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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Simon Says

'Anti-Cheating Ring' Not Likely To Deter History

The "Anti-Cheating Ring" imprints "I'M MARRIED" around a would-be philanderer's finger.

June 30, 2012 A wedding ring that proposes to imprint "I'M MARRIED" on a would-be philanderer's finger is sparking a lot of attention — and outrage. I'm merely skeptical.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Sweetness And Light

The Man Who Painted Sport, Bright And Beautiful

Artist LeRoy Neiman, who died last week at 91, signs serigraphs of baseball's Mike Piazza (left) in 2000.

June 27, 2012 The recent death of artist LeRoy Neiman calls for remembering a man who was humble with his success, and generous with his help.

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Simon Says

Behind The 'Model Minority,' An American Struggle

A Pew Research Center study shows Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing immigrant group in the U.S., but that doesn't make theirs a success story.

June 23, 2012 The Pew Research Center says Asian-Americans are now the fastest-growing ethnic and immigrant group in the United States. Pew says Asian-Americans also tend to be the most educated and prosperous. But every Asian group here has a different immigration story.

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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Simon Says

Remembering Henry Hill, A Real Wiseguy

Henry Hill sits in the dining room of the Firefly restaurant in North Platte, Neb., in 2005. A portrait of actor Ray Liotta portraying Hill in the movie Goodfellas hangs on the wall behind him.

June 16, 2012 Mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill died this week of cancer at the age of 69. That's kind of young, but it's quite a few years older than what you might have thought he'd make.

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Saturday, June 09, 2012

Simon Says

When A Job Interview Turns Into Psychoanalysis

Why should someone who wants a job have to confide their fears and flaws to judgmental strangers?

June 9, 2012 Why should someone who wants a job have to confide their fears, flaws and darkest dreams to total — judgmental — strangers? A job interview is a professional encounter, after all, not psychoanalysis, a religious confession, a third date or family therapy.

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Saturday, June 02, 2012

Simon Says

Just Deserts Follow Attempted Pasty Tax

Protesters gather outside Downing Street in London to deliver a petition against the so-called "pasty tax," a government bid to levy 20 percent tax on hot takeaway food.

June 2, 2012 This week, the British government reversed course on a plan to place a 20 percent tax on hot foods like pasties, a humble food more associated with the layman than a posh parliamentarian. Sometimes those politicians must eat their words.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Opinion

The Word 'Hopefully' Is Here To Stay, Hopefully

The word "hopefully" has been used in thousands of NPR stories.

May 30, 2012 When The Associated Press said it would no longer condemn the use of the adverb "hopefully" in its style guide, most people shrugged. But the announcement was a red flag to people who have made the adverb the biggest bugaboo of English usage over the past 50 years.

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Sweetness And Light

In Europe's High Season For Sports, Soccer Rules

Larger Than Life: Tourists pose in front of a UEFA Euro 2012 Cup placard on Kiev's Independence Square in Ukraine. Europe is entering a packed sports schedule — but soccer still reigns supreme, says Frank Deford.

May 30, 2012 The Olympics calls itself a "movement," but to most fans, Euro Cup soccer is a rock concert. In the coming months, Europe will host the French Open, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the British Open and the Olympics. But the biggest draw may be soccer's quadrennial Euro Cup.

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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Simon Says

Her Husband, A Hero Lost For The Lives Of Others

President Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo, widow of Army Spc. Leslie Sabo. Sabo was awarded the nation's highest military decoration posthumously for his actions on May 10, 1970, while serving as a rifleman in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

May 26, 2012 This Memorial Day, Rose Mary Sabo will lay a wreath at the Vietnam War Memorial. Her husband, Leslie Sabo, died in the war 42 years ago, just a few months after she married the boy she met at a high school football game in Ellwood City, Pa., in 1967.

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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Simon Says

Teaching Kids Balance Can Be A Lesson For Parents

It's a constant test for parents: Everything you thought you were doing right may be wrong.

May 19, 2012 To be a parent is to be constantly reminded that almost everything you thought you were doing right for your children will one day turn out to be wrong. The latest revised revelation may be: Training wheels don't help kids achieve a sense of balance.

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Simon Says

Can A Change Of Heart Beat The Flip-Flop Charge?

President Barack Obama told ABC this week that he supports gay marriage.

May 12, 2012 Politicians are often lauded in speeches for holding fast to their convictions. But history often honors those who change their minds. Perhaps it's too easy to automatically see political calculation as the only force that changes a politician's mind or heart.

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Friday, May 11, 2012

Krulwich Wonders...

120 Giants Found Living With 86-Year-Old Man

Giant tortoise

May 11, 2012 What inspired 86-year-old Brendon Grimshaw to buy an island in the Indian Ocean, replant it with 16,000 trees, grasses and lure a bunch of giant tortoises to live with him?

Summary

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Simon Says

A Panda's Inseminal Moment, Tweet By Tweet

"Here's Mei right now," tweeted the National Zoo just before the procedure. "Volunteers are watching her from our research station as we prepare."

May 5, 2012 This week on Twitter, the social media service famed for carrying the messages of pro-democracy dissidents in Iran, Egypt and other places, featured something a little difficult to conceive: live tweeting of the artificial insemination of a giant panda at the National Zoo.

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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Simon Says

He Mapped The World, And We Saw Ourselves

Gerardus Mercator's maps gave us a truer view of our world and the means to explore it.

April 28, 2012 In a time when most people never got to venture much further than the place in which they were born, Gerardus Mercator's maps gave us not only a truer view of our world, but the means to go out and explore it.

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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Simon Says

Prostitution's Real Casualties Aren't Secret Service

Six U.S. Secret Service agents have lost their jobs so far after a prostitution scandal that took place at the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, just before President Obama's arrival at the Summit of the Americas conference earlier this month.

April 21, 2012 I've been curious about a question I haven't heard in the stories about U.S. Secret Service agents misbehaving before President Obama's arrival at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. Why were world leaders meeting in a place with legalized prostitution anyway?

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