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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Around the Nation

Involved For Life: Pregnancy Centers In Texas

Carolyn Cline is the president and CEO of Involved for Life.

January 22, 2013 Carolyn Cline, the executive director and CEO of Involved for Life (IFL), a ministry partner of First Baptist Dallas, helps run a pregnancy center that discourages women from getting abortions and offers help during unplanned pregnancies.

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Television

Kevin Bacon, Seeking A TV 'Following'

Jeannane Goossen and Kevin Bacon star as FBI special agents tracing a network of serial killers in Fox's new crime drama The Following.

January 21, 2013 The actor stars in a new Fox series about a former FBI agent asked to help apprehend a serial killer he once put behind bars. The series is well done, but the violence in it is alarming — especially for network television.

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Author Interviews

'Double V': The Fight For Civil Rights In The U.S. Military

The fight to integrate the U.S. military began with the Revolutionary War, says author Rawn James, Jr.

January 21, 2013 In his new book, The Double V, Rawn James Jr. argues that to understand race in America one must understand the history of African-Americans in the military. While the turning point came between the world wars, the struggle began with the American Revolution.

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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Fresh Air Weekend

Fresh Air Weekend: Ben Affleck And Dustin Hoffman

Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in Argo. Affleck also directed the film, which is based on events surrounding the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

January 19, 2013 Fresh off the Golden Globes, where Ben Affleck won for best director and Argo won for best motion picture/drama, Affleck talks about his approach to the film. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with a film about four aging opera singers who stage a concert at their retirement home.

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Movies

'Mama': A Good Old-Fashioned Horror Movie

Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and her sister, Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse), are near-feral orphans in the horror thriller Mama.

January 18, 2013 In an age of werewolves, hormonal vampires and endless sequels, horror movies have lost some edge. But Mama, starring Jessica Chastain, is an entertaining step in the right — which is to say backward — direction.

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Author Interviews

The Inquisition: A Model For Modern Interrogators

An illustration shows heretics being tortured and nailed to wooden posts during the first Inquisition.

January 18, 2013 The Inquisition revolutionized record-keeping and surveillance techniques that are still used today, says Cullen Murphy. His book God's Jury draws parallels between some of the interrogation techniques used in previous centuries with the ones used today.

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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Book Reviews

How A 'Madwoman' Upended A Literary Boys Club

Madwoman in the Attic book cover detail.

January 17, 2013 The National Book Critics Circle has announced that two feminist literary scholars, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Critic Maureen Corrigan says their groundbreaking 1979 book, The Madwoman in the Attic, changed the way we read.

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Around the Nation

'Grayest Generation': Older Parenthood In The U.S.

Baby feet held in parent's hand.

January 17, 2013 In an article for The New Republic, Judith Shulevitz writes that as people have increasingly waited until their 30s to become parents, there has been a rise in developmental and neurocognitive disorders. Moreover, she says that the age of both parents affects the health of the child.

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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Movie Interviews

'Quartet': Dustin Hoffman, Behind The Camera

Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with the film Quartet. He has starred in such classics as The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer and Tootsie.

January 16, 2013 The veteran actor makes his directorial debut with a film about four aging opera singers who stage a concert at their retirement home. Starring Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay, the film explores friendship, memory and the time that remains.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Movie Interviews

Affleck On 'Argo' And The 1979 Hostage Crisis

Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in Argo. Affleck also directed the film, which is based on events surrounding the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

January 15, 2013 Fresh off Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, where he won for best director and his film won for best motion picture/drama, the actor and director talks about his approach to the story of six diplomats who managed to escape a hostile Iran — and the CIA operative who helped them do so.

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Book Reviews

George Saunders Lives Up To The Hype

George Saunders' previous books include In Persuasion Nation and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

January 15, 2013 At the beginning of January, the cover story of The New York Times Magazine declared: "George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You'll Read This Year." The stories in the author's latest collection, The Tenth of December, prove that The Times may well be right.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

Commentary

'The Whole Nine Yards' Of What?

There are those who say the phrase "the whole nine yards" comes from a joke about a prodigiously well-endowed Scotsman who gets his kilt caught in a door.

January 14, 2013 There are many theories about where the expression comes from — among them square-riggers with three masts, the amount of cloth in the queen's bridal train, the Shroud of Turin, and a prodigiously well-endowed Scotsman who gets his kilt caught in a door.

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Author Interviews

Retired Bishop Gene Robinson On Being Gay And Loving God

Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, has retired. He'll start working with the Center for American Progress, a progressive research and policy organization, on issues of faith and gay rights.

January 14, 2013 The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church will start work with the Center for American Progress, focusing on issues of faith and gay rights. "Gay is not something we do," he says. "It's something we are." His book God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage was published in September.

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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Fresh Air Weekend

Fresh Air Weekend: Civil War, 'Downton' And 'Girls'

Lena Dunham's series Girls, which follows the lives of a group of young women in New York City, returns to HBO this month.

January 12, 2013 Civil War historian Bruce Levine says that from the destruction of the South emerged an entirely new country. On the hit Masterpiece Theater series, social rules are changing as the world events of the 20th century unfold. And David Bianculli reviews season two of 'Girls.'

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Friday, January 11, 2013

Music Reviews

Grant Green: The 'Holy Barbarian' Of St. Louis Jazz

Grant Green.

January 11, 2013 An album recording of the guitarist from 1959 captures the thrilling sound of Midwestern jazz.

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