on the social networking site 'Facebook' that have appeared since yesterday's shootings.
One group created by Tech Student Tim Hall is called "April 16, 2007 - A Moment of Silence" and has 8,712 members thus far.
"It was like having a good dream and waking up in the middle of a nightmare," Hall said. "Virginia Tech needed unity. By expressing what I felt on Facebook, I knew the entire campus would rally and support the group. We are going through one of those rare times when every student on campus is feeling the same emotion: emptiness. It was my way of bringing the university together and showing my classmates that the entire country supports us. It is truly an amazing way of watching our beautiful country come together to start the healing process."
CollegiateTimes.com lists several other groups on Facebook connected to the shootings. Anyone can read the postings, although it is necessary to register at the site.
The college news site also offers a first-hand account by one of the students who was in one of the classrooms were the gunman opened fired. Erin Sheehan was one of only four people to walk out of her German class after the shooting.
Tom Regan
7:43 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Families identify two professors killed Monday
Two engineering professors, one from India and one from Israel, were among those killed in Monday's shootings.
Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, blocked the gunman from entering his classroom and was shot. The Jerusalem Post reports that Prof. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, died but "but all the students [in his classroom] lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Israeli Army Radio.
Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the son, Joe.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Also killed was Professor G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
"We all feel like we have had an electric shock, we do not know what to do," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. "He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force."
Loganathan, who was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, had been at Virginia Tech since 1982.
Tom Regan
7:15 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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Norris Hall gunman identified as Asian male student
Although the exact identity of the gunman is not known, Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech told CNN this morning that the shooter in Norris Hall was an Asian male student who was a resident in one of the universities dormitories. Steger is still not sure if this gunman is the same one who shot two people in West Amber Johnson Hall early Monday morning, but he did say he did not think a second gunman was still loose.
Tom Regan
7:11 AM ET
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04-17-2007
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April 16, 2007
The way things work
Much of the news coverage today was based on a video shot on a cell phone by a Virginia Tech grad student, who then sent the video to CNN's I-Report section. The show recorded police responding to a series of shots, 27 in total, outside Norris Hall.
The grad student was Jamal Albarghouti, a Palestinian from the West Bank. As he told CNN, he has seen similar incidents at home, or in Saudi Arabia where he also lived, but didn't expect to ever see anything like this in Blacksburg.
It's odd the way life works. A Palestinian provides the world with reporting on one of the most violent incidents in the history of the US, rather than the other way around.
Tom Regan
6:00 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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Conservative bloggers say shooting shows that gun laws don't work.
Conservative bloggers are saying that Virginia Tech's ban on hand guns was one reason that the gunman was able to shoot people at will. Just last week, the Roanoke Times reported on the legal attempts to overturn the university's ban on handguns .
The Disloyal Opposition blog brings up a similar incident at "the Appalachian Law School, which ended when two armed students drew their weapons and disarmed the shooter."
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit writes there had been an attempt in the Virginia legislature last January to allow students and employees to carry handguns on campuses in the state, but the bill did not make it out of the subsommittee stage . Perhaps if the bill had passed, he writes, "things might have turned out differently, but we'll never know."
Michelle Malkin has more on the gun ban , along with some eye witness reports from students who were on the campus.
But the Politics Junky website says baloney .
Events like today's are NOT an example of how looser gun laws protect law abiding people but how guns in the hands of lunatics kill innocents. And you never know who is going to snap when.
Tom Regan
5:30 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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Virginia Tech president: 33 confirmed dead
Virginia Tech president Charles Steger, who is speaking at a news conference at this moment, says that 33 people were killed in today's shooting - 31 at Norris Hall, the engineering department facility, and two in the West Ambler Johnston student resident. Steger added that it's not yet known if the two incidents are connected.
Mr. Steger also said that the identity of the shooter had not been confirmed. And he asked students to contact their parents, since communications systems on the campus were overloaded.
University police Chief Wendell Flinchum told the press conference that the gunman in Norris Hall did take his own life. He also said that the first two people were shot in a student's room in the residence. He could not confirm how many of those dead were students and how many were faculty. He did say that some of the bodies are still in Norris Hall.
Tom Regan
4:45 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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Video taken from cell phone
Pajamas Media offers this link to CNN video shot on a student's cell phone as the shootings at Norris Hall were taking place.
Tom Regan
4:05 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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E-mail timeline of notices about shooting
Kristin Maynard, a student at Virginia Tech, said she received this e-mail from the administration this morning at 9:26 a.m.
A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.
The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411
Stay attuned to the www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information.
Then came this message at 9:50 a.m.
A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows
Finally, at 10:16 a.m.
Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus.
Tom Regan
3:34 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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"My friends could be dead."
