“By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten.” — Senator Barack Obama, North Carolina, Today FRESH AIR The McCain campaign’s charge that Barack Obama has socialist leanings has put the spotlight on a word relatively uncommon to modern American elections. Linguist Geoff Nunberg explains how the “S” word was used in the past — and why it’s come up now. ALSO, Saturday Night Live‘s Seth Meyers is making waves with a broader TV audience this election season as the show expands its political parodies to Thursday […]
TONITE: John Hodgman To Rock 215 Fest
215 FEST: We are proud and pleased to announce that the festival starts off this year with an arched, eyeglass-vaulting eyebrow on TONIGHT, when the one and only Mr. John Hodgman, the mild-countenanced, somewhat disturbed author of /The Areas of My Expertise/, and /More Information Than You Needed to Know/, and world-renowned expert on the little-known history of mole men gambols upon the hallowed, tastefully weathered boards of the Latvian Society. Mr. Hodgman will be joined by his friends, among them the incomparable *David Rees,* creator of the famed clip-art comic /Get Your War On/, and the world’s first blogger to […]
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT: Talking Constitutionality With Jonathan Hennesseyy
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Every school boy and girl is taught that the Constitution is the most sacred document in the history of human freedom, that its wisdom is unimpeachable and that its reach and authority shall not be denied by the tyranny of evil men. And then there is the actual history of the U.S. Constitution, which is not quite as tidy and high-minded as they teach you in school. Still, it remains a beacon of democratic hope in a dark and largely un-democratic world. With all this in mind, writer Jonathan Hennessey and illustrator Aaron McConnell bring us this […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Nobel laureate Paul Krugman believes that increased public spending — akin to the efforts of the New Deal during the Great Depression — is the best way to escape the financial crisis and regain American global leadership. In his Oct. 16 column in The New York Times, Krugman writes, “It’s politically fashionable to rant against government spending and demand fiscal responsibility. But right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered, and concerns about the budget deficit should be put on hold.” Paul Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the National Security Agency stepped up its efforts to collect intelligence domestically by filtering millions of phone conversations and e-mail messages. In his new book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 To The Eavesdropping On America, journalist James Bamford reveals that the ultra-secret agency has half a million people on its watch lists. Bamford has been writing about the inner workings of the NSA since his first book, The Shadow Factory: A Report On America’s Most Secret Agency, was published in 1982. He is also the author of Body […]
LET IT BLURT: Lester Bangs Speaks
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Back in the day, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer and Nick Tosches formed a terrible triumvirate of rowdy, hard-living rock scribblers — angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of rock — feared and loathed by the music industry’s power elite. They didn’t just write about rock ‘n’ roll; he lived it, drank it, smoked it, felt it up, snorted it down and puked it up all over the page the morning after. BOING BOING: So what an incredible thrill it was to come across a 90-minute interview with Lester […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Fliers warning that people with outstanding warrants or unpaid parking tickets could be arrested if they show up at the polls on election day appeared recently in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Zach Stalberg, the president of the nonpartisan watchdog group Committee of Seventy, suggests that a Republican Party supporter may have posted the fliers in an effort discourage voters. A native Philadelphian, Stalberg was the editor of the Philadelphia Daily News for 20 years. In 2005, he became president of the Committee of Seventy, a group founded in 1904 with a mission to improve the Philadelphia region […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] FRESH AIR Author and activist Antonia Juhasz argues that the oil industry’s grip on policy and government has never been stronger. What’s more, Juhasz says, the business and politics of oil’s production pose such grave implications on so many fronts — the environment, human rights, the economy, worker safety, public health — that the current state of petroleum-industry affairs is fundamentally antithetical to democracy. Juhasz, a fellow at the petro-critic organization Oil Change International and at the Institute for Policy Studies, documents her concerns — and lays out proposed remedies — in her new book, The […]
GAYDAR: Let’s Get Baked!
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR It happened on the fairest of Thursdays that I had the pleasure of lunching with two of Brooklyn’s hottest new specialty bakery owners, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Lately, A-list celebrities have been helping to disseminate news of their revamped line of sugary, and not so sugary treats. Lewis and Poliafito’s Sweet and Salty Cake was recently featured on Martha Stewart; their brownies were featured on the Today show and selected as one of Oprah’s favorite things. And now, for the first time, the duo share some of their treasured secrets in BAKED: […]
EARLY WORD: Celebrate Banned Books Week
Celebrate Your Freedom to Read! Banned Books Week, September 27-October 4, 2008 Each year libraries, schools, and book lovers come together for Banned Books Week, a celebration of our freedom to read without censorship. The American Library Association receives hundreds of reports every year about books and other materials that have been threatened with removal from public libraries and schools. For each known incident, four or five others go unreported. The children’s book “And Tango Makes Three” topped the 2007 list of most challenged books. Get involved in the fight against censorship. Attend one of these two Banned Books events […]
ARCHIVE: Phawker Talk With Amy Sedaris
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Pretty girls aren’t funny for the same reason that pretty boys aren’t funny: they don’t have to be. Form fits function, and function answers to need. Pretty people rarely need for much, least of all the ability to win friends and disarm foes with a few well-placed yuks. It’s basic Darwin. Lucille Ball? Phyllis Diller? Roseanne Barr? Funny fuckin’ ladies. Pretty? Not so much. Amy Sedaris knows this. Her career puts the lie to that premise, by the way, but to do so she has to put on a fat suit and give herself an overbite, problem […]
CANCELLED: Interview With A Vampire
CANCELED: Anne Rice Due to illness, Anne Rice has canceled her upcoming book tour, including a stop at the Free Library that was scheduled for Friday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m. If you have already purchased tickets for this event, please note that we are currently processing refunds for the face value of your tickets, less the handling fee. Thank you for your understanding and patience throughout this process. Email or call with questions. Contact 215-567-4341 authorevents@freelibrary.org RELATED: PHILADELPHIA – More than a century after its first publication in 1897, Dracula remains the ultimate horror story, with countless film adaptations and […]