Hello what few readers may be around today! Blogging will be extremely light for the next two days. Gwen and I are the only regular bloggers around right now, and even I will be off tomorrow, which will leave no one to edit Gwen. So here's a preview of the next two days, and check us out on Twitter for slightly more content today, but probably not tomorrow. Ok here we go.

Today's first hour is our annual obit show. We use it as a chance to have guests on to talk about the lesser-known but no-less-important people who passed away this year. If there's someone you'd like to remember -- someone you knew, or someone you admired -- please call in for a chance to do so on air, or leave your remembrance on the TOTN page once the segment shows up. I'll try to remember to update this entry once there's a link. In our second hour, the year in culture. What was the best music you heard, video game you played? Plus, we'll have Brian Raftery on his book Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life.

Tomorrow's still largely up in the air, but as of now we plan to bring you a roundup on the blog world. Things have changed a lot since blogs got big, and there are some new standard-bearers and some "deep cuts" you might find entertaining. Finally, in the second hour tomorrow, Henry Alford joins us to talk about his 2008 book, How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth). Does he find it? You'll have to tune in to find out! Happy New Year!

The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have reported that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) will name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to the Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama at a news conference scheduled for 3:00 p.m. EST. Of course, it might not mean much... Democratic leadership has said that they won't seat anyone associated with the embattled Illinois governor.

What do you think of the news? What is your reaction to his pick?

NB: The estimable Ron Elving, NPR's senior Washington editor, will join us in our second hour, after the press conference, to give us an on-air update.

Here's a quick peek at today:

In our first hour, we'll look at how history will view the Bush administration. We'll talk with two guests: Bob Woodward, associate editor of The Washington Post and author of, most recently, The War Within; and Barton Gellman, investigative reporter for The Washington Post and author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. And we want to hear from you. Tell us one thing you think the Bush Administration will be remembered for.

Following that, Mark Bowden, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, explains why he feels President Bush should ask the Iraqi government to pardon journalist Muntadhir Al-Zaidi, for throwing his shoes at him.

Then: your letters (including your nominations for most influential people of 2008).

In our second hour, author William Davies King will talk about his new book Collections of Nothing and his collections, which include almost 18,000 food labels, 7,000 dictionary illustrations, and 500 bottle caps. We'll ask him why he has a passion for collecting so many of the things most of us throw away.

Then, we'll talk to Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner Trice about the controversial song, "Barack the Magic Negro," and the debate surrounding the term "magic negro." Is the term used to describe an African-American who is able to blur the cultural barriers between blacks and whites? Or does it describe an "exception" in black culture?

This morning, an article in The New York Times caught my eye. Brian Stetler, formerly of TVNEWSER, wrote about a new trend in network television news: less and less reporting on -- and reporting from -- Iraq. At present, none of the three major networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- has a full-time correspondent in Iraq.

In his article, Stetler quotes Michael Yon, an Iraq-based blogger (whom we've interviewed on TOTN several times). In Yon's estimation, the change in coverage reflects an anticipated change in American foreign policy: "Afghanistan was the forgotten war; that's what they were calling it, actually," he said. "Now it's swapping places with Iraq." For many months, the networks didn't keep bureaus or correspondents in Afghanistan. Now they're ramping up there.

What do you think of the changes? Do you rely on network television news? Do you care if they have a reporter on the ground in Baghdad? Or Kabul?

I hate year-end lists -- but one of my New Year's resolutions was to embrace things I hate (lima beans, I'm coming for ya), and so I'm trying to find the lists I like. Check out this one:

I've got nothing against capitalism, but I was sort of surprised to see the many ways people have come up with to avoid it. From GOOD magazine's website, nine ways people have gotten around it, including creating their own discounted local currency. (I love that one. Don't like the economy as is? Create your own!)

Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas targets in Gaza for the third straight day. This happened in retaliation against Hamas, who fired rockets at civilians in southern Israel after a six-month truce. In our first hour, we speak with three experts about the violence in Gaza, and what they think the Obama administration will need to do to foster peace in the region. Then on our opinion page, Sophia Nelson, a former Republican congressional staffer and an African-American, will talk about the mixed feelings she had on election night. On one hand, she was proud of Barack Obama's historic win, but on the other, she was disappointed by the lack of minority support for her own party.

The Talk of the Nation staff recently stumbled on a story about a couple who is suing United Airlines for serving the husband too many drinks during a trans-Pacific flight. The man was later arrested for beating his wife as they walked through U.S. customs. The couple want United Airlines to pick up the $100,000 tab for his bail, among other fees, claiming that United Airlines is responsible for the husband's violent outburst. The lawsuit raises an interesting question: Who IS responsible if someone has had too much to drink? We'll tackle that question from different angles in our second hour. Then, a New Republic correspondent on exposing what was a soon-to-be-published Holocaust memoir as a hoax.

Flagstaff, Arizona drops a giant pine cone.

Source: cogdogblog

Just came across this on an old colleague's Facebook update -- watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square is so 2008, apparently. Good ol' Wikipedia's got a list of the things dropped round the world to signify out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new. Here's a sampling:

Brasstown, North Carolina -- a live opossum in a cage

Port Clinton, Ohio -- a walleye fish, named "Captain Wylie Walleye"

Lebanon, Pennsylvania -- a large Lebanon bologna stick

Mobile, Alabama -- a giant electric Moon Pie

McDonough, Georgia -- Nugget Drop at Truett's Grill

So what do you watch drop at the end of the year? Or, do you have a nomination for your town to consider? I'll get the ball (haha) rolling and suggest an enormous lighted blue crab on the city dock for Annapolis!

Merry Christmas to everyone who's feeling it! We certainly full of holiday cheer around here, and we've got a show to reflect that. In our first hour, dysfunctional family films with our favorite film expert, Murray Horwitz. We can't be with ours while we're putting the show on the air, and maybe you want a little break from yours. Following that, we've got a pretty incredible story: James Wagner had the best holiday reunion ever when, well, here. Let's let him tell it.

The greatest Christmas present I have ever received came two days early and with a rough beard. It was my father, weary and unshaven, after five days as a hostage.

Incredible. So at the end of the first hour, we'll be asking for stories from you about your best holiday reunion ever.

In our second hour, more holiday fun: Christmas songs. From traditional, to classic, to quirky, we'll have them all. Mr. "Feliz Navidad" himself, Jose Feliciano, will join us to chat about his beloved tune, and Bill Adler has a sleighful of unusual tunes you might want to add to your annual rotation. Finally, we have a surprise for our fabulous guest host Ari Shapiro. He gave us a list of dream interviews, and we booked one of his top choices. Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development, will join us. Happy Hanukkah, Ari!!!

Merry Almost Christmas! Here's what's coming up on the show today:

We'll take a look back at the week in politics including Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's no-holds-barred news conference, and the long and no doubt frustrating ballot recount for the Minnesota senate seat in Minnesota. Then we'll REALLY take a look back at the year in politics. Political Junkie Ken Rudin will talk about your most memorable moments in politics for 2008. Okay, we know there are so many options to choose from, so we'll make it easier. President-elect Barack Obama can't be on your list. He had a lot of moments, for sure. But this time we want to hear about some others. Following that, Ken will grace us with his twist on Twas the Night Before Christmas. Do you have a version of your own? Set the current time to a rhyme. (Try to make it a little better than the one I just did, please.)

In our second hour, author Michael Pollan will heroically defend our food. In his new book In the Defense of Food, Pollan argues that over the past twenty years, food has slowly vanished off our supermarket shelves only to be replaced by food imitations. But he offers a way back to basic nutrition. So tell us: What fake food do you indulge in? I'm guilty of the occasional protein bar. I just ate one, and I thought I was doing well, until my boss just informed me mid-crunch that I'm not eating real food. I'm sure Michael Pollan would agree. Then, we'll talk with baseball broadcaster Jon Miller about a newly discovered recording of Red Barber's ninth inning play-by-play of an electrifying moment that occured in a game that was actually played forty one years earlier. We'll explain at the end of the second hour.

