Keeping the Newly Dead Ready for Organ Donation

I've been an organ donor for a long time. I've always been of the belief that once I'm finished using my heart, lungs or whatever, if they can be of use to someone else, please, be my guest. But even I find this idea a little, well, unsettling.

It's pretty well-known that there just aren't enough donated organs to go around to all the people who need them. And until we learn how to grow them -- which is, realistically, not as far off as we might think -- the shortage will continue. So New York City officials have come up with an idea of how to work the odds in their favor a bit. USA Today reports that, within months, they plan to "dispatch the nation's first ambulance equipped to preserve bodies of the newly dead so that families have time to consider organ donation."

The controversial twist: Crews would swoop in and perform procedures on a corpse without consent in order to preserve the organs until the family had time to give consent for organ donation. No organs would be taken without consent.

The idea of this ambulance roaring through the streets of New York on this particular mission seems like something out of a graphic novel.

Apparently, city officials are hoping that grieving people will be rational enough to give consent for their very recently deceased loved ones' organs to be donated. It's not a totally wild theory. Any reporter who has ever covered a story involving a sudden fatality will tell you that many times the family wants to do whatever it can to preserve the memory of their loved one in a meaningful way.

But does this idea of an ambulance dispatched to keep a victim, well, "fresh," take the desire to harvest organs a step too far? Does it create an unnecessary tension between families of the deceased and the family of those needing an organ donation? Or it this a smart and useful way to take a tragic situation and turn in into something that can be life affirming?

Tom Regan

10:26 AM ET | 05- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

A Tribute to Comedians Past

Chris Farley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Source: bsoist

John Belushi, Chris Farley, and John Candy. All Second City vets. All on the SNL stage at one point or another. And all died earlier than their time -- drugs, drugs, and heart disease, respectively. But, in a way, they live on in the comedy they left behind.

In a new biography about Chris Farley called, The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, his brother Tom put it this way:

For every hilarious thing he did on camera, there were twenty things he did off-screen that just blew it away. He lived to make others laugh, and he was fearless about it. In the years since Chris passed away, there have been countless times when Chris's buddies would find themselves huddled together, sharing these crazy stories.

What do you miss most about these comedic actors? And what was your favorite skit or movie they did?

Ashley Grashaw

10:42 AM ET | 05- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Horse Racing Has Big Highs, Big Lows

I am the father of three horse-crazy little girls. My eight-year-old has stripped her bedroom of everything that isn't connected with horses. My six-year-old asks me at least once a day to draw a picture of a horse so that she can color it. My 10-year-old wants a collector's-edition toy horse model for her upcoming birthday.

Since we moved to the Virginia countryside, the girls have made friends with a neighbor who runs a pony farm. It's like they moved to paradise. They are continually asking our neighbor for a chance to ride the ponies, but she told me recently that before they ride, they'll need to learn how to muck out a stable, clean the saddle, brush and groom the horse, etc.

"I want them to learn that horses aren't toys but living creatures that require care and attention," she told me recently.

I thought of her remarks after the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Eight Belles wasn't just a "horse," she was a real living creature. Perhaps that's why stories like the deaths of Eight Belles or Barbaro two years ago hit us the way that they do. That so much beauty and power can be so fragile seems unnatural.

Here track vet Dr. Larry Bramlage talks about what happened to Eight Belles:

The excitement over the Triple Crown chances of Big Brown seems out of place. As Pat Forde wrote for ESPN, "But that's horse racing, a sport in which the good news never seems able to outrun the bad news. For every new fan turned on to the game by Big Brown's fluidity and immense talent, two might be lost because of Eight Belles' awful ending."

We're going to look at why these tragedies seem to happen so often in the "sport of kings." Andy Beyer, sports columnist for the Washington Post, Jule Rover, NPR's health policy correspondent will be on the show, along with horse veterinarian Dr. Rick Arthur, to discuss what happened to Eight Belles and how it affects the future of horse racing with the American public.

Tom Regan

1:57 PM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (20) | e-mail post

Polls That Make Your Head Explode

Back in the early 60s, the then-Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbacker (who was a real Prairie populist) was asked what he thought about polls. "Polls are for dogs," was Dief the Chief's terse reply.

These days, we watch polls the way ancient sages consulted chicken bones and goat entrails -- we're all just trying to hedge our bets. This year, however, polls have done more to confuse the future outcome than reveal it. Hillary Clinton's totally unexpected victory in New Hampshire is the prime exhibit. Pollsters (who seem to be outnumbered only by Elvis impersonators these days) defend their profession vociferously, but they still don't seem to be any better at clearing away the fog from important issues.

For instance ... there are two major media polls today, one from USAToday/Gallup and one from CBS News/New York Times.

The USAToday/Gallup poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton with a seven-point lead nationally over her rival Sen. Barack Obama. And the survey shows that Obama has been deeply injured by his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But if you don't like that, then don't worry. The CBS/New York Times poll shows Obama ahead by 12 points nationally and says that he's moving beyond the Wright controversy.

Huh?

Were these two groups of pollsters surveying the same country? They were done over the same time period -- last Thursday through Saturday -- with about the same number of respondents. It's like the USAToday/Gallup people just happened to find every white rural American woman over 60 who feels uneasy voting for a black, while the CBS/New York Times poll was only calling people under 45, who live in urban neighborhoods and who have been to college.

I'm sure there is some logical explanation for this that pollsters can provide; maybe this kind of result only happens on a Cinco de Mayo that falls on a Monday in a year with an eight in it. Something, you know, scientific.

