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December 27, 2012 New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey is currently the only knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues. His memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, explains how his life — and career — have mimicked the unpredictable trajectory of the difficult pitch he throws game after game.

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December 26, 2012 The standards singer's solo album, Strictly Romancin', explores the ups and downs of love. Russell sings several tracks from the record during this interview and performance.

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December 26, 2012 The comedian, who plays Tom Haverford on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, just released a new comedy special directly on his website. He's also embarking on a multicity tour, where he'll be riffing on the things that terrify him — marriage, for instance, and babies.

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December 26, 2012 Comedian Joan Rivers hates a lot of things. Her new book, I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me, details the things Rivers can't stand, from her appearance to obituaries to younger comedians who steal her gigs.

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December 24, 2012 Fresh Air's television critic says there weren't any new shows this year that wowed him and that all the shows he watched and loved this year were ones that have been on for at least a season. His No. 1 favorite remains Breaking Bad.

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December 24, 2012 Fresh Air's movie critic does not think any masterpieces were made this year, but he does compare Daniel Day-Lewis to Julius Caesar and have some choice thoughts on the movie version of Les Mis.

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December 22, 2012 Barbra Streisand plays a well-meaning if overbearing Jewish mom in The Guilt Trip. The star says her own mother both encouraged her talents and was jealous of them. In his new book, guitarist, singer and songwriter John Pizzarelli shares stories from life growing up in a musical household.

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December 21, 2012 Jazz lost many great saxophonists in 2012, including David S. Ware, John Tchicai, Byard Lancaster, Faruq Z. Bey, Hal McKusick and Red Holloway. Critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to three more of his favorites.

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December 21, 2012 Laura Dern is Amy Jellicoe, a health and beauty executive who returns from a post-meltdown retreat to pick up the pieces of her broken life in the HBO series Enlightened. Series creator Mike White talks about the tone of the show, and whether it's possible for people to really change.

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December 20, 2012 "Big Data" had just as much to do with President Obama's victory as phrases like "Etch A Sketch" and "47 percent," says linguist Geoff Nunberg. Big Data is also behind anxieties about intrusions on our privacy, whether from the government's anti-terrorist data sweeps or the ads that track us on the Web.

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December 20, 2012 Senior analyst for the Violence Policy Center Tom Diaz says one of the weapons found at the site of the Newtown, Conn., shooting was a variant of a type of gun developed for troops in Vietnam.

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December 19, 2012 Critic Milo Miles says that in this new collection of music from between the world wars, "the currents of long-ago lives come through: the drudgery of the work that demanded the release of the party, which then required the penance of prayer."

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December 19, 2012 In his new film, Sopranos creator David Chase tells a coming-of-age story about Jersey boys in the 1960s who dream of riding the wave of the British invasion all the way to stardom. Chase teams up with Steven Van Zandt — of the E Street Band and The Sopranos — to make the movie's music rock.

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December 18, 2012 Austrian actor Christoph Waltz won an Oscar for his portrayal of Nazi Jew hunter Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. Teamed up with Tarantino again in Django Unchained, he says Tarantino's writing and the rhythm of the language speaks to him as a performer.

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