It's practically routine to blast the airlines for flight cancellations and delays -- caused by bad weather, plane malfunctions, or whatever -- during the holidays. But maybe you should actually be glad you chose to fly the not-so-friendly skies... It could have been worse. Much worse. You could have opted to take Amtrak out of Chicago, and you could have been miserable. "The Empire Builder, a train to the Pacific Northwest, was scheduled to leave at 2:15 pm Monday -- but didn't actually leave the station until 1:22 pm [Tuesday]." The almost 24-hour delay stranded nearly 450 passengers in a waiting room in Chicago's Union Station "without food, water or access to reliable functioning restrooms." Gross, yuck, and bah-humbug! Similar stories can be found across the country, so do you have some train travel you want to complain about?

I honestly don't know what Kyle Broflovski was talking about when he sang, "It's hard to be a Jew on Christmas", so plaintively. I think it's awesome. Here are a few of my favorite reasons.

1) I have all of the holiday spirit, and none of the angst.
2) Hanukkah lasts for eight days, so you have eight chances for your gift to be on time.
3) Gentiles feel sorry for you, so you tend to end up with a lot of non-denominational candy on your desk.
4) But, if non-Jews wonder where their gift is, you can just tell 'em, "I'm Jewish."
5) Other people's Christmas lights. I just love them! 'Specially a good creche.
6) Any excuse to bake. (I'm accepting any and all advice on making meringues.)
8) Any excuse not to go to the gym. "I can't! It's closed." (Except mine, sigh.)
9) No post-Christmas letdown!
10) And of course, the wide world of Christmas Carol adaptations. You get to watch them all, 'cause what else are you doing!? (My favorite is George C. Scott. But watch Patrick Stewart for a nice Shakespearean warble on the grave scene.)

Anyhoo -- here are Kyle's feelings on the matter. (Favorite line: "I can't sing Christmas songs or decorate a Christmas tree... or leave water out for Rudolph 'cause there's something wrong with me -- my people don't believe in Jesus Christ's divinity. I'm a Jew... a lonely Jew. On Christmas.") Chag Sameach, everyone!

It's Christmas afternoon. You and your beloved are anxious to try out your new Smittens, so you propose a movie. You're feeling warm and cozy and lovey dovey, so a romantic comedy -- say, Marley & Me, is the obvious choice, right? Not so fast. According to a study out of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, your box office pick may actually be a 1-way ticket to couples counseling. They studied 40 top rom-coms like You've Got Mail and The Wedding Singer, and concluded they promote unrealistic expectations and poor communication. Says Dr. Bjarne Holmes:

Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it ... We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

So, maybe this Christmas, say yes to another movie -- I hear Slumdog Millionaire is great, and even has a love story that'll keep your Smittens firmly linked.

Here's the thing... Barrie loves Twitter, Sarah likes Twitter, I DON'T like Twitter. I WANT to like it, but for some reason I'm afraid of Twitter. Maybe afraid isn't the right word. It's more like discomfort, an uneasy feeling of being exposed and not knowing who I'm talking to but connecting directly anyway. I suppose it's similar on the blog, but here I just hit "publish" while on Twitter I hit "update" and send "messages" to some amorphous "you." I can't afford a therapist, and my New Year's resolution will be to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, so for the love of Tweet, help me... What's the basis of this discomfort, have you dealt with it, how'd you get over it?
My name is Scott, and I'd like to Tweet.

In our first hour today, we'll continue our "Your Life on a Recession" series with a look at managing your credit card debt. Two credit experts will talk about what you can do right now about falling into debt amid credit card interest rate increases. Then, guess who's coming to the inauguration! People are planning to travel from near and far, by boat (not a joke) and on bicycle (still not joking) just to be in Washington D.C. on January 20th somewhere in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol where President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in. Our guest Ryan Bowen will talk about biking it... and yes, it's a PEDAL bike... from Los Angeles to D.C.

In our second hour, author Anne Roiphe will talk about her new memoir Epilogue: A Memoir and her bereavment process after becoming a widow after thirty-nine years of marriage. And we want to hear your story. If you are a widow or widower, tell us about your experience. Then at the end of the hour, we'll shift gears and talk to Dahlia Lithwick about how Jews and non-Christians manage the avalanche of Christmas television specials and all the trimmings unscathed. If you need additional advice, you may find some helpful tips for you and your children in Lithwick's article for Slate titled, "Oy, Hark: A Jewish Parent's Guide To Christmas Specials."

I hesitate to post this under cutting room floor, because this is not a pitch that one actually wants on the floor. Carline pulled this one out of the Washington Post (clearly a slow news day), and we all filed it under stuff we don't want to get for Christmas. It's Baby Alive Learns To Potty, and the Little Mommy Gotta Go Doll. Favorite quote? Oh yeah, that would be this: "'For us, the peeing and pooping is pretty magical,' said Kathleen Harrington, senior brand manager for Hasbro's Baby Alive dolls." Um -- that's what passes for magical, now? What happened to unicorns!

Of course, that is not NEARLY the worst thing out there. I'm looking at you, Ireland. (Right, so, be warned that link has some of the weirdest nudity you've ever seen.)

Plenty of people have gotten drunk on airplanes. Plenty of people have been charged with domestic violence. I'm not sure how many have combined the two, and then sued the airline (which doesn't mean it never happened). If McDonald's can be sued for hot coffee spills, and bars can be held accountable for over-serving customers, can an airline be held responsible for a passenger drinking too much and later allegedly beating his wife? The Chicago Tribune had the story last week (yes, the wife is part of the lawsuit, too):

Fortified with Burgundy wine allegedly supplied at 20-minute intervals by United crew members during the December 2006 trip, Yoichi Shimamoto became so inebriated "that he could not manage himself," according to a lawsuit filed Dec. 5 in U.S. District Court in Tampa. Shimamoto was arrested, accused of disorderly conduct and battery after he struck his wife, Ayisha, six times, injuring her face and upper lip as they were heading through U.S. Customs in San Francisco, the complaint said.

I briefly hit the mall over the weekend. Judging from the amount of cars in the parking lots, the lines I stood in and number of times I was bumped around, it looked like the holiday shopping season wasn't hurting at all. But one look at the discounts-- some stores offered as much as 70 percent off-- let you know that retailers are feeling a bit desperate this year. In our first hour, we'll talk to Ylan Mui, Washington Post retail reporter, about what ways retailers are enticing customers to pull out their wallets. Then on our opinion page this week, former CIA officer Reuel Marc Gerecht will explain why we should not expect President-elect Barack Obama to follow through on his promises to ban tactics like waterboarding and the use of extraordinary rendition. Gerecht's op-ed titled "Out of Sight" appeared in the December 14th edition of the New York Times.

In our second hour, two Time magazine contributors talk about their 100 Most Influential People of 2008 list. We'll also talk with NPR's Robert Krulwich about who he nominated. And we want to hear your picks. Who in your field has transformed our world in 2008, for better or worse? Okay, BESIDES Barack Obama. Then, we'll talk about the plane crash that happened in Denver over the weekend. A fire chief who was on the scene said it was a miracle no one died. But at the end of the hour, we'll talk with Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes who claims that, statistically speaking, plane crashes are survivable.

The Wii's still a popular holiday gift more than two years after its release, but could your coveted console put you in the hospital? Possibly. Apparently, aproximately 10 patients per week are admitted in Britain, after reporting "excruciating pain in the right shoulder or knee," which seems to be caused by the tennis and running games. They're calling it "Wii-itis," and it's worse for those who are double-jointed. The lesson? Stretch before you play.

If you heard the gentle sound of sobbing coming from Washington, DC yesterday, it was because I rediscovered a classic of Muppet literature (Muppetlit). 1978's Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is one of those stories that veers so close to tragedy that it's almost hard to watch. A retelling of "The Gift of the Magi," the famous O'Henry short story, it features such devastating sights as Bert choking up while talking to Mr. Hooper, the realization that Bert and Ernie have no money, and the near-loss of Rubber Duckie. It's almost more of a horror movie. For some reason though, it is my favorite Christmas special, perhaps, because Mr. Hooper -- Jewish, like me -- delivers the true meaning of Christmas at the end. And as someone who enjoys Christmas with a passion, I think it is nice to see the humanistic values reinforced. (Of course, as my fiance pointed out the other day, Mr. Hooper could have just given Bert and Ernie their gifts, but I maintain he didn't understand the scheme until much later.)