Tom Regan

10:18 AM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

You Never Know When the Earth Will Shake

After I saw the news coverage of the recent tornadoes in Virginia, the state where I live, I wanted to make sure my home owners insurance was up-to-date. During the Q&A process with the insurance rep, she asked me if I wanted earthquake insurance.

Earthquake insurance? In Virginia?

She reminded me about the recent earthquake in Illinois and Ohio that was supposedly felt as far away as Iowa. "Never can be sure," she said.

Then I remembered my own earthquake experience. It was in Montreal a few years ago. My family and I were staying at a hotel in the downtown area. Suddenly the building shook for a few seconds and there was a loud noise. I thought it was just a truck or some other large vehicle rumbling by. But my wife immediately said, "That was an earthquake." And sure enough, she was right according to that night's news.

Pretty mild, eh? But my friend and fellow journalist George DeLama of the Chicago Tribune was in the Los Angeles area during the 1994 Northridge, California quake. It destroyed his house. He told me later than if he could help it, he would never again live in any place that was earthquake friendly.

In the end, I turned down the earthquake insurance. I really don't think I need it. My fingers are crossed of course.

We want to hear from our listeners in Reno, where small earthquakes have become commonplace. What are they like? How bad are they?

Tom Regan

1:56 PM ET | 05- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Suggestions, Please

Suggestion box 2.0?

Source: shawnblog

Jeff Jarvis has an interesting piece in Business Week on the latest iteration of corporate suggestion boxes. Starbucks and Dell, among others, created websites that solicit customers' ideas... One wants ice cubes made of coffee so the iced coffees don't get watered down; another wants shelves in the bathrooms to hold their drinks when they can't hold their water any longer. Suggestion boxes are infamous for being completely ignored, but Jarvis talked with the head tech guy behind the Starbucks site, who promises to make the connection between customer and company a meaningful one:

"To close that loop in an authentic way," he argues, the company must make a commitment to "building those ideas together with customers.... We're truly going to adopt it into our business process, into product development, experience development, and store design."

The full article is online here. And I'll throw open our suggestion box for the day... If you could pick any company to create a suggestion site, which would it be? And what suggestion would you make?

Scott Cameron

10:15 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Chris Rock: No Apologies

Comedian Chris Rock performs in Phoenix, Arizona in February.

Source: Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for HollyRod Foundation

Disclaimer: the following is an exercise in unabashed braggadocio. Sorry, no apologies.

I've seen Chris Rock perform twice in the past four days. He made a stop at DC's Constitution Hall as part of his current No Apologies tour, and I eagerly signed up for the fun. On Friday night, our seats were fifth row, center. FIFTH ROW, CENTER!!! Chris made eye contact with me several times. It was un. be. lievable. His set included treatments of inter-racial dating; the PC outcry surrounding Imus and Isaiah Washington's gaffes; and, of course, McCain, Clinton and Obama as presidential hopefuls. He also managed to slip in a few amusing jabs about Bush, OJ, Anna Nicole, and Flava Flav. I could not stop laughing for the entire 110 minutes he was on stage. I had to massage my face afterward, it hurt so much. I'm still laughing. Laughter may be the best medicine, but I never thought I'd need additional medicine to recuperate.

Then last night, my friend called me with an extra ticket, and I selfishly accepted the invitation to see him again. This time the seats weren't quite as glamorous, and the jokes weren't as funny 'cause I knew what was coming, but I did learn something about the mechanics of stand-up comedy. Although the core of his routine was largely the same, there were some noticeable differences between his last and first night performances. The second time around, he was much more laid back, a little loopy even, and he riffed and took risks more freely. At one point, he seemed to forget where he was going with a joke. I almost yelled the punchline from the audience to help him out. One more Long Island, and I would've. I realized that in situations like that, a comedian needs to be able to think on his feet in order to come up with creative, seemingly spontaneous ways to get back to the scripted routine. And think on his feet he did -- he even discovered a few new gems in the process. I also noticed that some of his jokes were predicated on a particular response from the audience -- a nuanced reaction or a hesitant pause -- and if we didn't give it to him at first, he'd wait for it or skillfully drag it out of us before he continued. Final consensus? His routine's not HBO-ready yet, but it's close.

When have you been able to look behind the curtain of a comedy routine? What did you discover, and what surprised you the most? And who's your favorite comedian you've seen perform live?

Ashley Grashaw

10:40 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Mad Genius Maddux

Greg Maddux in Cubbie blue during the 2006 season.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

I lived in Chicago during the era of Greg Maddux. No World Series, but if you're not gonna win a Series you might as well get to watch arguably the best (and smartest) pitcher in the game. If you don't follow baseball, this story by Tim Keown over at ESPN.com is the only introduction you'll need to Maddux. And if you know pro ball already, you'll only appreciate lines like this all the more:

DISCLAIMER: Greg Maddux is quoted in this story saying exceedingly humble things. You are under no obligation to believe them. You are encouraged to believe in the spirit of the words-Maddux is almost obsessively self-deprecating-but that does not make them true. And when he says, "Whenever you've had a little success in this game, people think you know more than you do," don't believe that one at all.

Keown puts in several disclaimers in the piece, all of them warnings to not believe the anti-hype Maddux spews. Besides, he quotes enough coaches and athletes with opposing views to make a convincing case that Maddux is deserving of the myth:

How many times had he heard someone say it? How many times over the past 22 years had some catcher or coach or broadcaster said, "Greg Maddux? I bet you could catch him with your eyes closed"? Sounded plausible enough, maybe coaxed a chuckle or two from the pitcher, but mostly it was just something to say. Nobody realized it was just a matter of time before somebody decided to prove it.

