NPR : Ellison to Use Thomas Jeffersons Quran in Ceremony Newly elected Rep. Keith Ellison announced last month that he planned to take the oath of office with his hand on the Quran. The decision by the Minnesota Democrat, the first Muslim elected to Congress, drew criticism. But now Ellison says he plans to use a copy of the Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Michele Norris talks with Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, who helped Ellison locate Jeffersons Quran. You know what? This is all right. All right.…
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NPR : Harrison Ford Returns As Indiana Jones Another graying action star is reviving an old role. Harrison Ford will once again crack the whip, 18 years after Indiana Jones' last adventure. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are also back, directing and producing. Excited fans do wonder if, at 64, Indy can still do the stunts. I'm wondering, too. I'll never forget the time I saw the first Indiana Jones movie, which was around New Years when I was still in college. I've been a fan of Harrison Ford's since American Graffiti and Star Wars (okay, yes, I've had the…
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NPR : Robertson Predicts Mass Killing in the Coming Year We don't need any more of his kooky predictions, they just irritate the unchurched and rile up the unscienced.
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WILL-FM Hadn't realized one of my favorite shows is available locally after all. Streaming content online.
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Wondermark by David Malki – 261: In which James Brown is … well, you know I listened to an NPR retrospective on James Brown the other day. I didn't know his songs were always in the same key. I hadn't realized how repetitive they were until I listened to several full length songs during the course of the show. And now I know that he's an artist best heard sampled on other people's tracks, because the funk should never be boring. There. I said it. Via Joey, whose new site redesign is lookin' sharp, but why is the accordion player headless?
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NPR : Notes on the Real Gerald Ford Just now on MSNBC's coverage of President Ford's funeral, an old Washington pol was trotting out the "Nixon and Ford had a deeper friendship than previously thought" meme. According to DeFranco on NPR this morning, it's utter bunk. Nixon used to say to anyone in hearing that Ford was stupid, while Ford was much, much smarter than anyone gave him credit for. Apparenlty, he's the only President who was able to conduct his own budget briefing, a complicated affair usually left to experts. Bet Bush leaves it to people with higher math skills.…
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Great Performances . From Vienna: The New Years Celebration 2005 | PBS I've been listening to KUNC's "eclectic music" programming via streaming Internet just now, and they announced that they'll be broadcasting the annual New Year's concert from Vienna later this afternoon. I started crying. Last night at midnight, I was just dozing off when firecrackers and loud "reports" (guns or M-80s or whatever) started going off. It occured to me that 2007 was a year without Mom in it, and started crying. Yesterday, at the farewell liturgy for Holy Innocents (AKA Holy Moly), a former vicar came up to…
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BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Doctor Who Spoiler warning for my husband David, and for ***Dave of DDtB – we’re only up to the end of the second season here, but the linked article includes information about the third season now being filmed. And meanwhile, David is hooking up his new toy, which is some kind of mega-whizbang media hub switch thing that will allow us to view shows captured by his Snapstream software, which acts as an auxiliary to TiVo. Currently, to do this involves screwing around with some cables and his laptop, sometimes with inadvertent humor: The last…
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David and I celebrated Jewish Christmas yesterday with my in-laws; we went to a movie and then drove around looking for a Chinese restaurant that was open. Actually, we never did, but a sports bar was open, so that's where we ended up eating. The movie was "The Good Shepherd," which was extremely layered and nuanced. You really had to pay attention to details, and the foreshadowing was there for the ending, but it was so subtle that when I pointed it out to my husband David, he was amazed. Matt Damon's performance as CIA man Edward Wilson was masterful;…
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Andrew Plus: Mythbusters Christmas Contraption We've already watched this episode twice. Here's a highlight reel. Go monkeys!