To watch the Bert and Ernie special right through -- and skip other classics of say, counting -- do thusly:
1.Go to 6:48 on this link.
2.Go to 4:00 on this link.
3.Go to 6:28 on this link.
4.
And then of course, finish here from the beginning.
5.Sob.
6.Discover true meaning of Christmas.

Invoke or provoke?

AFP/Getty Images

 

Yesterday, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Celebrations announced the program for the inauguration of Barack Obama, "based on requests from the President-elect and the Vice President-elect."

There will be musical performances by The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Aretha Franklin, and The United States Marine Band; poetry by Elizabeth Alexander, a Yale University professor; and an invocation by the Rev. Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church.

The decision to include Warren has drawn a lot of criticism from progressives, who argue that his views -- on abortion, homosexuality, and gay marriage -- make him unpalatable:

Ezra Klein says that "this might be a wise political calculation on Obama's part. But it is a cruel thing to ask of his coalition."

There's a time to pander to intolerance, and it is called the election. The election is over. January 20th is the inauguration. Pro-choice women and gays were a significant part of Obama's coalition, and they're being forced to accept that the candidate they worked for will use the election they won to elevate a powerful religious leader who works often and publicly against their interests. For them, the day will be darkened.

Andrew Sullivan, an openly-gay blogger and senior editor at The Atlantic, has been weighing in since the announcement was made. He doesn't sound as optimistic as he did during the campaign:

Warren is a man who believes my marriage removes his freedom of speech and cannot say that authorizing torture is a moral failing. Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now. He won't be as bad as the Clintons (who, among leading Democrats, could?), but pandering to Christianists at his inauguration is a depressing omen.

There are a few people who think that the Warren pick was a wise one. Steven Waldman, the founder of Beliefnet, whom we'll hear from today, is one of them. He wrote a piece for The Huffington Post, in defense of Rick Warren. According to Waldman, "Obama was wise to ask [Warren] to deliver the invocation at the inauguration."

"Obama opted for spiritual bipartisanship," he writes. "The move helps to depoliticize prayer -- which, of course, is very politically shrewd."

What do you think? What does this choice tell you about the next president's politics and priorities? Come Jan. 20, will you bow your head or shake your fist?

In the case of President-elect Barack Obama, the term "African American" applies to him in the most literal sense, but his racial identity has caused much controversy. Obama has said that, given his looks, people treat him as a black man and that he sees himself as African American. But some argue that it is time for Obama to acknowledge his biracial heritage. In our first hour, we'll talk about the politics of biracial identity. Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner Trice and New York Law School professor Annette Gordon-Reed will talk about the ways blacks' identity has changed throughout history. At the end of the hour, "Ask Amy" syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson will give advice on proper etiquette when your relatives (and friends of your relatives) sleep-over during the holidays.

There are countless television Christmas specials bombarding our living rooms right now. Some we look forward to watching with much nostalgia... and others we can't click off fast enough. In our second hour, we'll talk about your favorites (and not so favorites) with Phil Roman, the original animator of the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, and Dan Snierson, senior writer for Entertainment Weekly. Call in or email us your picks! At the end of the hour, Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Belief.net, talks about Barack Obama's decision to have pastor Rick Warren deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

Blame layoffs, blame random 60 degree days, blame Canada... But I'm having a hard time with Ye Olde Christmas Spirit this year. Barrie's not -- a little later on today, we've got a show on TV Christmas specials coming up that's had her caroling around the office for weeks. My favorite didn't make the list for her show, but that's okay, it's not strictly a television special anyway. I had a hunch it wasn't, so I did a little digging. Here, for your viewing pleasure, I present Mickey's Christmas Carol:

I feel better already! Here's a bit of background: The animated short was originally released in the U.K., and then later in the U.S., in 1983. In the U.S., it was packaged with a re-release of The Rescuers, another Handel-family fave. It made it to TV the very next year, in 1984, and aired every year through 1998 on broadcast TV, which explains why it figures so prominently in my own Christmas memories. It has since been aired more sporadically -- and on cable. I wonder why? Any other fans of Mickey's Christmas Carol out there?

Go to Google News and do a search for "nepotism." C'mon. Do it.

Sure, there are a few articles about the establishment of a nepotism policy in the Lake County School District. And there is a piece about the role familial preference plays in college football. But most of the articles are about Caroline Kennedy's interest in Hillary Clinton's senate seat.

Is she qualified? Does she deserve it? Opinions, in New York and elsewhere, are divided:

Ruth Marcus, of The Washington Post, says that ,"on the question of Caroline Kennedy for Senate, my head says no, on balance. My heart says yes! Yes! Right now, as you might guess from the hedging on the former and the exclamation points on the latter, my heart is winning."

Columnist Kathleen Parker thinks that Kennedy will get the seat, but that she doesn't deserve it.

Blogger and Atlantic senior editor Andrew Sullivan is sick of nepotism:

I am so sick of this nepotism. What are we, some kind of neo-monarchy? Clinton got her seat because of nepotism and now Kennedy gets it be the same methods.

Charles Krauthammer says the issue centers on entitlement, not experience.

Michael Daly, of the New York Daily News, says that there is more to Caroline Kennedy than her last name -- and the legacy that goes with it:

Anybody who has spent time with her knows that much more than her surname makes her exactly the right person tof ollow her father and uncles to the Senate.

So, what do you think?

The Fed has now moved the federal funds interest rate closer to, well... 0%. (In effect, the target range for rate is zero to 0.25%.) Today we're talking to Tom Petruno about what this means for you, but you should look at what this means for your mortgage rate. Check this out:

With mortgage rates nearing their lowest levels in a generation, homeowners hoping to refinance should already be working the numbers to see whether a new loan will work for them, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage research firm HSH Associates in Butler, N.J. The average rate on 30-year conforming mortgages tracked by HSH was 5.30% today, down from 5.57% a week ago. Some mortgage brokers are quoting rates below 5%.

Here's a quick look:

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tries to sell a senate seat, but keep his own... and Caroline Kennedy has her eye on the senate seat once held by Hillary Clinton. Hold on to YOUR seat. Ken Rudin will talk about this and other news in politcs on our Political Junkie segment in our first hour. Then, we'll talk about falling interest rates with Los Angeles Times financial writer Tom Petruno, and what it means to you.

In our second hour, we'll talk with Drew Sloan, a former Army Captain, and Colonel Charles Hoge, a Walter Reed doctor and director of the Division of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, about how the military prepares troops for war. Tactics include exposing the mind to war-like scenarios, running drills that simulate wounded and dead comrades, and training the mind to face fear. We'll find out from them if combat training prepares soldiers for what they actually face in war. And at the end of the hour, Kemba Smith will talk about her op-ed that appeared in USA Today and how her personal experience has led her to believe that clemency is "the only path to justice."

Mmmmm... Smells so sexy.

Source: Loops San

I can think of lots of things I want to smell like, and "flame broiled" meat ain't one of them. But yes, if this is true (the website is registered to "Burger King Brands"), if you've put off your holiday shopping and need a last minute gift for the guy in your life, you can now own your own bottle of "Flame," Burger King's first body spray for men. Slogan: "The scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat." Because nothing says seduction like 600 greasy calories on a sesame seed bun (full disclosure: I have not smelled it). And hey, if Burger King can do it, what other scent do you want to see bottled? The smell of NPR, perhaps?

The recession is one of the biggest stories right now, and we're working on covering it through a "Your Life in a Recession" frame. We kicked the series off with a show on layoffs last week. This week, the next step: the job search in a recession. It all started with an outburst from me. My sister, Anne, has been looking for a job for quite some time now, and talking to her about it really brought home how awful it is out there. So we're doing a show that will hopefully help give the unemployed some strategies -- the good news is, there are some jobs out there, but you have to know where to look.

The thing that has stuck with me, however, is just how rotten it feels to be jobless right now. A good day, Anne says, is "finding real and true prospects for my skill set." She continues, "When I find one that I really think I would enjoy, I feel like I have really uncovered something and well, accomplished something, just like doing a good job in your job. You find a good story and pitch it and they like it. I find a good job prospect and send my resume -- pitch me -- and feel good." But, more often than not, she just feels bad. She worries that, as a newlywed, people think of her as leeching off her husband, and not contributing to her household. She, of course, worries constantly about money, particularly at this time of year. I know there are some people reading this and nodding their heads in recognition, so here are the ways she tries to cope -- maybe they'll help you feel better, too. For one, she sets goals. Send out five resumes a week. Spend x hours a day searching, and no more. Secondly, she pitches in more at home, washing dishes, doing laundry. And finally, she tries to just get out of the house, away from the computer and the stack of resumes. Taking a walk is free, and along her way, she sometimes chats with neighbors and small business owners about her search. They mostly commiserate, but who knows, maybe one day that networking will provide a lead. So what are you doing to cope with unemployment? Do you have tips to share with your thousands of cohorts?

