Last week president-elect Barack Obama called Argentine President Cristina Fernandez. It is commonplace for a president-elect to check in with world leaders before they take office but here's the kicker:According to the Latin America News Agency, Prensa Latina, Cristina Fernandez "told reporters accompanying her that Obama expressed his desire to visit Argentina, which he called a great country, and recalled his life as university student when he was acquainted with the work of Julio Cortazar and Jorge Luis Borges."Obama has already been seen carrying books about current events, Fareed Zakaria's Post American World; poetry, Derek Walcott's Collected Poems; and history,...
The Bush Presidential Library : "A Halloween House of Horrors"
During her appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show last night Tina Brown, currently founder and editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, had this to say about what Bush is doing during his final months in office:"One of the things that I'm told at the moment is that Bush is entirely focused right now on his legacy, on his library," she said. "That's all he really wants to talk about is his library. Because he's trying to build a legacy. But quite honestly, one can only think that that library is a Halloween House of Horrors. From the Guantanamo room to the...
5 Poets on "The Measure of Democracy"
"What's left to say after this seemingly endless campaign?" The New York Times Op-Ed editors asked five poets to answer that question.John Ashbery, August Kleinzahler, Joshua Mehigan, Mary Jo Bang and J.D. McClatchy weigh in.h/t to Doug Erickson of Lewis & Clark College for the lead.
Sarah Palin is a "voracious reader"
The latest issue of People magazine contains an interview with Sarah & Todd Palin. In it Palin addresses a question we've all been wondering about, the role of reading in her life.People: Do you think you're intellectual?Sarah Palin: Yessss. And you have to be up on not only current events, but you have to understand the foundation of the issues that you're working on as a governor. I had to do the same thing as a mayor. So it is not just current events but it's much more in-depth than that to understand how, in the case of me being...
Sarah Palin’s Comic Appearance
In the early 1950's comic books were a big issue in Washington. Many believed that comic books were corrupting our youth by contributing to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency.How widespread was it? In 1954 there were Congressional hearings on the issue and the resulting Comics Code was the death knell for many popular comics. It was censorship at its finest.Words like"crime", "horror" and "terror" were know forbidden in comic book titles Also a no no was any mention of "vampires", "werewolves"and "zombies.""Tales from the Crypt" was a casualty of this madness.16 months ago, after a 53 year hiatus, a new issue...