Bryce Carter, a student at Virginia Tech posted this note on his journal . Carter was just getting out of class when the shooting started today.
Tears run as the death count climbs. Currently 32 are dead.
I cannot begin to describe the pain that runs through me now. The anger, loss, and the unknown.
The only thing I do know is that a list awaits. A list in which may include a friend or several. A list of passion, dreams, aspirations, of life and hope-- suddenly gone.
Time has suspended.
I look at Foxnew's website to see pictures of the dead being carried out of Norris hall. I feel removed, like this isn't happening here right now. It is on the news someplace far away, and I can just turn off the TV to make it go away.
My friends could be dead. Tears continue.
Tom Regan
3:30 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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"He was hanging out the window when the gunman came in"
The Roanoke Times has regular updates on the shootings, including this description of a student who escaped the carnage by hanging out the window of his classroom.
One man was hanging out the window of a Norris Hall classroom when the gunman entered, according to freshman Douglas Cobb.
Cobb said that Jake Grohs, the resident assistant for the fourth floor of Peddrew-Yates residence hall, told him he climbed out the window of an engineering class as the gunman apparently made his way from room to room in Norris.
"He was in the room next door to the shooting" and decided to try climbing out the second-story window, Cobb said. "He was hanging out the window when the person came in" and heard people being shot, Cobb said. He said that four of six people who were in the room at that time where shot.
Grohs jumped out the window onto a hill and is OK, Cobb said.
Cobb and other friends showed up at the Inn at Virginia Tech this afternoon to try to get information about a missing friend.
Tom Regan
3:03 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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FBI: Death toll now at least 30
Two FBI sources have now told NPR that more than 30 people are dead after today's shooting at Virginia Tech.
Tom Regan
2:43 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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Coverage from Virginia Tech
CollegiateTimes.com , Virginia Tech's student news website, is providing coverage of the shootings on the campus, including the latest statements by local and campus police. (CollegiateTimes.com is actually down because of the situation in the Blacksburg area, but is being carried by CollegeMedia.com.) Their coverage includes a timeline of events on the campus, and a graphic that shows the shootings locations .
The Virginia Tech website has asked that families wishing to reunite with students may meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech. There will also be a convocation for tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Cassell Coliseum for the university community to come together to begin to deal with the tragedy.
The student radio station, WUVT, is working to get its broadcast of today's shootings on the Web. You can find out more here about what it's doing to make an MP3 cast available.
Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg and Hokies football coach Frank Beamer responded to the news of the tragedy at ESPN . Greenburg was on the campus, and was interviewing a job applicant when the shooting started. after the shooting he started a frantic search to find his daughter, Paige, a freshman on the campus, and the players on his team. He contacted them by using text messaging since the phones were jammed.
Tom Regan
2:18 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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Information on shootings
If you were at Virginia Tech today and have any information on the shootings, we would like to hear from you. Use the comment feature, and send us your name and phone number so that we can contact you. Please put at the top of your comment FOR NEWS PURPOSES ONLY, and we'll make sure that we send your information to our news desk at NPR and not post it to the blog. We will not post it live to the blog.
Tom Regan
2:00 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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"Tragedy of Monumental Proportions"
Calling it a "tragedy of monumental proportions" Virginia Tech president Charles Steger said that the entire campus is "shocked and indeed horrified" at the shootings on campus today that took the lives of at least 22 people, including the gunman. Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, in southwest Virginia.
The Associated Press reports that shootings occured on opposite ends of the campus; first at residential housing facility West Ambler Johnston, and then two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building. Police said that some, but not all, of the dead were students.
The name of the gunman was not released and it was not known if he was a student.
Tom Regan
1:38 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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The Worst Kind of Breaking News: Multiple Fatalities in Virginia Tech Shooting
We had all been quietly sighing about the Virginia Tech shooting this morning; going about our business, shaking our heads, hoping for the best. Then, a horrified gasp, when the Blacksburg police spokesman spoke a dreaded number: "at least 20 fatalities." It's the deadliest shooting on a campus since 1966 at the University of Texas. We'll be covering this for sure... it's just dreadful, and of course several NPR reporters are on their way to Virginia. I'm handing off our coverage now to our new news blogger, Tom Regan...
Barrie Hardymon
1:04 PM ET
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04-16-2007
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A Community United, Surviving
Leroy Sievers has had an illustrious bunch of titles in his previous life as a veteran newsman, including former Executive Producer of Nightline. But today, we'll be talking to him as the leader of an online community connected by the hardest news anyone is likely to get: a cancer diagnosis. Sievers has become something of a support celebrity , writing a daily NPR blog called My Cancer since February 2006, discussing how he's surviving; good days and bad days . Today he'll be in studio 4A in front of an audience of people who are all part of the My Cancer community he's created, and he'll have a chance to talk with people he may know already from comments on his blog, as well as those who also are detailing their struggles with the disease, like Lauren Terrazzano . Elizabeth Edwards , wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, will also join the conversation, and we hope you'll weigh in here too, if cancer has been a part of your life.