Love SATC? Read STP.

Source: Pocket Books

Years ago (er...TWELVE), I bought Carrie Fisher's book Surrender The Pink at an airport before I got on a transatlantic flight. (A clue: If a book is still in airport bookstores five yearsafter it's published, it's a hit.) I mostly bought it because it looked like trashy fiction, and I was traveling with William Gaddis' The Recognitions, which I still have not read. (Honestly, my back STILL hurts from toting that thing around everywhere and pretending to read it.) It's not a trashy novel, but I confess that I thought an actress who writes a novel ought to be treated with the same contempt as a model who tries acting. (Feel free to extend this metaphor to radio producers -- I know I'm a little snot.)

I did, however, read Surrender the Pink. Three times. And subsequent to the flight -- a hundred times. It's the real thing -- the writing's too good to fall into celebrity book genres. It's sort of like listening to your best, funniest, girlfriend tell a good, long story with at least three-dozen devastating one liners. The tale of Dinah, a soap opera writer, and her on-again off-again boyfriend/hubby Rudy Gendler, would be appealing to anyone who's interested in the following things: New York, humor, Los Angeles, soap opera behind-the-scenes, men, women, dating, awkward moments. It's truly a Sex and the City type of experience. When I read it in 1996, I was awed by its sophistication, and now, years later, I read it with a rueful chuckle (I've dated the Rudy Gendlers of the world, sadly). I've repeatedly stolen lines from it.

Hilariously, I had no idea the book was about Fisher's marriage to Paul Simon until recently. It does however, have the ring of truth to it -- like all of Carrie Fisher's work (except perhaps the Star Wars trilogy). Give it a whirl -- you'll read it in one sitting. This recommendation is your holiday gift, NPR-ites!

In our first hour today, we'll continue our series Your Life on a Recession and talk with two career experts-- one is the author of 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs and the other is the author of Getting from College to Career about which industries have been hit hardest by the economic downturn, and the steps you can take now to find work. We are working on a topic for the end of that hour, so stay tuned.

In our second hour, we'll be joined by Carrie Fisher... quite possibly STILL best known as Princess Leia in the original Stars Wars trilogy. I love her for her wry sense of humor. One of the funniest quotes I've heard her say when she talked about the billions of dollars from merchandising for Star Wars and the Princess Leia doll: "I signed my likeness away. Every time I look in the mirror, I have to send Lucas a couple of bucks." Her sharp wit has also made her a succesful screenwriter and novelist. Her new memoir is entitled, Wishful Drinking, an honest and funny look into her Hollywood childhood, substance abuse, Star Wars stardom and manic depression. She has taken her life on the road with a Wishful Drinking one-woman show and today she will make a stop on our show. Then, we'll switch gears and talk about the man who blew the whistle on the Bush administration's illegal wiretaps.

Over the past few weeks, I've overheard a lot of conversations about the so-called "Big Three" automakers -- Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. If you're Rip Van Winkle, here is the precis: Chrysler and GM are in terrible financial shape, about to fail, and they've begged the government for a bail-out package. Ford says it does not need government loans right now, but if the others fail -- its survival is far from certain.

A few minutes ago, Andrew Sullivan weighed in, with a post called "Let The Big Three Die." In it, the Atlantic senior editor writes,

The point of capitalism is that actions have consequences. Once that market discipline is removed for a few of the worst, ill-managed, union-crippled companies in America, the stage is set for endless mediocrity, government-run industry (i.e. even more endless mediocrity), and a free-for-all at the government trough.

Sullivan cites a new poll, published in The Washington Post: "Overall, 55 percent of those polled oppose the latest plan that Chrysler, Ford and General Motors executives pitched to Congress last week, on par with public opposition to earlier, pricier efforts."

Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta, writing in the Post continue,

Opposition to the automaker bailout is fueled by the widespread perception that the companies themselves are responsible for their predicament, not the faltering economy. In the new poll, three-quarters of Americans said Detroit's woes are mainly the fault of its own management decisions, and a sizable majority of those who blame the front office object to government help.

How bad do you think the fallout would be if the American automobile industry doesn't receive emergency aid from the government?

Agree with it or not, the cover story in last week's Newsweek magazine, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," by Lisa Miller, was provocative. On the Newsweek website, there were comments galore. (Many hundreds.) On talk radio, and in the blogosphere, there were plenty of critics. What does all that translate to? Sales, Newsweek's editors and owners must hope. And that's not a bad thing for a company that announced it was cutting costs -- and personnel -- last week.

Central to many rebuttals of the Newsweek article was a sense of bewilderment, that the weekly magazine has started down a new path, trod by The Economist and others before it, with more opinion pieces and more provocation.

Jeff Bercovici, who follows the media for Portfolio, wonders what Meacham has planned for the magazine: "He'll talk about how Newsweek is focusing on being "provocative," on leading the discussion instead of following it with excessively high-concept cover packages." (A bible, with a rainbow-striped bookmark seems higher-concept-than-usual for Newsweek. Agree?)

Should magazines like Newsweek reinvent themselves? If so, what would you like to see? Analysis? Harder news? More pictures?

I want to point out something to you guys -- I think it's hilarious how journalists (like me!) have been explaining to y'all how "shoe throwing" is an "insult in Arab cultures." In my culture, it's simply considered a pretty strong insult to bean anything at someone's head.

Still, I came across this truly great list of gestures that are truly ambiguous -- don't give the okay sign in Rio, even if you are, in fact, okay -- which I think do point to the wonderful individuality of the insult from culture to culture. (Even Shakespeare is kind enough to explain the thumb biting gesture in Romeo and Juliet that kicks off the fuss between rival families in Verona: "I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it." Thanks, Will!) Below, I've listed the gestures -- because some of you dainty flower types might be offended by the language (click at your own risk) -- but I will say, it's very funny (and useful!) stuff.

Without further ado, or thumb biting, here they are:
1) In Greece, an outstretched palm is the equivalent of saying that you'd like to rub someone's face in ... er, the mire. Of course, here, it's "talk to the hand," which ain't great anyway.
2) In the Middle East, West Africa and South America, don't give someone the thumbs up. Totally offensive. Of course here, you just look sort of dorky if you do it.
3) You know your delicious meal in Thailand? Don't finish it! It's an insult to the host. (Bummer, right? I always end up licking up most of the leftover peanut sauce that comes with the satay!)
4) Don't greet a member of the opposite sex in Saudi Arabia. That might just be polite in general -- if it's someone you don't know. Just 'cause it's sorta stalk-y and weird.
5) Okay -- check this out: Don't give an even number of flowers in Russia. Seriously. Apparently you only do that for funerals, so it's bad luck. No dozen roses, dudes.
6) Don't give a gift with your left hand -- almost anywhere. Poor left-handers. There's a reason the left hand was always referred to as, "sinister." It has to do with toilet paper, or the lack thereof. Look it up if you don't catch my drift. (P.S. I typed that with my left hand.)
7) Everything a-okay? Awesome. Don't tell anyone with your hand in Brazil. It means zero, goose egg, nada. (Richard Nixon famously made this blunder on a trip to Brazil in the fifties.) Oh, one more thing? It's also the sign in tantric sex for ecstatic union with the Goddess. This list is SO HELPFUL, huh?

