News Gone Wild
Pop quiz for the journalism students in the audience: What's an editor to do when her reporter is assaulted and the attacker, whom the reporter strikes back, turns out to be the story's subject?
Television
A collection of 88 issues
God or No God
Is that a benevolent deity inside your briefcase or is Loki just happy to see you? Introducing the game show that's got Americans clutching their prayer books: It's God or No God with Howie Mandel! Atheists, watch out!
The Weathermen
Why are so many news shows so dully casted--except for the flamboyantly named superhero in front of the blue screen? The top 10 best-named weathermen currently rescuing the news.
To Live and Love in Beautiful Alabama
Erik Estrada wants us to buy land, Ron Popeil wants us to shoot our salad. Promising a better life—free of ills financial and otherwise—when infomercials air on a Sunday morning, the effect can be downright spiritual.
The Cast of Blossom vs. Wu-Tang Clan
It's true that this year's South by Southwest music festival brought a number of unlikely musical pairings to the stage. Few were as unlikely as Joey Lawrence and Raekwon. (Whoa!)
Big in Finland
Conan O'Brien's recent comedy bits about Finland earned him that country's adulation; his trip there for a one-hour special--airing tonight--sealed the deal. What the unlikely matchup means for one writer's family.
Heeding the Lamplighter's Whistle
He's gone. He's been gone for some time. I'd still come running, though, at the very first note. Just one little round of the Masterpiece Theatre theme, and I'm all his, that little gas-lighting corporate mascot.
Girlfriends
Girlfriends, on UPN, could have been another empty yuppie comedy, a black woman's Sex in the City. Instead, the sitcom about four female black professionals in L.A. is witty, smart and original, and it plays with race and class without relying on dry stereotypes. Luckily, the show
I'm Your Biggest Fan
There are many reasons to pepper a celebrity with fan mail: admiration, a sense of kinship, obsession, even boredom. Any are acceptable and all are believable—until you try to explain your motives to others.
Raise the Woof
While Super Bowl XL was being beamed into taverns across Manhattan, bars showing Puppy Bowl II were a lot harder to come by.