And they did. Still, in case the cult of Greg grows too large after reading his article, Keown did a little follow-up research proving that, yes, Greg Maddux is only human.

Scott Cameron

11:24 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

The Popemobile

Pope John Paul II on a popemobile in Vatican City.

Franco Origlia/Getty Images

 

During the summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school, I had the good fortune of hearing Pope John Paul II speak in Rome, Italy. I was sent with a group of students to witness the beatification of our school's namesake, Father Chaminade. My dad, an Italian Catholic, had always loved John Paul, so I grew up hearing stories about him. I was excited to see the man in action, finally. When we got there, the scene was beyond impressive: St. Peter's Square was a sea of hundreds of thousands of people, and it seemed as though every nationality was represented. There were metal detectors, gelato carts, and peddlers selling knickknacks imprinted with the pope's face. In all the excitement, I knocked over two little Italian ladies as I ran to save seats in the seventh row (!!!).* When he came out on stage, the crowd undulated with cheers and applause. The respect and sheer adulation he commanded was the first I had seen of its kind. If I saw one person cry, I saw a hundred. It was almost like a rock concert, expect instead of leather, metal-studded wristbands and Motley Crue haircuts, people were doused in crosses and swung their rosaries to chants of "Pape! Pape!" From what I can remember of the ceremony, John Paul spoke something like seven different languages, and the effects of his Parkinson's were prominently on display. But he persevered for more than an hour, and then -- then -- came his ride on the popemobile! He rode around, waving to his legions, in a gold chair on the back of a mini, truck-like contraption. People threw out flowers and waved flags of their countries of origin. We were able to snap a couple close-up shots, and he blessed all our souvenirs.**

Starting today, Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit the United States for six days, stopping in both Washington, DC and New York City. And I gotta say, the new popemobile is sick*** -- it's been upgraded from that of something resembling a golf cart to a Mercedes Benz, literally.

* Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? I mean, how many times do you get to see the pope in Rome? And what good is it if he looks like an ant in all your pictures?
** Which, really, is the most important thing.
*** Again, that's a good thing, Mom.

Ashley Grashaw

10:26 AM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Bargains, Bartering, and Flea-cing

The Brooklyn Flea.

dumbonyc

 

When I was growing up, my family used to scour antique stores and flea markets, looking for old musical instruments, daguerreotypes, and rare books, among other things. On summer vacations, we traced a route from Ipswich, through Essex, to Gloucester, stopping at shops and roadside stands along the way. "Antiquing" was part of our parlance.

Before eBay, it was still possible to find curios at bargain prices. "One man's junk is another man's treasure." My parents were confident that they would stumble upon that precious image, forgotten for decades; that good ol' Gibson, in mint condition, never played. Sure enough, they found those things, and they bartered as best they could for them. It was hit or miss, of course. On some afternoons, they wouldn't find anything. On others, they couldn't find enough room in our Plymouth Grand Voyager to store it all. Collecting, they say, is a lot like fishing or hunting game.

My dad and a few friends used to swap stories about the Brimfield Antique and Collectibles Show, one of the largest flea markets in the United States. Three times each year, Brimfield, Mass., which claims only 3,000 residents, is overrun. As many as 250,000 visitors travel to the town. Several vast farm fields are filled with vendors, hawking all kinds of knickknacks. Before the show opens, early in the morning, hundreds of dedicated collectors line up, wearing headlamps, carrying flashlights, to get a first look at what is for sale. This is antiquing at its purest, perhaps at its most primitive.

Did the advent of eBay, more than a decade ago, ruin collecting? No. But it certainly changed it. Suddenly, everyone knew what was out there, who had what. Bargains disappeared. Who knew that your old LP's were worth so much, that your childhood toys could fetch a small fortune?

This weekend, I pored over Guy Trebay's piece on the opening of the Brooklyn Flea, "Scavengers on the Urban Savannah." "By the wholly unscientific estimate of the event's organizers," he wrote, some 20,000 New Yorkers traveled to Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, to trade in plus-size vintage clothing, Navajo concha belts, and "the trove of erotic Polaroids the critic and curator Vince Aletti once found heaped in a stall on 25th Street, bought for 50 cents a piece and then included in his recent and glowingly reviewed 'Male' exhibit at the White Columns gallery."

It is good to know that some collectors, in a few small corners of the United States (Brooklyn and Brimfield, at least), hawk clothes, crafts, and crap in person, under bright-blue tarps, on tailgates and flimsy card tables, in person.

If you haven't read Trebay's article, you should. And make sure you look at the photographs that accompany the article. Incredible!

David Gura

11:00 AM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Critical Cutbacks

It seems like once a year we talk about a newspaper dumping its theater critic, or dance critic, or book critic, and more recently, their movie critic. Tight budgets are a big part of it, obviously, but you wouldn't cut your entire City Hall reporting staff. There's something about the critic that is now very vulnerable. It's not a new phenomenon, but it does feel like we crossed some kind of threshold, where enough papers dropped one or more of their critics to revisit the question: Do critics matter? Patrick Goldstein takes up that question in the Los Angeles Times:

There was a time when critics were our arbiters of culture, the ultimate interpreters of intellectual discourse. When I was growing up, eager to write about the arts, it was just as important to read Pauline Kael, Frank Rich and Lester Bangs as it was to see a Robert Altman film, a David Mamet play or listen to the latest Elvis Costello album. Critics gave art its context, explained its meaning and guided us to new discoveries.