Random travel tips:
*No matter what the gesture, you can almost always find a country where it means either the opposite, or something very different. Among older Bulgarians, when you nod your head up and down, you're saying "no," and when you shake your head back and forth, you're saying "yes."
*The middle finger is almost universally offensive. (Thanks, Caligula!)
*The "V" for victory sign should be used carefully in British Commonwealth countries -- if you're hand is facing the wrong way, you could accidentally be flipping the bird. George H.W. Bush gave the "V-for-Victory" sign as he was driving through Australia in 1992.
*You're never fully dressed without a smile! The smile is a pretty collectively a nice gesture, (though Americans have been accused of smiling too much).
*Last, but not least, don't throw stuff at people. It's rude.

if you've ever wanted to look inside the the Service Employess International Union and find out about the future of the labor movement, here's your chance. In our first hour, Andy Stern, international president of the SEIU, will answer your questions, including what labor unions expect from President-elect Barack Obama's new adminstration and the SEIU's connection to the Blagojovich scandal in Illinois. Following that discussion will be this week's opinion page.

This week's Newsweek cover story is entitled "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage" written by Lisa Miller, the magazine's religion editor. In the article, Miller writes, "....while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman..." She goes on to say that "....Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married--and a number of excellent reasons why they should." Needless to say, the cover story has generated A LOT of feedback. Miller will join us in our first hour to talk about challenging the religious case for gay marriage, and we'll hear from one of her critics-- the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And tell us what you think? In your view, does Scripture make a case for or against gay marriage? And I'm sure you've heard about the Iraqi television reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush during a news conference. Apparently shoe-throwing is considered a traditional insult in Arab culture. At the end of the hour, we'll look at how insults differ around the world with Washington Post national reporter Shankar Vedantam.

"Yes, it's true, everything is going to merde!"

Source: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

This, friends, is a gentleman named Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He is a French economist, and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Why is he smiling, you might ask? I HAVE NO $%^*!@#$ IDEA. At the press conference where this photo was taken, he had just said, "The global outlook will continue to deteriorate. The possibility of global recession is really in front of us."

But man, what a great smile.

This is less Unintentional Hilarity then, um, just plain irony, I s'pose.

Last week, I came across this startling headline: "'Several Cities' Could Have No Daily Paper As Soon As 2010, Credit Rater Says."

Just a few days ago, the Tribune Company, owner of several newspapers and television stations, announced it would "voluntarily restructure its debt under Chapter 11."

Yesterday, as Sarah and Barrie have mentioned, NPR cut its staff.

And this morning, we heard that Newsweek, which is owned by The Washington Post Company, plans to restructure. (The Wall Street Journal calls it a "makeover.")

In some corners of the news business, the future looks pretty grim. That said, some business models are working. And others have potential.

I was particularly impressed by The Local Report, a project launched by students and faculty at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. They made six web-only news sites for Bay-area communities: Mission Loc@l, The(510)Report, Oakland North, East Bay West Online, In Emeryville, and El Cerrito Focus. They are handsomely-designed, frequently-updated, and -- perhaps most importantly -- well-read.

The founders of the Berkeley project clearly believe that there is still a market in good, local journalism. That wire services and major newspapers can fill one void (stories about foreign affairs and national issues), but people will still hunger for news about the communities in which they live.

Do you agree? In 2010, 2015, or 2020, how do you think you'll get your news?

Susan sent out this card this year.

Sarah Handel, NPR

 

For some, the two weeks surrounding the winter solstice are the worst time of the year. Put simply, they're dark. And they're almost upon us. December 21st is the winter solstice, and some of us, like my colleague Susan Lund, feel it coming, viscerally.

For the past three years I've been sending solstice cards to my friends who know how much I dislike the weeks leading up to the shortest day of the year. The decreased daylight, the lack of sunshine, the gray slate skies of November, the dreary days due to overcast skies, the bleeping lack of sunshine!

I've been sending the cards electronically, but last year, I came across some actual cards with the solstice theme. So I sent them out last year and will do so again this year....Just to remind my friends we have reached the lowest point of the year, when we have the least amount of daylight we're ever going to have, and to celebrate turning that corner - the days will now be longer, gradually admittedly, but at least it's going in the right direction. And to remind us how we're all connected, some of us feel it more than others, to the rhythms of the earth turning on its axis.

PS - Being essentially an optimistic person, I also send out spring solstice cards in March!

Here's a look at today's show:

The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai have fanned the flame on long simmering tensions between India and Pakistan. India maintains that Pakistan is linked to the attacks, and in the latest positive steps taken by Pakistan to avoid a stand off with India, Pakistani authorities have detained the founder of a militant group suspected in the attacks. For our full hour, Ted Koppel, NPR news analyst and former Anchor of ABC News "Nightline" and Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and author, each will talk about the long-time mutual distrust between India and Pakistan and Richard Haas, Former director of policy planning for the State Department, will tell us how the United States might handle the challenges.

So ironically, newspapers are making news... and it isn't pretty. The Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and other dailies, filed for bankruptcy. This is one of the toughest financial situations the industry has had to face, and some analysts are predicting the end of any number of major newspapers within the next few years. So let's fast forward to... say... 2012. Our guests in the second hour will make a few predictions about the future of news and where we'll be getting it over the next few years. And we'll ask you to travel a back in time to the days when your local newspaper defined your hometown. Wax nostalgic about what the smell and feel of a freshly printed newspaper meant to you. Following that, we'll talk with Boston Globe columnist James Carroll for advice on how to survive the dark days and nights of the winter solstice.

First, a little transparency: No one at Talk of the Nation was laid off yesterday. However, more than 60 colleagues were, and it's kind of hard to think about anything else. Since I was fortunate to keep my job in this round of cuts, I have the luxury of taking a step back from the scene. Layoffs are horrible, that much is clear. But what's not so clear is whether there's a right way to slash a staff. It's obvious that there are a lot of wrong ways -- like the employees who found out via the company blog that they'd been let go, for instance -- that fuel idioms like "getting the ax" and "slayoffs." Closed-door meetings, pink slips, "packets." Scary stuff. But can there really be an acceptable way to do layoffs? I'd hate to fire one person, much less tens or hundreds. I think I'd rather be a worker bee for life.

There's a lot of advice for bosses out there about how to do it humanely. Do it respectfully and give real reasons for the layoffs. Keep rumors to a minimum. Don't march them out the door with security. It's all good advice, but when it comes down to it, there's no nice way. And I have to think -- to hope, even -- that it's almost as hard on the fire-er as it is on the fire-ee. If you've been laid off, is there anything in the way your former employer did it that you admired, however grudgingly?

After news yesterday that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been charged with corruption, Eamon Javers and Fred Barbash, a writer for, and an editor of, the Politico, respectively, wrote a great article: "Why is Illinois so corrupt?"

Our Illinois readers, up in arms about that title, should relax. The piece has a broader scope than the headline would lead you to believe. Javers and Barbash, with the help of Michael Johnston, a professor of political science at Colgate University -- and the author of Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy, explain what makes certain states and politicians corrupt -- and others less so.

(Looking at pictures of Blagojevich and former Ohio Rep. James Traficant, I wonder if it has something to do with hair... Edward McClelland, of Salon, provides coif commentary here.)

I digress! Back to that Politico piece...

What gives? Colgate's Johnston says that there's more to it than just regional character. He's been studying political corruption since the 1970s, and has concluded that there are several key ingredients for political corruption. He says those include multiple political cultures competing for dominance, such as rural versus urban voters, tightly balanced party competition, and an elite political culture in which politicians expect to see corruption in their daily lives.

The highlight of the piece, for me, was the "corruption index," based on this piece from the Corporate Crime Reporter. The most-corrupt states, ranked. At the top of the list: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky. (Illinois is No. 6.) At the bottom: Minnesota, Iowa, and Oregon.

Is your state corrupt? Why?

Reporting about the economy over the last few months -- and the last year, really -- hasn't been much fun, but it does sort of give you a sense of immunity. Over the last few weeks, waking to hear round after round of layoffs in the newscast, the chill over the economy seemed to be closing in: government figures showed that U.S. employers laid off more than half a million people just in November. Today, NPR was forced to address its own budget deficit, laying off 7 percent of our workforce and canceling two programs, Day to Day, and News and Notes. It's grim -- everyone here has worked closely with at least one of the people laid off today.

The bad news from the economy is everywhere. I suppose the only silver lining, brought sharply into relief for me today, is that we're all in this together.

Here's a quick peek at what's happening today:

There is so much to talk about with the Political Junkie. Governor Rod Blagojovich, Caroline Kennedy, the nanny, Candidate Number five. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Ken Rudin will explain it all in our first hour. Then we'll continue along the political vein at the end of the hour with politcal jounalist David Corn who will explain why he feels that from the looks of president-elect Obama's top appoinment picks, "this wasn't quite the change we pictured."

