For Pete’s Sakes, Steve Fossett Did Not Fake His Own Death
Brrrother. The tabloids are doing their best to reopen the Steve Fossett case, suddenly yakking about how Fossett may have faked his own death.
Biographies
Gapper: Laurence Olivier
‘Gapper’ is our term for a profile we probably ought to have had long ago.
Feist Counts to Four on Sesame Street
Can’t get enough of this charming video of the singer Feist on the new season of Sesame Street:If the tune sounds familiar, you may recognize it from the popular iPod Nano “a little video for everyone” commercial…
McGregor Ridiculed Publicly
Google celebrates Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter today with a doodle on their home page.Once again, poor Mr. McGregor can only wave his rake and rage on while a cuddly rabbit steals his livelihood and gets all the good press. It’s sad.
Happy 100th, Joseph Mitchell!
The terrific writer Joseph Mitchell was born 100 years ago today.Mitchell wrote with a “fondness for the eccentricities of New York life,” as The Associated Press put it in their 1996 obituary. His stories, mostly published in The New Yorker, are full of saloonkeepers, Bowery bums, oystermen and oysters, beefsteak cooks, crazy storytellers, and the uncream of Manhattan.
Did This Man Kill Chandra Levy?
The Washington Post has concluded its 12-part series on the death of Chandra Levy and has named a suspect: a Salvadoran immigrant named Ingmar Guandique.
‘Last Lecture’ Professor Dies
Randy Pausch, the professor whose frank and uplifting “Last Lecture” made him an unexpected public hero, has died at age 47.Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and told he had 3-6 months to live. Soon after, he gave a funny, heartfelt last lecture to students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, on the topic of achieving childhood dreams.
My Name is Number 16 Bus Shelter
We were poking fun at celebrity names the other day. But it turns out the celebs have got nothing on New Zealanders.
Olympic Swimmer Update
We’ve just posted new profiles of two Olympic swimmers: Natalie Coughlin and Dara Torres.Couglin was the hit of the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won five medals (two gold, two silver, one bronze). Torres won five medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 (two gold and three bronze).Torres is a wee bit more famous right now because she’s 41, the mother of a two-year-old, and has been semi-retired since her 2000 Sydney heroics. She’s the oldest swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics.
Novak Nails Pedestrian
Columnist Robert Novak has been cited by police after hitting a 60-something pedestrian in downtown Washington, D.C., according to Politico.The website says Novak tried to leave the scene but was stopped by a bicycle commuter, who blocked Novak’s black Corvette with his bike and dialed 911. “I didn’t know I hit him,” Novak reportedly said, although Politico also quotes the bicyclist as saying the pedestrian was “splayed across the windshield.”