Barrie Hardymon
11:58 AM ET
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04-16-2007
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Ripken - Full Disclosure
Full Disclosure:Aberdeen Arsenal , a team in the independent Atlantic League that was half owned by Ripken Baseball (the other half owner was Maryland Baseball).Aberdeen, Maryland is an unlovely city in Harford County, squeezed between the rail lines of the Northeast Corridor and I-95. Farther east lies the Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds , which cut the town off from the Chesapeake Bay. While parts of the residential areas are very nice indeed, much of downtown consists of the kinds of facilities familiar to any town adjacent to an army base. And the Ripken Museum .
Continue reading "Ripken - Full Disclosure" »
Neal Conan
6:43 AM ET
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04-16-2007
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April 12, 2007
What's Your Border?
An Arizona ocotilla.
Source: Barrie Hardymon
As I said in a previous post , when we're lucky enough to take this show on the road, usually the story finds us... and here in Tucson, it's immigration. Erin Deely, one of our lovely hosts here at KUAZ (did I mention how nice everyone is here?), said to me, "Your opinion about immigration depends entirely upon your experience with it." She went on to say how virulently she had found herself disagreeing with people about it, even close family members, because the way they live the issue is so different. Well, this hour, we'll be talking to people about their stories and experiences, and how it's influenced their feelings about immigration. Tucson isn't the only border town out there, so please, tell us what it's like where you live; whether it's Texas, California, even Florida. What's your story?
Barrie Hardymon
2:00 PM ET
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04-12-2007
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The Results Are In...and It Depends !
Finally! All of you who were nice enough to sit through five whole minutes of uncomfortable personal questions ... we have tallied and counted and we've got the results! (You can compare yourself to Tucson, home of "environmentally responsible" masseuses.) So many people who took our ethics and values survey complained that their answers simply couldn't be classified into "yes" or "no," that it almost seems like there are no rules to morality at all... only rules for social mores *. As promised, we'll give you the results of our survey, but, we're curious... what constitutes a moral issue for you? An ethical one? Weigh in. It won't take as long as the survey, I promise.
*This is not a frivolous link. I highly recommend it as a basic moral philosophy refresher. Plus, it will help you justify that grape stealing in the supermarket.
Barrie Hardymon
1:55 PM ET
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04-12-2007
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Isn't "Cowboy" Just A Synonym For "Poet?"
If your blood runs red, blue, and black (see the NPR logo ), then the words Baxter Black probably make you just feel good. If you're not, take a look at this man's mustache , and fall in love all over again. He's in Tucson with us, so if you have questions or comments about cowboys, poets, large animals, veterinarians, or mustaches (seriously, Mr. Bolton , step aside), post 'em here.
Barrie Hardymon
1:50 PM ET
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04-12-2007
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April 10, 2007
Dear Washington DC,
Don't you wish you were here?
Source: Az~Kate
I'm sorry, but I just don't miss you now that I'm in Tucson. Sure, you're the seat of government, and you've got beautiful monuments with all kinds of nice stuff written on them, but honestly, the minute I stepped foot off the plane and saw these mountains, I felt resentful of your swampy self. Tucson is dry and balmy, and filled with brightly colored vegatation , plus, everyone is so darn nice here that I really don't miss your lawyers, lobbyists, and...er...journalists. Everyone here is wearing flip-flops, and a nice woman came up to us at lunch and offerend us coupons for enviromentally responsible massages (I kid you not.) Plus we had great food , and even better desserts (I had a lemon square, Neal had strawberry pie).
While I'm enjoying the weather, go take our survey on ethics and values . It's the right thing to do. Then Tune in for Tucson on Thursday (TTT), and listen to the results.
Barrie Hardymon
5:38 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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Surveylicious
Take our survey! It's short (maybe 5 minutes), painless, and completely anonymous, so you're the only one who will know if you steal grapes from the supermarket. It will gauge where you stand on issues that might be considered in the grey area of the moral continuum. As a bribe, I will admit one more morally suspect answer from the survey (see here for my questionable opinion on a food/floor connection). I have, in fact, watched television on a beautiful day. And not even particularly improving television, I'm afraid. Now go take the survey yourself, and be glad that it's anonymous. Then tune in for the results in our second hour on Thursday, April 12th.
Take the Talk of the Nation/Arizona Daily Star Ethics/Morality/Values Quiz!
