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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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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Books

On Writing A Best-Seller (Shhh, There's a Formula)

promo art

April 17, 2012 To Kill a Mockingbird and Valley of the Dolls have more in common than you think. In his new book Hit Lit, mystery writer James Hall argues that best-sellers from the past century share 12 features.

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Essays

The DOJ E-Book Lawsuit: Is It 1934 All Over Again?

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April 12, 2012 The Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers for e-book price fixing sent shivers through the industry — but Jason Boog says this fraught relationship between American publishers, retailers and the DOJ goes back to the Great Depression.

Summary

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Simon Says

Bosnia Remembers When The World Looked Away

Red chairs fill a main street in Sarajevo on Friday as the city marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war. Officials lined up 11,541 chairs in 825 rows to represent the 11,541 Sarajevans who were killed during the siege.

April 7, 2012 A river of 11,541 empty red chairs flowed through the streets of Sarajevo on Friday, honoring those who died in the Siege of Sarajevo 20 years ago. It might remind us today that while getting involved can be costly, there is also a cost for not acting — in lives.

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Simon Says

Beef, Tarantula And Gout: Food Critics Suffer, Too

 Food professionals will tell you: Eating asks a lot of your body.

March 31, 2012 Former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni recently revealed he has gout. It's hard for most of us to feel too sorry for people who get paid to eat free meals at posh restaurants, but food professionals will tell you: Eating asks a lot of your body.

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Saturday, March 03, 2012

Simon Says

Politics Gets Dirtier: Attack Ad Goes After Cat

Not even pets can hide from the political caterwauling; a superPAC has attacked the candidacy of Hank the Cat.

March 3, 2012 If American politicians are going to quarrel like cats and dogs, why not just elect cats and dogs? Yet even pets can't hide from the political caterwauling; attacks against the candidacy of Hank the Cat may have reached a new low.

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Can I Just Tell You?

The Power Of Memoirs, Biographies

Tell Me More follows its Black History Month memoir series with a series on biographies for Women's History Month.

February 29, 2012 In her weekly essay, host Michel Martin closes the book on Black History Month and looks ahead to Women's History Month. Tell Me More will bring a series of conversations with the authors of biographies about remarkable women.

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Simon Says

Other People's Atrocities: None Of Our Business?

Protesters demonstrate against Foxconn, which manufactures Apple products in China, outside an Apple retail outlet in Hong Kong.

February 25, 2012 Events as disparate as the cruel violence in Syria and the unnerving conditions where Apple's iPads are made in China, raise a recurring question: When do a country's internal affairs become the business of the world? And when do we make that our personal business?

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Simon Says

John Glenn, A Hero Well Before Orbiting Earth

Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn demonstrates operations inside a Mercury capsule on Jan. 11, 1961.

February 18, 2012 Fifty years ago, John Glenn was alone on top of a rocket waiting to blast into space and around Earth. In these times, when people can become suddenly famous for doing so little, Glenn's flight is a timeless reminder that the most amazing and marvelous inventions won't work without human skill and daring.

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