The Emoticon Turns 30, Seems Happy About It :-)
The emoticon, punctuation to depict a facial expression, began 30 years ago this week. Using three keystrokes, the colon, dash and parenthesis, to suggest a smile may not be a great scientific advance,...
View ArticleSearching For Jimmy Hoffa
Police outside Detroit dug up a spot under a driveway yesterday and took some soil samples. No official findings have been announced. An unidentified man recently told police he saw a guy bury...
View ArticleDoes Voting Early Prompt Hasty Choices?
Nov. 6 is 32 days away, but for millions of Americans, there is no longer an Election Day. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia now have early voting, which is under way even now in eight...
View ArticleThe Pirate Prince Of Sealand, Remembered
Paddy Roy Bates, the self-proclaimed prince of Sealand, was almost 80 when I met him in the summer of 2000. He was silvery and straight-backed — very much the model of a modern major, which he was in...
View ArticleHalloween Heroes In The Wake Of Sandy
On Halloween night this week, millions of children tumbled into their neighborhoods dressed as Captain America, Spiderman, Batman, Bat Girl and Wonder Woman. But that night, true superheroes were at...
View ArticleThe Political Middle: What Ohioans Have To Say
Transcript SCOTT SIMON, HOST: It's already starting to rain over northern Ohio this past weekend as the outer whirls of Hurricane Sandy approached. Just a few days before the election, people in...
View ArticleMaking A Case For Closer Contact In Congress
Gridlock is the term many use to describe what happens when legislation gets stalled in the U.S. Congress. But gridlock suggests that people in Congress at least run into each other. I've had enough...
View ArticleJesse Jackson Jr.: Great Hopes, And Disappointments
Jesse Jackson Jr. has a famous name and fabulous contacts, and had what looked like boundless prospects when he was first on the national stage at the Democratic National Convention in 1988. John F....
View Article'The Onion': So Funny It Makes Us Cry
If satire had an Olympics, The Onion might have won a gold medal this week. The satirical news source announced that its Sexiest Man Alive for 2012 is Kim Jong Un, North Korea's Supreme Leader.
View ArticleGood Intentions, Complicated Results
When news organizations, including ours, told of New York Police Officer Lawrence DePrimo buying boots for a barefoot man on the streets of Times Square one cold night last month, it seemed an...
View ArticleThe Mayan Apocalypse: Worthwhile, In Hindsight
Yesterday came and went, but I never finished Ulysses. I never took up skydiving. Come to think of it, I didn't even really finish cleaning up my closet before the "Mayan Apocalypse," which did not...
View ArticleBaseball Hall Of Fame Snub Draws The Line
There was something momentous this week when the Baseball Writers Association elected no one to the Hall of Fame. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon remarks on the rebuke, rare in a sport where...
View ArticleCheating Might Buy Home Runs, But No Hall Of Fame
The Baseball Hall of Fame is a tourist attraction, not a papal conclave. And the people who cast votes for the Hall are sportswriters, not the College of Cardinals.But there was something momentous...
View Article'Ebony' Editor Began Life Black In Nazi Germany
The proudest moment of Hans Massaquoi's boyhood was when his babysitter sewed a swastika on his sweater. He was a 7-year-old boy in Hamburg who wanted to be part of the excitement of the times he saw....
View ArticleHistory Sometimes Rewards Those Who Are Sidelined
You might look for a player along the sidelines in the Super Bowl on Sunday named Alex Smith and wonder, as he might, if he'll be the next Wally Pipp or Ken Mattingly.Pipp was the Yankee first baseman...
View ArticleIs Honest Abe's Stovepipe Hat A Fake?
Abraham Lincoln's black stovepipe hat is an icon. It seemed to enhance his height, emphasize his dignity and, I suppose, keep his head warm.There is a stovepipe hat at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential...
View ArticlePianist Van Cliburn, Warmed Russian Hearts During Cold War
Van Cliburn thawed out the Cold War.He went to Moscow in 1958 for the first International Tchaikovsky Competition. When he sat down to play, Russians saw a tall, 23-year-old Texan, rail thin and...
View ArticleSnowquester Fizzles, But We're Humbled Anyway
Snowquester fizzled.Wednesday was more or less canceled this week in official Washington, D.C. An enormous winter storm bore down on the region, threatening ice, a foot of snow in the city (more in the...
View ArticleBack From Extinction: Brooding Frog Or Thank you Note?
The gastric brooding frog may be coming back. Does that give us a lot to brood about, too?This week scientists at the University of New South Wales' Lazarus Project announced they have reproduced the...
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