Barrie Hardymon
4:20 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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Imus' Verbal Implosion
Don Imus brought a whole world of trouble down upon himself with a racist , sexist insult at the expense of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Imus apologized , and faces a two week suspension , but that hasn't satisfied everybody. Rev. Al Sharpton said he should be fired, and so have plenty of other critics including the Today show's Al Roker . Rev. Jesse Jackson plans further protests . It's not anything new for a talk show host to put their foot in their mouth, but after Michael Richards , Mel Gibson , and who knows how many others, shouldn't any high-profile media celebrity know better? Were you offended by Imus' comments? Do you think he'll he be able to recover from this? And does the outcry against his remarks show social progress, or over sensitivity?
Scott Cameron
2:00 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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Laying Down the Law on Laptops
Okay, put down the laptop and step away from the keyboard... that's it, back away slowly and no grades will be lowered. Actually, grades may not be at risk, but laptops are out in Professor David Cole 's law classes. He teaches at Georgetown Law School , and is sick of staring into a sea of blank-faced students with dancing fingers quietly googling, or instant messaging instead of say, learning. Sure, students had crosswords and comics before laptops, but the most common response he gets in class these days: "Could you repeat the question?" So, he banned laptops in class, and 80% of his students told him they were more engaged in class discussions. No surprise, 95% also confessed that they used their laptops for "purposes other than taking notes" during lectures. I'm sure the same can be said in business. So, does a laptop ban make your typing fingers seize in fear? And while you're at it, give us some of your favorite time-wasters in class or meetings.
Scott Cameron
12:55 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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Think Before you Send!
The other day I received this e-mail from my esteemed co-blogger...
SARAH --
I DON'T know what you were thinking when you didn't pull the tape for that thing on Thursday! (1 and 2) It's not like you're too busy BLOGGING or anything.(3) AND you totally owe me $20 -- I had to take money out of our petty cash drawer this morning for my latte (sshh don't tell anyone) (4).
Anyway, I would ask you to come out after work, but I think the bar will be crowded, so... better stay home.(5) Maybe another time we can have a drink in the stairwell after the show starts and work out our problems. (6)
Barrie Hardymon
According to today's guests, David Shipley and Will Schwalbe , Barrie made a TON of mistakes with this little missive, and lucky for her I've got their book, Send Strunk&White e-mail age . Can you figure out the six things she did incorrectly? Have you ever sent or received an e-mail that was just all wrong?
Sarah Handel
12:50 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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The Inscrutable Sanjaya Malakar
What is it about American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar that has everybody talking? He's not a great singer , he can't dance... so why is he even still on the show? Is it the hair ? Is it the smile? Whatever it is, he's getting more popular, not less, and the judges hardly seem to know what to do with him. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson thinks they should stop letting him slide so that the real talent can shine ... are you voting for Sanjaya? Why?
Sarah Handel
12:45 PM ET
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04-10-2007
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April 9, 2007
Are Blacks Vanishing from Baseball?
Jackie Robinson smashed the color barrier in major league baseball , and lead the way for greats like Hank Aaron , Willie Mays , Ernie Banks , Ken Griffey Jr. , and Barry Bonds , just to name a few. But, with the new season in full swing , there's growing concern that black ballplayers are disappearing from major league ballparks... and from neighborhood diamonds and the stands, too. Hall of Famer Dave Winfield thinks the game is hurting, and has lost touch with African-Americans, and with young fans. Others wonder, "when Griffey and Bonds leave the game, who will be left .... It keeps getting harder to come up with prominent African-American players." Dave Winfield has a plan to improve diversity in baseball, and to reach out to more African-Americans. We'll get some of his thoughts. What do you think about the number of African-Americans in the major leagues?
Scott Cameron
1:55 PM ET
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04- 9-2007
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Questioning Women in Combat
Now that the 15 British marines and sailors held by Iran are free ... and freely talking about their experience... the debate around their capture has shifted a bit. Should they sell their stories? Who came out ahead in the diplomatic standoff, if anyone? And, in an op-ed over the weekend, Kathleen Parker wonders, "why a once-great power such as Britain sends mothers of toddlers to fight its battles." Not only was the only female in the group in danger of physical attack, she argues, but Parker asserts that "positioning women to become pawns of propaganda... is called aiding and abetting the enemy." Do you agree that the U.S. military is "weaning men of their intuitive inclination to protect women," as Parker agues? Or do women belong in combat roles just as much as men?
Scott Cameron
1:48 PM ET
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04- 9-2007
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Olive Oil or Toilet Tissue...
... what's your threshold? Two New Yorkers have found theirs is pretty high while living a "No Impact" lifestyle -- eating only food (organically) grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan; producing no trash except compost; using no paper; and no carbon-fueled transportation. Colin Beavan, his wife, two year old daughter, and dog are conducting a radically environment-friendly life, which may seem extreme to those of us who really, really like toilet paper. Check out Colin's chronicle of his lifestyle here , and feel free to ask questions about how to make your own sourdough bread (toasted, with honey, it's delicious for breakfast!). And FYI, Colin will be joining us from our New York Bureau, which is on the 19th floor... for No Impact Man, elevators are out. Forgive him if he's out of breath.