In our second hour, we'll talk with Steven Greenhouse, author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker about more layoffs happening across the country. The latest job cuts are happening at Yahoo, Sony and even the NFL. If you have recently been laid off from your place of employment, please call us or send your blog comments. We want to hear your story. Then, Los Angeles Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez will lament the disappearing tried-and-true places to hang out. The cafes, bars and diners that we go to for comfort and renewed perspective from the outside world. And they are vanishing just when we need them most.

That's right: since 2000, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been photographed with a gun, drugs, and a flu pandemic pointing at his head. Foreshadowing?

Blago in 2000 (l), and 2004 (r)...

Source: Tim Boyle/Getty Images

 

...and in 2006 before the political pandemic was released.

Source: Tim Boyle/Getty Images

 

My name is Barrie, and I'm addicted to Law and Order. Well, mostly I'm addicted to the practically inimitable sound of the "Doink, Doink" that heralds each new segment... and plot twist. There are days I just want to wallow in that noise. So, for your listening pleasure, I've ripped it from the headlines -- the Law and Order "Doink, Doink." Enjoy.

On the show today, we'll talk with author Martin Lindstrom about his new book Buyology: Turth and Lies about Why We Buy. Lindstrom is a marketing and branding expert and, according to him, there is science and hardwiring behind our behavioral patterns as consumers and why we buy what we buy. Lindstrom will be our guest in our first hour. Call or write and tell us what brands you can't live without and why, and we'll find out the REAL reason why some products may grab our attention (and our dollars) over others. Then we'll talk about bad news and hard times in Chicago-- the Tribune Company backruptcy, a sit-in at a recently shut-down Chicago factory, and the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. At the end of the hour we'll read from your email and blog comments on our past shows including the prosecution of Lori Drew in the cyberbullying case, and a Dow Jones expert will tell us what the Dow Jones index actually tell us.

In our second hour, Jack McCoy will be in the studio!! Okay sorry. Sam Waterston, the actor who plays New York District Attorney Jack McCoy on Law & Order, will be in the studio!! So all you fans of the show, get your questions ready. I'm sure you have 19 seasons worth of them. And by the way, if you're used to watching Law & Order at 10pm, get ready to reset your clocks because it looks like the execs at NBC may be handing over that time slot to Jay Leno and a brand new nightly prime-time talk show. We'll talk about the big news with Bill Carter, the New York Times writer who broke the story. How risky is the move? And could this signal the end of the prime-time drama?

LENOOOOOOOO!!!

Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Bill Carter, of The New York Times, broke the story last night: "NBC will keep Jay Leno five nights a week, but in prime time, competing not with David Letterman, but with shows like 'CSI: Miami.'"

In his article, he noted that it is a risky move for NBC:

There have been no new hits at 10 p.m. on any network in almost four years; ratings for shows in that time slot continue to fall. ... Mr. Leno's shows tend to fare best in their first half hour; if they were to decline too much in the second half hour, NBC's affiliated stations would see their news shows adversely affected. And there may be some question about whether Mr. Leno's show at 10 might diminish the stature of [Conan] O'Brien's "Tonight Show" at 11:35.

This must be sad news for O'Brien, who has wanted to host an 11:35 p.m. talk show for years. In 2004, NBC announced that Conan O'Brien, the host of Late Night, the program that follows the Tonight show, would be Leno's heir apparent. In the intervening years, with Leno's ratings still high, NBC executives reportedly worried about this scenario: another network stealing their star when his contract expired, then having him compete with NBC's new Tonight host, O'Brien.

How did you take the news? If you're a Leno fan, what are you going to do with the time you'll save? Sleep? If you favor O'Brien's shtick, as I do, what say ye?

After some journalists and pundits began tossing around the "$70-per-hour" figure, the UAW and other Auto Industry analysts responded that the real pay to build a car for the "big three" is closer to $26-per-hour.

Why the big difference? Benefits.
The UAW breaks it down here.

Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at the New Republic wrote an article that "debunks the $70-per-hour myth."

What do you think this Minnesota voter intended?

Source: Screengrab of minnesota.publicradio.org

 

The lawyers are now in charge of fighting for the senate race in Minnesota. The recount continues, and legal teams for Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken are sifting through ballots, looking for any valid reason to challenge a vote for the opponent. And it's not always easy to tell for whom a voter intended to cast his ballot... there are crossouts and doodles, bats and jellyfish, and much of it is a jumbled mess. Don't take my word for it, check out some of the contested ballots yourself. The folks at Minnesota Public Radio have gotten their hands on many of the ballots, and they are running a "You Be The Judge" poll on their website.

The French movie Un Secret, is much more than a Holocaust movie.

Source: Strand Releasing

The first movie about the Holocaust I ever saw was Au Revoir, Les Enfants, French director Louis Malles' unflinching look at a defining moment of his childhood -- the disappearance of three classmates in a Gestapo raid on his boarding school. I was eleven. It's probable I learned about the Holocaust when I was quite a bit younger than that; it's one of those events that lurks in the consciousness of Jewish families in perhaps the same way segregation does in African-American families.

I don't remember if I was especially moved by the film, then; but it was memorable as the first of a group of films I began to lump into one genre -- the Holocaust film. Over the next twenty years I've seen more than a few, most foreign, with some notable exceptions. Many of them -- I might even say most -- are great films. I've been told that Schindler's List (one of the notable exceptions), only gets better on a second viewing.

Looking back, I've just begun to understand that Au Revoir, Les Enfants was actually the first of a certain kind of Holocaust movie. (Brace yourselves -- here is where I say the bit that might sound heretic.) The problem that many Holocaust films must overcome is the temptation to succumb to a central trope in Holocaust literature: the epic clash of evil and humanity. That would be a fine, if simple, conclusion, except that humanity is usually portrayed with as much nuance as evil, leaving the viewer a sadly simplistic view of the atrocities. Nazis are portrayed as devils who may never have had a human moment, while Nazi victims are allowed a range of emotions from desperation to courage, which is a much smaller continuum, you must admit, then most of us possess even in the worst of times. Au Revoir Les Enfants, allows its protagonists to actually act like children, instead of cardboard angels or devils, giving the conclusion a devastating reality.

A couple of weeks ago I saw Un Secret, a French movie which has only just made it over here. It's a gorgeous movie, and yes, it's about French Jews caught in the disaster of the war, but it somehow escapes being a Holocaust movie. As I floundered around trying to figure out why it was so good, a friend (Gura's ladyfriend, truth be told), zeroed right in. "It was very different from most Holocaust movies," she said, "Acknowledging that even during that time -- things like jealousy and lust still influenced people's decisions. And that those feelings and decisions were pushed in that direction because of the events going on around them." Having now seen the utterly maudlin Defiance, which relies on a solo violin for most of its humanity, I'm even more convinced she's right -- Un Secret is about people, while Defiance is about a disaster. (It also is a disaster, but that's not for me to say.)

A.O. Scott argued persuasively in The New York Times that the Hollywood trope of the Holocaust movie prevents us from actually trying to understand it on our own, writing, "We don't have to ask what the Holocaust means to us since the movies answer that question for us." And I guess that's why I've been thinking about these films lately -- as I listen to Avraham Burg argue that constantly looking through the prism of the Shoah isn't good for Jews, I realize that it might not be good for art, either. If we're going to insist that humanity triumph on and off screen -- let's view ourselves, our politics, our books, and our movies through that lens, warts and all.

A limited gesture vocabulary -- straight from the seventies..

Source: TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images

Look familiar? (I just saw Frost/Nixon -- so it might just be me.)

Alicia Shepard, NPR's ombudsman, "the public's representative [to NPR]," will join us, as she does from time to time, to tell us what concerns and questions listeners have raised, and how she has responded to them.

Last week, Shepard wrote a column about NPR's underwriting, called "Should NPR Run Funding Credits from the Department of Homeland Security?"

Immigration is an especially hot-button topic. So it's not surprising that when NPR began running a funding credit on Nov. 10 for the Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify program, my office heard from listeners and a few concerned public radio station managers.

