What happens when a talented, Type A, hyperachieving woman married to an even more successful man quits working? In former television writer Maria Semple's experience — which she's channeled into her first two novels — the mood swings, loss of bearings, and toxic dissatisfaction aren't pretty, though she plays them for laughs.
Telemundo anchor and reporter Jose Diaz-Balart made a notable, if fleeting, appearance during NBC's Republican primary debate last summer. This past June, NBC News and Telemundo announced they would be collaborating on the rest of their 2012 election coverage.
This is the second in a three-part series about major American networks trying to appeal to a broader Latino audience.
Every morning at 11:45, NBC News officials hold a conference call with their counterparts at sister networks to sort through stories of interest. Among those on the line are executives at CNBC, MSNBC and The Weather Channel; digital news editors; and executives at Telemundo, a Spanish-language broadcast network.
When she was just 5 years old, Vaddey Ratner's comfortable and protected life as the child of an aristocratic Cambodian family came to an abrupt end, as Khmer Rouge soldiers entered the capital, Phnom Penh. They banged on the gates of the family compound and ordered them to leave — it was the start of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, which left hundreds of thousands of Cambodians dead, including all of Ratner's family except her mother.
Fitness advocate Richard Simmons, wearing his signature shorts and tank top, leads Capitol Hill staff and visitors through an exercise routine July 24, 2008, in Washington, D.C.
NPR producer Sam Sanders headed to Beverly Hills, Calif., recently to see longtime fitness guru Richard Simmons in action and find out how he has been at it so long. He sent this reporter's notebook of his encounter with the man who's been helping people lose weight for nearly 40 years.
Originally published on Mon August 13, 2012 4:32 pm
I'm sure you've already noticed — from the parades, the fact that your mail hasn't been arriving, and the way everyone gets the week off of work — but this is Shark Week, when the Discovery Channel generates a week of shark-themed programming. (Tonight: Sharkzilla, which is, surprisingly enough, not a SyFy movie, and the Mythbusters shark special.) (Trivia: Did you know the decorative shark that is traditionally displayed on or near Discovery's Silver Spring, Md. headquarters to celebrate this special week is named "Chompy"?
A recipe for bacon s'mores has been making its way around the Internet today, prompting many people to wonder how they hadn't thought of it before. It was probably like this when a caveman first figured out the wheel and put something about it on his blog.
Robert: I feel really sorry for the pig who was excited about being invited to a campfire.
Ian: He's like "wait ... you're putting s'me in them?"
When Helen Gurley Brown took the reins at Cosmoin 1965, it was a foundering monthly known for fiction. She remained at the helm for more than 30 years. Here, Brown poses at her office in New York in September 1985.
Credit Marty Lederhandler / AP
Brown holds the last copy of Cosmo she edited, in January 1997.
Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, died Monday in New York at age 90.
If Cosmo was her biggest legacy, it was her 1962 best-seller, Sex and the Single Girl, that launched her to fame. She was 40, with a high-paying job in advertising and a recent marriage to Hollywood producer David Brown.
But she was writing for the single girls, not her privileged peers, says Jennifer Scanlon, author of a Brown biography called Bad Girls Go Everywhere.
D.W. Gibson is the author of Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way in Today's Changing Economy.
The bright white Heritage Park library opened up a mile from my house when I was 13, and the first thing I checked out was Roald Dahl's story collection Someone Like You. I should have known what I was in for because of that giant eyeball on the cover; but somehow I saw it as more of a temptation than a warning.
We were in London, searching for Hidden Kitchen stories, when we came upon an Eel Pie & Mash shop. It was full of old white marble tables, tile walls, pots of stewed and jellied eels, and piles of pies. These shops are now a dying breed, along with the eels they serve. Our search for the source of these vanishing eels led us to southwest London — to Eel Pie Island, a tiny slice of land with a flamboyant history that stretches from Henry the VIII to the Rolling Stones.
Originally published on Wed August 15, 2012 7:33 am
Yesterday morning the comics medium lost one of its greatest creators, and one of its most influential teachers, with the passing of Joe Kubert.
Comics historian Mark Evanier posted a remembrance that highlights how warmly the man was regarded in the comics community — and how astonishgly quickly he worked.
Comic Book Resources has posted 25 of his classic comic covers; go look.
Peter Heller is also the author of Hell or High Water, The Whale Warriors and Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave.
When Peter Heller sat down to work on his first novel, all he knew was that he wanted to have the experience of writing without knowing the ending. As an expedition kayaker, Heller was already the author of many works of travel and outdoor-adventure writing. With his debut novel, The Dog Stars, Heller returned to fiction — his first love. But as the novel took a post-apocalyptic turn, he found himself relying on his real-life scrapes and survival skills.
The fact that NBC's new reality show Stars Earn Stripes is kind of an offensive concept should not distract you from the fact that it's stultifyingly boring as television and badly designed as a reality-competition show.
Now, from Olympic legacies to Hollywood legacies, we want to take a moment to pay tribute to a pioneer actor and director, Al Freeman, Jr. Freeman is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee's 1992 epic film "Malcolm X." Freeman's performance won him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture.
This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Michel Martin is away. Coming up, we get the cross-cultural flavor of New Orleans music with writer and radio host, Gwen Thompkins. She talks to songwriters, musicians and producers in Louisiana for her program, Music Inside Out, and she shares their stories with us in just a few more minutes.
Carol Rifka Brunt is author of Tell the Wolves I'm Home. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including North American Review and The Sun.
Carol Rifka Brunt is author of Tell the Wolves I'm Home.
There's this moment in Jon Ronson's book The Psychopath Test that caught me completely off guard. It comes a little less than halfway through, shortly after he's outlined the 20-point psychopath checklist. I'd read through the list and although most didn't really apply to me there were a handful that gave me pause: "Item 3: ... proneness to boredom," "Item 13: Lack of realistic long-term goals," "Item 15: Irresponsibility."