Those days are long gone, he argues. Blame the web, blame budget cuts, even blame Hollywood. But in the end, will you miss the expert reviewer's informed opinion, or will you even notice when the local paper drops their critic?

Scott Cameron

12:45 PM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Rick Steves Guest Blogs!

Rick Steves in Toledo, Spain.

Source: Rick Steves' Europe

On Talk of the Nation yesterday, Rick Steves gave us some great advice on how to get the biggest bang for our buck on European vacations. Here's what he had to say after the show:

With the dollar in the dumps it's great to have a chance to share my belief that Americans can still travel in Europe for essentially the same cost as in the USA -- if they know how. Only on public radio can we talk at length on subjects like these with no concerns about ruffling the feathers of advertisers.

Our callers were experienced travelers with good concerns and good lessons to share. Considering their size, Liz and her group will save lots of money by sharing a big vehicle and a large apartment. A mini bus shared by eight travelers provides the cheapest travel possible. And more and more Americans are learning the budget wisdom of booking an apartment with a kitchen. Groceries are essentially the same cost anywhere -- and always a fraction of the cost of a restaurant.

When Chris said she'd recently been to London, I expected her to be shell-shocked at the cost. But she turned out to be a very good traveler and knew that the greatest cultural wonders in London are actually free. (I've noticed that in much of Europe museum prices fluctuate with the current government. Left wing governments subsidize art and culture -- and often make museum entries free. Right wing governments believe museums should pay their own way.).

My new "apfels to pommes" chart attempting to compare relative costs "apples to apples" (mentioned in the interview) is now on my blog. I hope that can be of some help.

Happy travels,
Rick Steves

Ashley Grashaw

3:07 PM ET | 04- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Rick Seaney on Inexpensive Fares

Rick Seaney.

Source: farecompare.com

In the second hour of our show today, we'll talk to two travel experts, Rick Steves, author of sundry guidebooks, host of sundry travel shows; and Rick Seaney, the CEO of farecompare.com, about how to travel to Europe on the cheap. Or the sort-of-cheap (given the value of the dollar). Steves claims that it's still possible, and Seaney promises to help us navigate the confusing world of airline ticketing. The guru of cheap fares himself offered to blog for us this morning, which makes my job a whole lot easier. So, without further ado: Rick Seaney, ladies and gentlemen:

Sometimes I get the feeling that there's a whole group of people out there who believe in a mythical amendment to our Constitution -- one that guarantees us the "Right to Cheap Airline Tickets." But anyone who's actually bought airline tickets in the past six months knows this in not an "inalienable right." The number one reason: the exploding cost of fuel (the price of jet fuel has nearly doubled since last year). The airlines are doing something about this. They are reducing seats and raising their prices. Steadily.

We consumers have two choices: complain (which is what folks did last year); or, adapt. I think the answer is "intelligent adapting"; you accomplish this by making smarter airfare purchasing decisions.

It's important to remember that an airline is in business to sell you a seat on a flight for as much money as possible. Airlines can and do change hundreds of thousands of airfare prices every day, and at different times of the day. They study your buying behavior and use this knowledge to charge you more.

With all this in mind, you're ready to start shopping (that's shopping, not buying -- do some research and some comparisons first). Here' some handy tips to get you started (after the jump):

Continue reading "Rick Seaney on Inexpensive Fares" »

David Gura

11:24 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

 

More Free Stuff!

You know the old adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" It's a phrase I've certainly used, but in recent days I've realized it's even more true than I thought. Last month I joined Freecycle as a way to offload some computer detritus I'd amassed over the years and didn't want to haul to my new home (where everything would sit buried in a bin somewhere, of course). If you don't know what it is, Freecycle's a simple email list attached to a locality, and on it folks offer up their unwanted items. Typically, the taker comes to the giver and picks up the offering, so it's even more convenient than Goodwill. Plus, it keeps perfectly good stuff out of landfills. As a relative newbie to the Freecycle world, I've been shocked and entertained at the items offered up and claimed, from racy comic books to knee-high socks (ok, that was me.) My dad, however, is a Freecycle veteran, and he's seen it all...

I have seen, for example, serviceable (if in need of some repair) sailboats with trailers offered on my local Freecycle board, while at the other end of the spectrum I have on more than one occasion seen single "cents-off" coupons on grocery items offered (and taken!). One would think that the cost of gas to drive over and pick it up would exceed the value of that coupon for $0.35 off on that jar of mayonnaise - even after doubling!

Mayonnaise coupons?! Boats?! What's your tallest Freecycle tale?

Sarah Handel

10:44 AM ET | 03-27-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Live from Moon

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin salute President Richard Nixon. From the Moon.

NASA

 

"One small step for man..."

NASA

In 1973, I stayed up much of the night to watch the fuzzy, black-and-white image from a single camera trained on the tarmac of Clark Air Base in the Philippines, to await the arrival of the first planeload of American POWs released from North Vietnam. (At least I remember the picture as both fuzzy and monochromatic -- it might well have been the nine-inch black-and-white Sony TV I had at the time.)

The event was memorable by itself, but I distinctly remember a thrill reading the words on the bottom of the screen, "Live from the Philippines." Luzon seemed so far away that the technology that made all this possible might as well have been magic. It was on a par with seeing the words, "Live from Moon" just a few years earlier.