They all questioned NPR's judgment in running the credit about the federal computer program that employers use voluntarily to check the legal status of new hires. At the least, some said, it is not a good fit for NPR. Some suggested NPR is endorsing E-Verify.

(You can read more about underwriting here, on the NPR News Code of Ethics and Practices.)

Public radio funding credits have been controversial before.

In North Carolina, according to the News & Observer:

An international women's health organization has stopped giving money to WUNC-FM after the public radio station said it could no longer describe the group on-air as working for reproductive "rights."

The conflict between Ipas and WUNC has drawn national attention. Last month WUNC informed Ipas that it would have to remove "rights" from its on-air acknowledgement, which had read, in part, "Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit that protects women's reproductive health and rights at home and abroad."

Joan Siefert Rose, WUNC's general manager, said the phrase could be interpreted as advocating a political position, potentially running afoul of Federal Communications Commission regulations.

And in Missouri, according to Black Issues in Higher Education:

A federal judge has ruled that the University of Missouri-St. Louis does not have to broadcast Ku Klux Klan announcements on its radio station.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Mummert rejected the KKK's request to require KWMU-FM to air the announcements. The Klan had sued the university's board of curators after the chancellor, Dr. Blanche M. Touhill rejected the group's request in October to underwrite KWMU-FM radio programs in exchange for fifteen-second promotional announcements during the afternoon rush hour.

If you still want to learn more about underwriting on public radio, Marketplace, from American Public Media, did a series on the subject a few years ago.

The Megan Meier case is so complex that I might need a chalkboard instead of a blog. It is also, of course, tragic for everyone involved; not just for Lori Drew and Meier, but for anyone who's ever written a nasty thing behind the opaque curtain of the web. The cases of Meier, and now Abraham Briggs (the young man who committed suicide while at least a hundred people watched via webcam and did nothing), are wake-up calls about the web and moral responsibility.

Enough of that. Our show today is about legal responsibility -- and the landmark verdict in the Meier case. It's pretty confusing what Drew was actually convicted of, and Kim Zetter has done the best explainers -- and truly, the best reporting -- on the web. For the latest on the case -- including precedent -- check out the Lori Drew Trial section of the Wired website. For a good backgrounder on the sad story from the beginning, read this New Yorker piece. For resources on cyberbulling, go to the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, or check out some of the links on our own Andy Carvin's blog.

Plaxico Burress turned himself in Monday.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

All week long we've been struggling with the Plaxico Burress story in our editorial meetings. We know it's something everyone has been talking about, so we'd like to too, but we just can't figure out a way to talk about it that doesn't sound like a conversation we've had a million times before. Fact is... We've had this conversation, about football players behaving badly, quite a few times, and that's why we're having to work so hard to find a new approach.

Here's a quick recap of some recent athletes gone awry:

Guns. Burress is the man in the news right now, after shooting himself in the leg at a nightclub with his own, unregistered (in New York City, where the incident occurred) firearm, but he sure isn't the first. He's just following in the footsteps of guys like Tank Johnson, whose bust factored in the NFL's implementation of an explicit policy on guns.

Drugs. Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Matt Jones allegedly got busted cutting up cocaine in a car, with a Foot Locker credit card, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Oopsie. He meets with the league today in New York.

Dog Fighting. Michael Vick. Don't really need to say too much more about that, I don't think.

It seems like President-elect Barack Obama has held a press conference every day for the past two weeks. He has named his economic team... His national security team... And today, at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Obama announced that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be his nominee for Secretary of Commerce. What do all these appointments mean? For one thing, that there will be a whole lot of empty seats to fill -- in two Southwestern state capitals, in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives.

In Arizona, Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican, will become the governor, if current Gov. Janet Napolitano is approved. And in New Mexico, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish would get Gov. Bill Richardson's seat, if he is approved. (He has said he won't resign until the confirmation hearings conclude.)

In Illinois and New York, people are already talking about replacements for the seats vacated by Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who was named Chief of Staff,... Here are the short lists:

In Illinois, which Obama represented in the Senate, and in the 5th congressional district, Rep. Rahm Emanuel's district:

For Obama's seat:
* Rep. Danny Davis
* Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth
* Rep. Luis Gutierrez
* Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
* Fmr. Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones
* Attorney General Lisa Madigan
* Rep. Jan Schakowsky

For Emanuel's seat:
* Alderman Tom Allen
* John Borovicka
* Peter Dagher
* State Rep. John D'Amico
* State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz
* Alderman Manuel Flores
* State Rep. John Fritchey
* Alderman Margaret Laurino
* State Rep.-elect Deborah Mell
* Justin Oberman
* Alderman Patrick O'Connor
* Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley
* Alderman Ariel Reboyras
* Cynthia Santos
* Alderman Eugene Schulter
* Alderman Tom Tunney

And in New York, where Hillary Clinton (the president-elect's nominee for Secretary of State) has a Senate seat:
* Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo
* Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, from Albany
* Rep. Steve Israel, from Long Island
* Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, from Queens
* Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, from Brooklyn

The device that detonated beneath Ivan Watson and Ali Hamdani's car in Baghdad was what's known as a sticky bomb. But what exactly is a sticky bomb? Less than a month ago, The New York Times ran a great piece on the devices. From that article,

They are usually no bigger than a man's fist and attached to a magnet or a strip of gummy adhesive -- thus the name "obwah lasica" in Arabic, or "sticky bomb." Light, portable and easy to lay, sticky bombs are tucked quickly under the bumper of a car or into a chink in a blast wall.

So that's what they look like. Here's a bit more on how they're constructed.

"You take a bit of C4 or some other type of compound," said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a spokesman for the United States military in Baghdad. "You can go into a hardware store, take the explosive and combine it with an accelerant, put some glass or marble or bits of metal in front of it and you've basically got a homemade Claymore," a common antipersonnel mine.

Bombers detonate them remotely. The devices aren't a new innovation, as earlier versions were developed and used in World War II, and they've been used in Iraq for a few years. There's been an uptick in their use recently, however, and soldiers now receive training on the magnetic IEDs.

It's a mega-political junkie day, full hour size. We'll start off the hour with a look at the week-in-politics with our resident political junkie Ken Rudin. (and of course he'll try to stump you with this week's trivia question.) Then he'll be joined by former Arkansas Governor and former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee with a look at the future of the GOP. Huckabee has written a new book entitled Do the Right Thing.

Last Sunday, NPR correspondent Ivan Watson and his transIator Ali Hamdani were working on a story in West Baghdad. As they walked back toward their vehicle, a bomb attached to their car exploded. Watson and Hamdani narrowly escaped. In our second hour, Watson and Hamdani will talk about the terrifying experience and the everyday challenges of reporting in Iraq. At the end of the hour, three guests-- the daughter of Nazi camp commandant Amon Goeth, a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned by Goeth, and the director who tells their story in a P.O.V. PBS documentary entitled Inheritance --- discuss how Nazi horrors affect newer generations.

The front pages are full of disturbing news about terror attacks, the economy, car makers, and dismal holiday sales, among other panic-inducing headlines. But Gregory Rodriguez, the Los Angeles Times columnist, found himself at Starbucks the other day, worrying instead about the death of the cafe (see this New York Times story). We've talked before about the idea of a "third place"... not home, not work, but a place to gather and be yourself. Rodriguez's point: with all the gloomy headlines, we need our third places now more than ever.

I've been hanging out in various "third places" for years, and it has broadened my world. In Berkeley in my undergraduate days, I spent a portion of nearly every evening at the Cafe Mediterraneum on Telegraph Avenue. In the company of older eggheads and the brilliant Italian-born cafe manager, I learned how to negotiate alien views of the world. They'd tease me about my awkward social skills and embarrass me when they could, but night after night they welcomed me in their mini-universe. When I lived in New York, I ate dinner nearly every night at Veselka, a Ukrainian coffee shop. I worked as a slave in the book publishing industry, and sometimes, a young Polish cook named Woijech would make me half a chicken cutlet sandwich and charge me accordingly. The regulars were a lot more world-weary and cynical than the idealists back in Berkeley, and the clientele fluctuated more often. At Veselka, I really learned to chat with strangers. .... Some of the strangers there have become acquaintances, and some acquaintances have become friends. What they confirm for me is that civic life isn't about structure; we don't have to play softball or volunteer for a cause to better engage with our world.