Barrie Hardymon
12:00 PM ET
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04- 9-2007
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What Makes a Journalist a Journalist?
When 2005's G8 summit protests got violent, injuring a San Francisco police officer and immolating a cop car, videographer and blogger Josh Wolf got some of the demonstrations on tape . Prosecutors thought that tape might help them with their case, so they asked him for the outtakes. He refused, citing First Amendment protections as a journalist, though he didn't actually have tape of the attack against the police officer or the vehicle. And he went to jail... for a long time. More than seven months, longer than anyone claiming to be a journalist. He's out now, and on our air. Is a blogger truly a journalist? Josh says yes, the Feds say no. What do you think?
Sarah Handel
11:15 AM ET
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04- 9-2007
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Way Better Than the Cosmo Quiz
We're heading out for Tucson tomorrow, for our Thursday remote broadcast at the University of Arizona's Eller Theater (Arizonans, please come! Tickets here ). Our second hour show from Arizona is a collaboration (well, we cribbed it honestly) with the Arizona Daily Star, which asked Tucson area residents to fill out a survey to gauge where they are on issues that may be in the grey area of the moral continuum (sample question: Have you ever served food that fell on the floor? I have to admit, I'm a great fan of the three second rule-- and in my mother's house (squeaky-clean), I'll stretch it to ten seconds.) We'd like to sample Talk of the Nation listeners as well, so, to that end, please fill out this sample quiz . It contains 10 categories, should take about five minutes, and is completely anonymous, so you're the only one who will know if you steal grapes from the supermarket. Then tune in for the results in our second hour on Thursday, April 12th.
Take the Talk of the Nation/Arizona Daily Star Ethics/Morality/Values Quiz!
Barrie Hardymon
10:16 AM ET
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04- 9-2007
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April 5, 2007
I Am Not a Government
We've got a whole federal organization for international diplomacy, which employs thousands of people, in hundreds of embassies all over the world, as well as right here in Washington, DC. Still, it seems everyone wants a piece of the bridge-building and road-to-peace paving action, as private citizens head abroad to try their hands at extending peace and prosperity across the globe. But what effects do these more personal efforts have, especially when they're not always conducted with presidential approval ?
Sarah Handel
1:55 PM ET
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04- 5-2007
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Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman
It's a rough time of year for teenagers across the country with angst levels rising to code orange. High schoolers wait by their mailboxes as if they were telephones, waiting for that thick envelope that will hold the relief of a college acceptance (and it's not just mailboxes they're haunting either ). Lately though, more and more kids are facing the heartbreak of the skinny envelope; as more kids apply to college, the space at colleges shrinks . Ivy League schools in particular rejected record numbers of stellar applicants; a perfect SAT score isn't enough to get into Harvard and Yale any more. What's the best way to console a child who's been rejected from their first, second, or even third choice? "Ask Amy" columnist Amy Dickinson is here to answer all your questions.
Barrie Hardymon
1:54 PM ET
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04- 5-2007
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Making Football Look Like Croquet
Who needs a new do?
Source: Carlos Osorio/AP
It's got good guys , bad guys , beautiful women , thickly muscled men . The music is great, the crowd is pumped and painted, and the show never ends. No, it's not a revival of Rent , it's pro-wrestling, and it's not to be scoffed at. Wrestlemania 23 packed in 80,000 fans to the Ford Field stadium in Detroit last Sunday, where each and every fan got to see a show of epic proportions (I'm not kidding: Donald Trump shaved Vince McMahon's head -- don't you wish it had been then other way around?) We've got a pretty amazing show lined up for you (Mick Foley!!! ), so if you want to express your love for Wrestlemania, or even your disgust, go ahead and do it here. The only thing we won't tell you is how to pile drive someone.
Barrie Hardymon
1:53 PM ET
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04- 5-2007
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John Kerry Hits Homerun (Seriously)
Neal is, without question, the biggest baseball fan at TOTN, though not the only baseball fan. He is however, the sole New York Yankees fan on the staff. In the interests of keeping my job I will not say anything further on that subject, except that I do hail from Massachusetts (as do a few others on the staff), and do not share his sentiments. All this is to say (I swear I'm getting to the John Kerry part) that no matter where you end up, it's important to be able to follow your hometown team, and thanks to the erstwhile presidential candidate, that's going to be marginally possible. At the beginning of the month Major League Baseball announced an exclusive $700 million, seven-year agreement with DirecTV, which would have been great for people with access to DirecTV, but not for those who don't. Enter Senator Kerry, who pushed more negotiations, ending with good news that Red Sox and Yankees fans can agree on (but that's it). We'll give you a chance to thank him here.