Then, this morning, before heading into work, I scarcely thought twice about flipping on my substantially larger, flatter and more-colorful TV to watch a couple of innings of the Boston-Oakland baseball game splashed across half my living room in the exquisite clarity of HD. Four years ago, HD signals from the Summer Olympic Games in Athens arrived on these shores a day late. Later this year, live, glorious HD images of gymnasts, swimmers and
basketball players in Beijing will seem like a birthright (no live images from Tienanmen Square, but that's another issue that we'll talk about today with columnist Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post.)

I know the march of technology is a cliche, but it's hard not to marvel at what's happened in the 35 years between Clark Field and the Tokyo Dome, and wonder which previously insuperable barriers of time and space will seem mundane a few years from now. Who knows, we might even see "Live from Moon" again.

Neal Conan

11:23 AM ET | 03-26-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

March Madness

Go, Heels!

Source: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

I could've caught March Madness here, in Washington, D.C. Three local universities were in the big dance, and one of them was expected to make it to Ford Field, maybe to the Alamodome. At the Verizon Center, just three blocks away, Duke narrowly beat Belmont, then lost to West Virginia; Georgia, Sarah's alma mater, fell to Xavier; and the Boilermakers burned Baylor. (Barrie, who is equal parts fan and clairvoyant, boasts the best bracket among us.)

But I went home instead, to North Carolina, where I first caught basketball fever.

On Friday night, Chapel Hill bars and restaurants were full of fans, eager to see the Tar Heels take down Mount St. Mary's. (They did. Handily.) On Saturday afternoon, I happened to be in the UNC Student Stores for the final minutes of the Duke v. West Virginia game. (The crowd, gathered around a modest flat-screen display there, rejoiced when the Blue Devils were felled.) Later that day, over dinner in Durham, my dad pointed out how solemn everyone seemed to be. (For their beloved DeMarcus Nelson, it was all over. A championship title had eluded Greg Paulus, Martynas Pocius, and Jon Scheyer again.)

For my part, I promise to be productive 'til Thursday, when North Carolina plays Washington St. And I'll try to resist the urge to barrel down I-95, back to Chapel Hill.

David Gura

11:30 AM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

'Who Is Arthur Clarke?'

The news of the death of Arthur C. Clarke earlier this week hit home on a couple of levels. Along with Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delaney and others too numerous to mention, Clarke helped shape my imagination. I read a fair amount of science fiction to this day, but as a boy and adolescent, I vacuumed Ace Doubles before lunch. Clarke had his flaws as a writer but his best was as good as anybody.

I never had the chance to meet the great man, but spoke with him a couple of times by phone, and, one memorable morning, got the chance to introduce him to Chuck Yeager.

Continue reading "'Who Is Arthur Clarke?'" »

Neal Conan

12:04 PM ET | 03-20-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Juicy Anti-Social Social Media

This JuicyCampus.com site just keeps getting bad press, and just keeps getting more popular. Though, if you click on the most popular links ("Juiciest") the second post says "this site is stupid." A nascent backlash, perhaps. For the unjuicy: the site breaks down by college campus, and is a place for students to post completely anonymous information/gossip/rumor for all the world to see. So far, the topics cover things like who sleeps around the most, and
who's starred in porn films. It's like passing notes in high school, taken to the extreme. Now, there's a report that the site is being investigated by New Jersey prosecutors.

It's not the first seemingly anti-social social media site, but it's the most widely covered at the moment. And in a world of Facebooks and MySpaces, it is one of the diminishing number of sites that offer total anonymity to its users. Being unidentifiable was one of the promises of the web, and was supposed to lead to wider and more open discussion. For any number of reasons, mostly human nature, web 2.0 took things in the opposite direction. Now, everyone wants the world to know who they are... through blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

I realize I'm not the target audience for most social media sites, and certainly not JuicyCampus, but whether or not you put it all out there for the world to see online, do you think there's still a place for anonymity on the web? Or do you think the only way to real credibility is to identify yourself?

Scott Cameron

9:11 AM ET | 03-19-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

While You Were Sleeping...

A Monday morning "news" primer:

The Iraq war anniversary according to the New York Times' John F. Burns: "Five years on, it seems positively surreal."

You can blame global warming for that pricey bucket of extra-butter popcorn at the movie theater... when your car runs on corn, it means less for you.

Stop being pathetic... a 10-step guide to getting tough.

If you're not spying on your kids, why not?

Spring Break partying all about confidence for young women?: "After a week of talking to people in various states of undress and intoxication, I can tell you this much: What's happening on spring break beaches isn't just boys being boys and girls going wild. It's young people, women especially, deciding that the way to measure their readiness for the adult world is not in terms of education or emotional maturity but sexual desirability."

Digital dumpster diving... Anyone seen my Macbook Air?.

Polaroid denial: Save the instant (analog) photo.

Blackface is back in Hollywood: "Blackface fades but never goes away, the greasy rub between the fingers of racial loathing."

Scott Cameron

6:48 AM ET | 03-17-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

WWW.OldMedia.Com

You, me, The New York Times, Dupre...

Source: MySpace.com

It does seem rather handy that so many people have an online identity now. Especially if you're a journalist. When you're trying to find someone -- or information on them -- those MySpace pages sure are useful. Take for instance, the MySpace page of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. On it, she mentions several things about herself. For instance: "I am all about my music, and my music is all about me. It flows from what I've been through, what I've seen and how I feel. I live in New York and am on top of the world." Well, as most people know now, Ms. Dupre has a good deal more to her, namely, her involvement in the ugly scandal that took down the House of Spitzer. So here's what's interesting to me about it -- The New York Times article on Ms. Dupre seems to approach its subject through the prism of her MySpace profile -- without a whole lot of skepticism. Granted, the Times did speak directly to her, and to her mother -- it's not as if the story is reported entirely from the online identity Ms. Dupre wishes to show -- but the tone is surprisingly naive. For instance,

Her MySpace biography says she started singing professionally after a musician she was living with heard her singing the Aretha Franklin hit "Respect" in the shower and burst into the bathroom with his lead guitarist. She says she toured and recorded with them, then moved to Manhattan in 2004 and spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry."

