From Sign and Sight, Alger la Blanche: Sonja Zekri visits Algiers, the city that's to play cultural capital of the Arab world. Save the Casbah: In Algiers, preservationists race to rescue the storied quarter. But is it too late? Of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World only the Pyramids of Giza still stand; the rush of activity in the United Arab Emirates comes just in the nick of time to replenish the list.
From Chronicles, an article on Kierkegaard and the Camera. An interview with Patrick McGilligan, author of Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only—The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker. The insider: Douglas Kennedy on why authors should expect the worst when their novel is turned into a film. Men Know from Homer, Women from Marge: Sure, we ogle "The Osbournes" and love "Everybody Loves Raymond." But when it comes to a conjugal relationship that everyone understands, the hands-down winner is primary-colored and two-dimensional. PT visits the stars of America's real reality TV show, "The Simpsons".
From Slate, an article on the Newspaper of the Future: If we're lucky, it will look something like the newspaper of the past. Memoirs by foreign correspondents are ten a penny. But what about their husbands and wives? A review of Are we there Yet? Travels with my Frontline Family by Rosie Whitehouse. What traditional channel or network, magazine or newspaper can we trust anymore to give us serious factual news? An article on the new pinnacle of journalism: Us Weekly.
From The Chronicle, the "Summer of Love," 40 years ago, is widely viewed as a pivotal moment in American culture and politics. Seventeen academics describe how they experienced it. Ted Nugent on The Summer of Drugs: Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out". An excerpt from Radio’s America: The Great Depression and the Rise of Modern Mass Culture by Bruce Lenthall. A review of A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television by David Everitt
Applied Blunderology: A review of Um ... Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean by Michael Erard. Granted spelling is not their 40, granted they have a 6ense of humor, granted they will have forgot10 3ason for this impulse be4 long, granted the kid will turn ver1,000,000 every time he sees his name on paper, these parents have 1 the right 2 name their own offspring. A review of The 1001 Smartest Things Ever Said. Gordon Brown resorted to his school's Latin motto when pledging commitment to his new job, but what's the significance of these ancient mission statements? The idea is simple, a bit of Latin spells a dose of gravitas, and a hefty slice of tradition and history. No foray into another language is complete without learning some of the pitfalls that one may face when conversing with a native speaker. For example, be careful when signing "coffee" or else you may unwittingly make an unwanted sexual advance.