And yes, he points out that no matter how bad things get, "at least we can go for coffee or a glass of wine and learn how everyone else is holding up, or just leave it all behind."

When I was in Mumbai, almost a year ago, I was on a strict backpacker's budget. So strict, in fact, that even the youth hostels in Mumbai were too expensive, and so I only ended up visiting the city for the day in between two overnight bus rides (I was traveling with some friends from Diu in Gujarat to Goa).

Last week, I was surprised that when images of the CST train station and the Taj Hotel came up on CNN, I recognized both buildings.

We didn't travel to or from Mumbai by train, but the train station was the first place we went when we arrived in the city by bus. Train stations in India have information for tourists and clean(ish) bathrooms, and they are never too far from other cheap forms of transport around and out of the city.

I didn't spend anytime at the Taj hotel, but I recognized it because we must have driven by it three different times while we were lost. I drooled over the upscale shops around it, and imagined the western style toilets and hot showers inside.

To me, the Taj hotel represents the Western conveniences that I was so incredibly homesick for after 3 weeks of constant travel in India. The train station was more of a beacon for me. I'll never forget trying to orient myself, nervously looking from the station's beautiful Gothic architecture to the dot marking "Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus" on the map in my Lonely Planet.

Aravind Adiga, author of "The White Tiger" and Brian Jenkins, a security analyst for the RAND Corporation, are on the program, but we also want to hear from you: do the targets of the Mumbai attacks have symbolic values to you?

I don't think my brain works quite right when it comes to acronyms, especially, which are the bread and butter of text. (The B&B if you will.) For the longest time, I had no idea what NSFW meant ("Not So Friggin' Worrisome"?), and would click on things that instantly led me to Lindsay, Brit, and Paris' bottomless moments. (Seriously bottomless -- those photos are NEVER ENDING). If you're like me, you'll need these, some of the best texting dictionaries on the web:

Netlingo
Lingo2Word
Transl8it

And of course, I'm a nerd, I like poetry and Masterpiece Theater and all that boring stuff. But I have often been accused of expediency to the point of carelessness -- and ther4, reader, I luv 2 txt. How to marry my twin loves of nerd-dom and techland? That's where you come in. I've got my favorite Robert Frost poem down to 175 characters. Can anyone get it to 160 (the limit on my Bberry?)

natuRz 1st grEn iz gold,Her hardest hue 2 hold.Her earlE leaf's a @}-;bt onlE so an hr.thN leaf subsides 2 leaf.So Eden sank 2 grief,So dawn goes dwn 2 dA.Nuttin gold cn stA.*

*Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

In today's first hour, we'll talk more about the attacks in Mumbai, India with a focus on the targets of the assaults. The gunmen struck at several sites, including a train station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish center. We'll talk with a security analyst with the RAND corporation, as well as an author and former Time magazine reporter about the message the attackers were sending by targeting those specific locations in the city. Following that, we'll speak with Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, about a new human rights report that details the major problem of mistreatment and torture of detainees in Iraq.

So when it comes to texting, I think I'm still stuck on LOL and BRB*. That's about the extent of my texting vocabulary. I'm so old school. Texting is its own language, but is it corrupting the language we already know? Linguist and author of Txting: The Gr8 Db8 explains why texting should not be cause for panic. He'll join us in our second hour. So what's your relationship with texting? Are you resisting learning the new lingo? Or are you more like YYSSW?** Then, we'll talk with former White House adviser David Gergen about president-elect Barack Obama's decision to keep Robert Gates as Defense secretary. It means Gates will be transitioning from a Republican administration into a Democratic one. What challenges will Gates now face? And how common are re-appointments?

*Laugh out Loud and Be Right Back
**Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, whatever

Britney Spears performing this morning -- 2008 -- on 'Good Morning America."

Source: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

 

Britney Spears performing back in 2001.

Source: Gabe Palacio/Getty Images

 

Definition of insanity, via Einstein. (Yes, I'm quoting Einstein in a post about Britney Spears.) "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

On tomorrow's show, we're going to talk about the terrorist attack in Mumbai, which left some 190 people dead. Although I'm not producing the segment, I -- like many of you, I'm sure -- have been following it in print, on TV and radio, and online.

On Saturday, The New York Times published a piece by Brian Stelter and Noam Cohen, "Citizen Journalists Provided Glimpses of Mumbai Attacks."

"The attacks in India served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media," they wrote. "At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word 'Mumbai' in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years. Those descriptions and others on Web sites and photo-sharing sites served as a chaotic but critically important link among people across the world."

Members of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, have been aggregating news from the Indian city at the SAJA Forum. (Arun Venugopal, a reporter at our member station in New York City, WNYC, has been compiling their list, moderating their coverage.)

A blog, called Mumbai Help, is a resource for people in the United States, with family and friends in Mumbai.

Witnesses and news hounds have been posting updates on Twitter.

"Jonathan" plotted the sites of the attacks on this Google Map.

And on Flickr, Vinu has posted many photos of the attacks here.

How did you, and how have you continued to, stay up to speed on the terrorist attacks in Mumbai?

It's hard to explain why Frost/Nixon is so compelling. After all, it's a play, and now a movie, that is essentially about an interview. It's two guys talking. Honestly, I saw the movie this morning, and I was on the edge of my seat. It's incredibly suspenseful.

So, here's the thing: I work in radio, which is unaffected by images. Sure, we've got audio, language, all that good stuff. And there's still nothing better than a long pause -- or even dead air -- to bring suspense to the airwaves. But the power of the image is, in some ways, what this movie is about, and in the end, it's the thing that brought down Richard Nixon in the eyes of the public more than once. So, for your viewing discomfort, here's a little of the drama that the Frost/Nixon images brought to television in the late seventies. You can find longer clips here, and more right here at NPR.

December already. Here's what we're working on today:

In our first hour, we'll talk about president-elect Barack Obama's just-announced appointments for his National Security Team. David Sanger, reporter for The New York Times, and Ret. Major General Mike Davidson, former assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for National Guard Matters, will discuss what Obama's picks could tell us about the global priorities of an Obama adminstration.

Then, on our opinion page this week, we'll commemorate World Aids Day with Robert Gallo. Gallo is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He helped lead the co-discovery of the HIV retrovirus as the cause of AIDS. In his op-ed, entitled Fighting AIDS at Home, Gallo opines that President Bush's global health initiative to reduce HIV infection and mortality rates in Africa should also be implemented to fight the rate of infection in America's inner cities. His op-ed appeared in the November 16th edition of The Washington Post.

In our second hour, we'll be joined by director Ron Howard for a conversation about his new movie Frost/Nixon, based on the Tony Award-winning play by the same name, written by Peter Morgan, who will also join us today. Frost/Nixon documents Sir David Frost's historic interview with former president Richard Nixon in which Nixon lets the cat of the bag about his involvement in the Watergate scandal. The film makes its U.S. debut on December 5th.

Finally, author Asra Nomani will discuss the socioeconomic conditions of Muslims in India and why she believes "Muslims are India's new untouchables."

After a mildly encouraging Black Friday, retailers have high hopes for the success of Cyber Monday. I have a hard time shopping on a schedule, avoid Black Friday like the plague (har), and generally have too much work to do on Cyber Monday to peruse the deals, but I thought I'd put together a little cheat sheet in case I have some time tonight to burn through my credit limit. (Barrie's at a screening of Frost/Nixon right now for a segment later, but I anticipate she'll have something to add.) So let's get the ball rolling.

Ian Paul at PC World's got a great roundup of digital deals, on everything from computers to camera gear to GPS systems. He says the "big lure this season is free shipping," so don't be afraid to shop online.

CheapTweet, a roundup of deals making the Twitter rounds, has its list here. It's dense, but it covers a wide range -- it seems to get at smaller sales you might not find on major aggregators, like at artist Justine Ehlers' Etsy shop, but also has deals on larger sites.

Just interested in fashion? Barrie's the pro, but to my eyes, Style[ology]'s list looks like a great place to start.

And finally, if you want to sniff out your own deals, read Rachel Emma Silverman's post at The Wall Street Journal's blog, The Juggle. She's got tips galore, plus lower-cost ideas from her "friend and shopping expert Rachel Teichman."

Good luck, happy shopping, and don't get busted for working through your list at work!