Kinda hard to tell what came from her, and what came from the page. Of course, a lot of this is the pot calling the kettle black (I'm the pot), because during the Virginia Tech shootings, we got so much information from Facebook memorials to the kids who were shot. It seemed to me at the time, a good use of social networks -- for a good cause, if you will. But in the wake of the false Bilawal Bhutto Zardari page, the Megan Meier tragedy -- it kind of makes you feel a little icky about using Facebook or MySpace to report a story. Pity the old media types -- the web moves a lot faster then they do. And if anyone wants information about me, you should know that half the TV shows I mention on my Facebook page I barely watch anymore. Fact check it, y''all.

Barrie Hardymon

9:41 AM ET | 03-13-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Swede This

I sweded myself. You can too!

Source: Ashley Grashaw

 

So I finally saw Be Kind Rewind last weekend. It's Michel Gondry's latest film, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. I liked this movie for several reasons:

A) Delectable cast. The Jack Black/Mos Def pairing was a brilliant move; and Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, and Melonie Diaz dazzled in supporting roles.

B) Inspiration. In my opinion, BKR is a shining beacon of hope for low-budget, aspiring filmmakers -- proof that good, smart films don't necessarily need mega bucks. A little creativity and humor can go a long way.

C) VHS tapes and independent video stores. A sweet nod to the movie medium of the 80s, and a nostalgic look back at life before Blockbuster, Netflix, et al.

and, lastly, my favorite,

D) Sweding. A new concept that basically amounts to inserting yourself into your favorite films -- re-making them with whatever props you have lying around, until the end result is a new movie based on the old one. I would love to swede The Princess Bride -- who can resist Inigo Montoya and Miracle Max?

What movies would you swede? And what treatment would you give them?

Swede yourself!

Ashley Grashaw

10:15 AM ET | 03-12-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Drawing Obama and Clinton

Inaccurate "headcuts"?

Source: The Wall Street Journal (as reproduced on the Daily Intelligencer)

 

Until yesterday, I had assumed that the small, stippled portraits in The Wall Street Journal were digitally rendered, the product of some special Photoshop filter. In fact, each one is drawn by hand, inked on vellum. (I'm embarrassed to admit that I missed this piece, by NPR's Petra Mayer, about Noli Novak, who heads the department responsible for The Journal's "headcuts," as they're called). It sounds like meticulous, if not tedious, work.

A post on the Daily Intelligencer caught my attention: "'Journal' Stipple Artists Find Obama Challenging."

Instead of Obama's trademark dark brow and big open eyes, we got an image of a man who looked, well, a little bit like a generic black dude. That's weird, right? But maybe we should just chalk it up to the limitations of the medium. And in that case, let us say that said limitations are kinder to Hillary. When was the last time you saw her looking that joyful and young?

They do look strange.

The post reminded me of an interview I heard a few weeks ago: NPR's Melissa Block spoke with Jack Ohman, political cartoonist for The Oregonian, and Kal Kallaugher, of The Economist magazine, about the challenges of drawing Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Ohman said that he has received a fair amount of negative feedback.

But the fact is, is that you have, you know, racial and gender issues when you're portraying these people. And I do not, you know, try to demean anybody in terms of the way they look. I just try to communicate who they are.

And that, understandably, can be tough.

Bob Garfield, who co-hosts On The Media, asked Nick Anderson, a cartoonist at The Houston Chronicle an important question: "When you're dealing with a woman and an African-American, do you think your colleagues feel fettered in any way lest exaggeration turns into something, I don't know, more pernicious?"

David Gura

11:08 AM ET | 03-11-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

The Wire Is Dead... Long Live The Wire.

Ed Burns and David Simon, in Hollywood.

Source: Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

 

SPOILER ALERT: The following post has major spoilers. Don't read if you're not caught up on The Wire.

The series finale of The Wire didn't leave us with much in the way of comfort. But, in the end, Bubbles was enough.

I love realism, and I love The Wire for its grit, for its bleakness, for its grim honesty -- but after the deaths of Stringer, Prop Joe, and Omar, and the ruin of Dukie and Randy -- my poor li'l heart wouldn't have been able to take it if there wasn't some redemption in Charm City.

To see the door open for Bubs -- now Reginald -- proved to me that there was balm in Baltimore, even if it was pure fantasy. I'm not going to lie to y'all though -- there were moments in all five seasons when I wanted to bang my fists on a table and scream at David Simon and Ed Burns (despite their dual genius) for breaking my heart -- and the hearts of the characters and the city I love.

If your passion for their creation rises to that level -- you're in luck on this sad, Wire-less day -- Simon and Burns will be here with us, at 3:00 EST, for you to commend, curse, or congratulate. Here's a little required reading for you in anticipation of the show. And if we let some spoilers fly? It's all in the game.

Barrie Hardymon

10:25 AM ET | 03-10-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post

Darn This Dirty Mouth

No cussin' on the Virginia Beach beachfront.

