Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You, aruges that rather than turning our brains to mush, entertainment options like video games are so complex that our brains rise to the challenge.
Cass Sunstein, the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, comments on Tuesday night's Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts. Early in his career, Sunstein clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the Walt Whitman-inspired, time-traveling novel Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. He is also author of the best-seller The Hours.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Magic Hollow, a new four-CD retrospective of the band The Beau Brummels, a '60s British Invasion-era pop group from California. Their biggest -- and only top 10 -- hit was "Laugh, Laugh."
Journalist Karl Fleming's new book is Son of the Rough South: An Uncivil Memoir. As a civil rights reporter for Newsweek in the 1960s, he wrote about major events such as the Birmingham church bombing, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the murders of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss. While at the 1966 riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Fleming was severely beaten.
John Leguizamo, who got his start as a stand-up comedian, stars in the new Spanish-language film Cronicas. He plays a tabloid reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador to track down a serial killer.
Wedding Crashers stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as two divorce mediators spending their spare time pursuing women at weddings. The comedy features what the reviewer describes as "crackerjack timing" by the co-stars.
Critic-at-large John Powers says that two current blockbusters, Batman Begins and War of the Worlds, are deeply influenced by America's post-Sept. 11 obsession with terrorism.
Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the use of the phrase "stiff upper lip" when referring to the British, especially in reports of the July 7 London bombings.
Rock critic Milo Miles reviews She Sang California, a new CD from singer songwriter Judy Henske. She was popular in the 1960s, but it's been 28 years since she released an album.
Don Roos wrote and directed the new film Happy Endings, starring Tom Arnold, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow and Laura Dern. Roos, who also directed The Opposite of Sex and Bounce, is known for creating dysfunctional characters who bump into one another in unpredictable ways.
Charles Sennott is the London bureau chief for the Boston Globe. He was in London during the Underground and bus bombings on July 7. He discusses British reaction to the events and compares it to the American reaction to Sept. 11, 2001.
Dr. Francis DuFrayne is a gastroenterologist in his 50s at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. He is also a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He recently returned from a six-month tour of duty in Iraq, where he was called up to treat wounded soldiers. While he was in Iraq, his son was also serving there in the Marines.
Francis DuFrayne, Jr., is a captain in the Marine Corps reserve. He is the son of Dr. Francis DuFrayne. He is now a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., after his service in Iraq.
Evan Hunter died Wednesday at the age of 78. Under the pen name Ed McBain, he was best known for his finely detailed "87th Precinct" novels. Mystery fans call McBain's books "procedurals" for their close attention to police procedures.