Barrie Hardymon
1:52 PM ET
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04- 5-2007
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The Consequences of "Come on Down!"
It's your reward for coming down with the flu: as soon as you feel well enough to focus, you can click on the television and spend the late morning with everyone's favorite game show host, Bob Barker on The Price is Right . You get to play along with the pricing games at home (how much for that chandelier? And does the price of a blender end with a 4 or a 9?), cross your fingers for the contestants during Plinko and Hole in One , and hold your breath through the Showcase Showdown . But can you imagine actually hearing your name called as "the next contestant on the Price is Right!"? Our guest Shellani Jensen did, AND she won big. The catch? Paying taxes on her winnings wasn't nearly so sweet as her victory. Have you ever been on the receiving end of a windfall, only to turn around and find the tax man with his hand out? How'd you satisfy him, and did it change how you felt about your win?
Sarah Handel
1:51 PM ET
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04- 5-2007
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April 4, 2007
Mental Health Resources
On yesterday's show about depression our health policy correspondent Joanne Silberner gave out a bunch of online resources, and we promised to post them here... we were waylaid by yesterday's flood . Fear not, I've got them for you now, courtesy of Joanne.
MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of HealthNational Alliance on Mental Illness
Mental Health America
Also:The National Institute of Mental Health
... and one Joanne didn't mention on air, but says, "it's a good one, consumer website of the American Psychiatric Association."Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives.
And finally, a recommendation from guest Dr. David Miklowitz:
The Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Sarah Handel
6:12 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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Yes, But Will The Ark Have Wireless?
Third floor, flooded!
Source: Barrie Hardymon
It's been a rough couple hours here at headquarters... a broken valve caused a series of alarms, a minor flood, and a mini-evacuation (full disclosure: I evacuated to a nearby CVS for a Skor bar. Remember those? Delish.) However, our internet connection ebbed a bit, so apologies for any comments that didn't get posted in a timely manner. There's no way to say this without sounding either gauche or naive, but when the internet goes down, it's completely paralyzing. You know that feeling when the power's out, and you keep flipping the switch on anyway? The whole afternoon felt that way... I had to reacquaint myself with the physical paper, which I found, to my horror, was filled with yesterday's news. However, the pictures are better, and to be honest, it felt delightfully retro to drive home with ink under my fingertips. Even better, I discovered a few quirky stories hiding in the back of the Times, that I would have missed without the mini-flood. I see what Neal's talking about with his "daily ink transfusion," but for me, I absorb the light from my computer monitor like a solar power; here's hoping I can get my fix again tomorrow.
Barrie Hardymon
5:55 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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Depressed, or Merely Dispirited?
Depression is a booming market in this country; the anti-depressant market alone is a 12 billion dollar industry. But a new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry , seems to indicate that the guidelines for diagnosing the depression are too broad, and that many people who are treated for the illness may simply be responding to life stresses such as divorce, or financial strain. Of course this has wide-ranging implications for psychiatry, but it also has interesting philosophical ones as well. Are we too quick to prescribe a pill for what may be simply the stress of life experience? (What would modern psychiatrists have done with Kierkegaard ?) We'll also talk about new studies on bipolar disorder, showing that intense psychotherapy can really help with bipolar depression, while antidepressants, and their side effects, don't help as much as originally thought.
Barrie Hardymon
1:50 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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Political Junk-ette
Our Political Junkie, Ken Rudin, regrets to inform you that he is unable to provide your fix today. But never fear, his most worthy stand-in, NPR national political reporter Mara Liasson, has consented to talk politics with us today. On tap for today... presidential hopefuls are cracking open their war chests and counting up what's inside (hint: for Obama and Hillary it's not small change), and speaking of funding, the president and Congress continue to wrangle over a bill for the troops... and Nancy Pelosi takes a trip to Damascus without the blessing of the State Department. It's time to dish on all things politic and impolitic; what's on your mind?
Barrie Hardymon
1:49 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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I Love You, But I'm Not Sleeping With You
It's the best part of couplehood , right? Someone to cuddle, to hand you that glass of water, shake you awake from bad dreams, remember the words you shout in your sleep. But what about the snoring, the restless legs, the cover-stealing? Even a sleep-number bed can't solve those problems. So, it seems more and more couples are doing it the way Lucy and Ricky did: sleeping in separate beds . And there's even evidence to suggest they're sleeping more soundly than their two-to-a-bed counterparts. Do you sleep with your better half? If not, are we talking twin beds in a shared room, an Adam's Rib homes ?