Source: Tuaussi

It might surprise my parents, but at times, I've got a filthy mouth. Good thing I don't live in South Pasadena, because starting this week, it could cost me. Mayor Michael Cacciotti has proclaimed this week "No Cussing Week," and while no one will be jailed -- or even fined -- cussing is very much frowned upon for now. To be clear, I'm reasonably selective about my cussing. I try not to do it in public where strangers -- especially kids -- could hear. I think it's sort of scary as a little kid to hear random adults spewing epithets in the grocery store, at the bus stop, whatever. So I try not to be that person. I also, for a time, tried not to curse at all. I'd read or overheard somewhere that cussing is really about linguistic laziness, that we resort to those words because we're too dumb to find a better expression of our feelings. After my own little no-cussing experiment, I believe that that's true... sometimes. Sure, if you're using the f-word to modify every word in your sentence (it's an incredibly agile word, it's true) you could probably do a better job expressing yourself with some diversifications. But other times, it's absolutely essential to curse, and there's just no better way to characterize a person, place, or thing than with a carefully placed profanity. How do you feel about it? Do you have a strict no-cussing policy, or do you relish the occasional -- or not-so -- dirty word?

Sarah Handel

10:26 AM ET | 03- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Could A Calculator Get Nerdier?

Slate's handy-dandy little calculator.

Source: Slate.com

It's been an exciting morning here at headquarters. We have a new home, about eleven blocks from here, which we'll move to in 2012. This is a relief to many of us -- I mean, can you imagine Neal saying, "From NPR News in Hagerstown, Maryland, this is Talk of the Nation!" Also -- I only just got my commute under control. Of course, the other talk of the TOTN is also probably the talk around your neck of the woods (apologies to Willard) -- another couple of primaries leaves Dems in limbo and the GOP gearing up for the general election. More on that later -- we're prepping a delicious news special for y'all -- but first, if you want to understand the importance of superdelegates, check this out. Slate's delegate calculator is the coolest (read: nerdiest) election tool out there. And you'll see -- the math doesn't give you a Democratic candidate any way you add it up. Sigh. We're still on that long road to the conventions.

Barrie Hardymon

10:22 AM ET | 03- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

One Big Ideas Vault

I saw reports on this new seed bank in Norway (the one being called the "Noah's Ark of seeds," and the "doomsday seed vault") and thought, "That's a neat idea." Not because of the seeds, so much, but because it's a new spin on the old: What would you want with you if you were stuck on a deserted island? Only in this case, let's make it a cultural/ideas vault. If there was one thing you could lock away for future generations in the event of the unthinkable, what would it be? Your film collection? Great works of literature? A recipe for pizza?

Scott Cameron

11:36 AM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Playing Pyongyang

As a guy who grew up playing the violin, I have followed the New York Philharmonic's trip to North Korea with especial interest. Needless to say, the humble youth orchestra of which I was a part never played East Pyongyang Grand Theater; most of our performances took place at local nursing homes. That said, our audiences were (almost) always eager to hear Debussy, Dvorak, and Beethoven. They'd put up with Stravinsky.

The optimist in me hopes that the Philharmonic's two-day tour of North Korea will usher in social and political change. The cynic in me wonders how the telecast of the performance played, or where it played, in the small socialist republic.

When the orchestra gets back from its tour, we hope to talk to Zarin Mehta, the president and executive director of the Philharmonic, again. (He promised us that he'd carve out some time for us when we spoke to him a few months ago). 'Til then, check out these photos from the performance. And this excellent blog from the tour, kept by Daniel J. Wakin, a reporter for The New York Times.

David Gura

11:00 AM ET | 02-26-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Oscar Has Crow's Feet!

Every detail...

Source: Getty Images

I promise I will blog about something real and befitting of this great institution (BOTN... wait, actually NPR I guess), but first I must mourn something shallow. Remember when movie stars all had porcelain skin? As a kid, I was obsessed with the photographs of Vivien Leigh -- her pinkish-purplish cheeks -- I so badly wanted eyebrows that would look perfectly drawn on to a beautiful canvas. Last night, I realized those days were gone forever -- on my brand-new, 32", high definition screen, I saw so much more of my favorite stars then I wanted to. You could see little makeup molecules settling into crows-feet, the bumpy coverage of less-than-perfect chins, the necklace of bones protruding from shoulders starved by Master Cleanse. It was terrifying. I gorged myself on pizza and beer last night -- there's no Gaultier in my future -- and felt rather good about myself. Except for one thing: isn't it sort of lovely to aspire? I did love that Ingrid Bergman and Katherine Hepburn and Gene Tierney existed in a sort of protected space. They would never grow old, never need Proactiv, and always have perfectly shaped arches. And though I could never look like them, I rather enjoyed watching them -- the same way I like to look through the Cartier catalog. Sigh. Watching the Oscars in hi-def is more like looking through a Neiman Marcus catalog -- everything is certainly expensive, but in the end, you're just as glad to be wearing your own stuff.

Barrie Hardymon

10:30 AM ET | 02-25-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

;-)

Where is the love?

Source: David Gura

Sam Roberts, a metro reporter for The New York Times, wrote a nice piece about Neil Neches, "an erudite writer in the transit agency's marketing and service information department" who created many of the public-service advertisements that run along rail cars; above all else, a man who knows how to use a semicolon properly.

One of his placards, rendered famous by today's article, reads, "Please put [your newspaper] in a trash can; that's good news for everyone."

The punctuation mark, Roberts points out, has fallen out of favor; to many people, it is cumbersome and archaic: "Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism."

Because I'm a sucker for sterling syntax, the superfluous comma, and the semicolon (used appropriately), I liked the piece. For Gawker, it was low-hanging fruit: "Fittingly, this impeccable semicolon is in the MTA's house ad about how you should throw away your newspapers when you leave the train instead of leaving them for others to discover the joy of reading."

