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Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
4:52 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

Jake Tapper Of ABC News Plays Not My Job

Credit Ely Brown / Little, Brown and Company

Originally published on Sat December 1, 2012 11:31 am

Jake Tapper is the longtime chief White House correspondent for ABC News and has just written a new book called The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor.

We've invited him to play a game called "It's Mr. Bojangles to you." Three questions for a guy named Tapper about an actual tapper: Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who some say was one of the greatest tap dancers of all time.

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You Must Read This
4:25 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

An Existential Guide For When You're Really 'Lost'

Originally published on Mon December 3, 2012 1:16 pm

Adam Frank is an astrophysicist at University of Rochester and host of the 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog on NPR.org.

I don't read self-help books. On any given day my self seems to need so much help that 200 pages of cheerful advice and end-of-chapter exercises miss the core of my dilemma. The real question keeping me up at night is this: What the hell is a self anyway? How did I get one and why is it so damn desperate for help?

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Pop Culture
3:22 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

That's So Random: The Evolution Of An Odd Word

Credit Paramount/The Kobal Collection
The use of the word random as slang found its way into Amy Heckerling's 1995 hit film, Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone.

Originally published on Fri November 30, 2012 6:44 pm

Random is a fighting word for young Spencer Thompson. The comedian posted a video to a Facebook page entitled I Hate When People Misuse the Word Random.

"The word random is the most misused word of our generation — by far," he proclaims to a tittering audience of 20-somethings. "Like, girls will say, 'Oh, God, I met this random on the way home.' First of all, it's not a noun."

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NPR Story
1:58 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

SciFri Book Club Has 'The Right Stuff'

Originally published on Fri November 30, 2012 4:15 pm

This month the book club takes to the skies with the Tom Wolfe classic The Right Stuff, a behind-the-curtain look at the 20th century's most famous test pilots--including Chuck Yeager. Yeager joins the club to talk about his long career, and what he considers "the right stuff."

NPR Story
1:58 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

Glacier Photographer James Balog on 'Chasing Ice'

Originally published on Fri November 30, 2012 4:15 pm

Photographer James Balog on Climate Change and 'Chasing Ice' — In the new documentary "Chasing Ice," photographer James Balog attempts to capture how the world's glaciers are being affected by climate change. As the film debuts across the country, Balog discusses the project, and what needs to be done to save Earth's shrinking glaciers.

Qcitymetro
12:58 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

Gantt Center To Honor Jeanne M. Brayboy At 32nd Jazzy Holiday Luncheon

There are achievements born of calculated conceptions, rewards we reap that come to fruition through our deliberate plotting and planting of seeds. Then there are those fruits of our labors that blossom on vines whose growth we hadn’t foreseen. The most gratifying moments in life, it seems, are those which smack of that divine synthesis, when the strategic meets the synchronistic.

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The Two-Way
12:07 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

Guitarist Mickey Baker Dies; Had Hits In The '50s, Played On Hundreds Of Records

Credit Jan Persson / Redferns
Mickey Baker in Copenhagen in 1975.

Originally published on Fri November 30, 2012 12:48 pm

  • A bit of "Love Is Strange"

Mickey Baker, one half of the hit-making duo Mickey and Sylvia in the late '50s and an influential guitarist whose work can be heard on hundreds of records, has died at his home near Toulouse, France.

He was 87.

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