Sarah Handel
1:03 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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Home-Cookin' for Morris and Marmaduke
Mom, what's for dinner?
Source: handels
The news on pet food just keeps getting worse, as more and more companies enact voluntary recalls on their products due to fears of contamination. First, it was poisoned wheat gluten in dog and cat foods, and now dog treats are suspect due to possible salmonella contamination. Money won't keep Fido or Fluffy safe here, as both pricey and generic brands have been affected. What's a pet owner to do ? Phil Klein, co-owner of Whiskers Holistic Pet Products thinks home-cooked meals are the answer, and he'll give you the recipe. Do you cook for your pet? And does that mean your own dinner's going straight from freezer to microwave?
Sarah Handel
12:39 PM ET
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04- 4-2007
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More on "Free" Music
EMI Music 's decision to drop the digital rights management software from its music catalog will be picked over by techheads for weeks. Is it good for downloaders? Bad? Does it make any difference at all? Well, to read the tealeaves: yes, yes, and a resounding... maybe. Some in the know come down hard on EMI and on Apple , whose iTunes will sell the initial DRM-free songs. They're not happy that individual DRM-less tunes will cost more (by about 30 cents), and consider this announcement more marketing than major change. Which may be true. But, this is clearly a first step in the open music direction, and consumer-oriented trends are hard to stop. Consider: in February , Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, called for music labels to open up their DRM; last month, David Byrne, the former front man for the Talking Heads, made his own plea for tearing down the DRM wall; and now, a large label like EMI puts its money where its mouth is and busts the rights management model wide open. A music miracle, it's not. But, the anti-DRM camp can't help but see a little light at the end of the music download tunnel.
Scott Cameron
7:31 AM ET
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04- 4-2007
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April 3, 2007
Report Card: More Troops
As Neal promised a week and a half ago, it's time to check in on the so-called troop "surge" in Iraq. (For more on how the "troop increase" became a "troop surge," go here .) The president's plan to increase force levels in Iraq by about 30,000 troops was the subject of an emotional debate in the press, and even a marathon debate in the House of Representatives, ending in a resolution protesting the increase. Now that about half of the troops requested are now in Iraq (with the remainder to be deployed in June), it seems a good opportunity for a progress report. So far, it depends on whom you ask; the president and other proponents of the surge have cited Baghdad bloggers who claim that things are better, but it's been a bloody week in which 500 Iraqis and 6 American soldiers were killed, putting military officials on the defensive again. We'll check in with retired Army General Jack Keane: in his opinion , the troop increase was not only necessary, but the only option not doomed to failure. He's just returned from Iraq, and has a report on how it's going.
Barrie Hardymon
1:59 PM ET
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04- 3-2007
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Sending a Son to War
It's a scene few, if any, parents want to imagine: Your son or daughter, clad in fatigues, hugging you goodbye at the airport security gate before heading off to war. While your young soldier's room at home may be crammed with the trappings of youth -- high school letter jacket, journals, posters of bands, stuffed animals -- all he or she has now is stuffed into a single backpack. San Jose Mercury News editorial page editor Stephen E. Wright and his wife just endured this very scenario , and he joins us to tell us about that sendoff, and how it's affected the way he thinks and talks about the war in Iraq... and those who read his first column, which he's followed-up on. Have you sent a loved one off to war? Tell us your stories here.
Sarah Handel
1:57 PM ET
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04- 3-2007
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Books That Changed the World: Origin of Species
Most of us learned about Darwin's theory of evolution in grade school science class. But, you probably never read the actual book with the never ending title, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Luckily, you don't have to. Janet Browne already did, and she wrote a concise, easy to read biography of the book. If you know her name, it's probably because she's the one who wrote a two-volume biography of Charles Darwin. This is the next in our series, Books that Changed the World . And Browne will explain why she thinks "Origin of Species" is not only the greatest science book ever published, but also one of the easiest to read. Still, fortunately for all of us, the biography is much shorter than the original.
Scott Cameron
1:57 PM ET
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04- 3-2007
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All the Norah Jones You Can Handle
Have you ever taken on the task of providing the soundtrack for an event -- say, a bachelorette party -- and headed to iTunes to get all the requisite Justin Timberlake, OutKast, Kelly Clarkson, and Nelly Furtado tracks to jam that party right? And then, purely hypothetically, did you maybe think that making a copy of said mix would make an excellent gift for the dozen attendees, only to be met with a message from iTunes warning you that you just can't burn the song you purchased that many times? My friend, that's because you ran into DRM, or digital rights management -- basically, rules encoded into your download that regulate how, where and how often you can use what you've purchased. Well, one record company has decided to ditch the DRM, offering higher-quality downloads sans rules on iTunes for $1.29 each (instead of the typical $.99 per song). Will other record companies follow suit? Does one record company without a lot of big singles really have the power to turn the industry around? And what does this mean for consumers?