David Gura

11:06 AM ET | 02-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Andy Rooney, Reporter

Last Sunday, I caught the tail end of 60 Minutes. It was strange, to say the least, to see Andy Rooney, whose job I've always coveted, out in the field reporting, far away from his iconic wooden desk. His producers sent him to Arizona, to "cover" the Superbowl, and the piece they assembled is a bizarre meditation on the Giants, the game, and what it's like for Andy Rooney to travel. (You get the feeling he doesn't leave New York often). Enjoy it. And when you're finished, compare it to this ad for Mike Gravel. A similar aesthetic, no?

David Gura

11:21 AM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

A Writer's World

The writers in Hollywood may have been on strike these past three months,* but that doesn't mean the rest of us would-be memoirists and next-great-American-novelist hopefuls have stopped scribbling. We're still chipping away at those chapters, hoping to complete the seemingly never-ending project before our next birthday rolls around. The closest we come to a strike is a stubborn and persistent bout of writer's block. And we've all been there. Some have the resolve to push through, no matter how much time they waste staring at a blank computer screen, the blinking cursor taunting them with its annoying consistency. I admire those writers. For others -- people like me -- we can go weeks without writing a single creative sentence (outside of work demands, of course), and no manner of staring or thumb tapping will deliver the ever-elusive inspiration. Well, this past weekend I discovered the antidote; and it's so simple: get out, immerse yourself in the outside world. Take a walk. Get material from the jogger that clearly never learned how to run, or the woman who "walks" her pugs in a baby stroller.** Sit in a coffee shop or cafe. Observe the characters around you. If nothing else, you can eavesdrop on the conversation next to you -- who knows, you might come away with some choice snippets of dialogue. I've been living in DC for a year now, and I've finally found my favorite spot to write: Busboys and Poets. It's a bookshop, restaurant, lounge, and art house all in one; and it's rife with quirky personalities just begging to be written -- a writer's paradise. So tell us, where is your favorite place to exercise the pen? And how do you overcome writer's block?

* Updates on the strike's current status here, here and here. And here. :-)
** Yes, they were wearing bonnets.

Ashley Grashaw

10:35 AM ET | 02-11-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Keeping Up on the Action

NPR's Ron Elving, Ken Rudin and Nina Totenberg keep an eye on Super Tuesday's primary election results.

Source: Ashley Grashaw

I don't know about you, but I'm having a blast with these primaries and caucuses. They're super fascinating and fun to monitor. Last night was particularly enjoyable. I oscillated between Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, C-SPAN, and the live blogs. At around 9 p.m. (EST), I popped into NPR to watch our live coverage in action.* And as the night wore on, I started calling my friends in California to get a sense of which way they thought the state would go. My favorite part, tough, was digesting the exit polls at 2 a.m. It was a busy night, and thankfully I had a mini Matchbox pizza to keep my stamina up. Tell us, how did you monitor Super Tuesday? What were the high points for you? And the low points?

* Surprisingly tame. I was impressed by how they were able to remain calm, cool and collected under the pressure. Total pros.

Ashley Grashaw

11:00 AM ET | 02- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Oscar Night

Sid Ganis, at the luncheon yesterday.

Source: Getty Images

An article about the Academy Awards, "Oscar Nominees Urged to Attend Ceremony," printed in The New York Times, caught my attention. Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, says the show will go on -- come hell, high water, or picket lines. Michael Cieply, who wrote the piece for The Times, set the scene:

At the annual nominees' luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel on Monday, the usually congenial Mr. Ganis gave the assembled actors and filmmakers something of a lecture. But it was a sweetly diplomatic one -- about the importance of keeping Oscar night on track, even if striking screenwriters picket the ceremony.

So many unspoken, baffling rules surround this writers' strike. It's acceptable for nominees to swill drinks and eat haute cuisine at an Academy-sponsored luncheon, but many say they won't cross picket lines to go to the ceremony itself.

Ganis urged everyone to come. The Academy Awards don't just recognize the movie business, he said. They acknowledge cinematic achievement. And if that wasn't convincing, he pointed to some fine print on official certificates of nomination: "Must be present to win."

David Gura

11:10 AM ET | 02- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

The Smoking Band*

Eastern Ave. in Baltimore.

Source: Bukutgirl

B-more! Charm City! The Greatest City In America! We're in Baltimore, Maryland, at Morgan State University today -- better known as my home for five years -- I'm an erstwhile WYPR producer, Towson and JHU alumna. There are a lot of connections today -- our fabulous director Gwen Outen is a Morgan alumna herself. I spent the night last night, enjoying old friends, and getting a good night's sleep, but I can promise you, tonight -- sleep is the last thing on my mind. It's the last night you can smoke at a bar in Baltimore. Now, I quit the nasty habit when I moved to D.C.; but I have very fond memories of nights spent over Maker's Mark at a series of wonderful Baltimore dive bars. I was in school for creative writing; there's nothing like a smoke and a bourbon to make you feel literary -- and of course, for making it impossible to actually be literate. A lot of novels were designed and never born in the Charles Village Pub. (Not just novels -- campaigns. Yeesh.) In any case, I'm going to fling myself off the wagon for one night only here in Bawlmor. It's the last night for that particular kind of nostalgia; and I'm gonna get some smoke in my eyes.**

*The last night of "The Smoking Band." One night only.
**It goes without saying -- don't try this at home. It'll kill ya.

Barrie Hardymon

10:01 AM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post