Sarah Handel
1:56 PM ET
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04- 3-2007
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Keane
As President Bush prepares for a news conference this AM -- he will reportedly have a statement on War Funding -- our timing couldn't be better. Dumb luck -- we'd scheduled Gen. Keane for last week, but he had another appointment and we had to postpone. In any case, the President can be expected to hammer the Democrats again to "support the troops" and threaten to veto any funding bill that contains deadlines. He can also be expected to follow up on the visit to the Baghdad market over the weekend by Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and others -- Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) remarked that it was like a summer stroll through a market in Indiana -- and argue that the Democrats want to hamstring the commanders in the field just as their plan to secure Baghdad is showing signs of progress. A story in today's New York Times cites merchants in that market as saying that the area is far from safe, pointing out that the congressional delegation was accompanied by 100 US troops, rooftop snipers, and attack helicopters hovering overhead. Worse, one pointed out that whenever any one thing is touted as a sign of progress, it immediately attracts an attack .
After considerable thought, we decided to have Gen. Keane on by himself to take your questions about the troop build-up in Baghdad and Anbar ... Is it working? Can it work? If the goal is to provide a breathing space for politics, is the Iraqi government taking advantage of it? Aren't attacks just shifting elsewhere? Are the Shia militias, the Mehdi Army in particular, just lying low, waiting, and letting the US loose against its internal (renegade Shias) and external (Sunni insurgents, Al Qaida elements) rivals? And what's all this doing to the Army and Marine Corps? Post your questions here, if you'd like, or call in or email during the show.
Neal Conan
8:01 AM ET
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04- 3-2007
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April 2, 2007
Standoff: Iran Holds British Soldiers
Last month, Iran seized 15 British navy personnel in the Persian Gulf. The Brits claim they were in Iraqi waters, but the Iranians disagree, and the GPS evidence is unverifiable. The standoff seems treacherous for both countries -- Iran faces sanctions from the international community for its actions, while the strength of the British military is called into question. So what's at stake for both players? And what are the internal ramifications for Iran, a country divided by political factions , and Britain, with its vocal anti-war movement?
Sarah Handel
1:43 PM ET
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04- 2-2007
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Homeless Season
It's a situation that anyone who's patronized a public library in a big city can relate to -- the presence of homeless people perusing the stacks, camped out on couches and chairs, or loitering in the lobby. Public libraries are just that -- public -- and are a pretty attractive option for a homeless person kicked out of his or her shelter first thing in the morning. But the chronically homeless are so often affected by mental illness that they can become a nuisance -- or worse -- to librarians and other folks checking out books. The former assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library, Chip Ward, has written an op-ed on the conflict librarians feel when a homeless person becomes disruptive and the only options are to call paramedics or cops. What's the threshold for you, as a library patron? Is an odor enough to warrant a complaint? Have you been harassed in a library by a homeless person, or do you worry about sending your kids there?
Sarah Handel
1:42 PM ET
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04- 2-2007
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Criticize This
Remember the good old days, when reviews were something you found in the back of the newspaper? Written by someone you could confidently name-drop, printed in good old black in white, you could trust that the movie , play , or restaurant you were going to had been adequately reviewed by an expert. It's been said before(but it bears repeating): the internet has altogether changed the nature of what an expert is, and just as importantly, the nature of what can be reviewed. Looking for a hotel room? You can see if the bedbugs bite. Looking to meet people on an online dating service? Read Mr. Right's reviews . This hour, we're reviewing the reviews: if everyone with a laptop can comment on everything, are we becoming a society of irritable whiners, or simply more democratic? Go ahead an lay your critique on us.
Barrie Hardymon
1:41 PM ET
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04- 2-2007
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Take Me Out to the Ballgame
At Wrigley Field in Chicago, opening day usually means cold , windy weather, and warm hot dogs served up with anything but ketchup. Kids skip school, grown-ups call in sick , and everyone gathers in the friendly confines to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame ." And, on this day only, nobody seems to care if the Cubs win or lose . Yesterday was opening day for Major League Baseball , though things really get rolling today. And if you listen to TOTN with any regularity, you know that opening day is a national holiday anywhere within about 100 feet of Neal Conan . Add our baseball buddy Alan Schwarz (and a bag of peanuts) to the mix, and you have a ready-made radio segment. Alan collected favorite baseball memories from some of the game's greatest, and their famous fans ... Ernie Banks , Derek Jeter , Kevin Costner . You don't have to be famous to have a story about that first game of the Spring, or that prized autograph from Ron Santo . What memories does opening day bring back for you?
Scott Cameron
1:40 PM ET
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04- 2-2007
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