Today's Highlights:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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Philip Roth's Latest Novel Source |
Spotlight: Philip Roth is considered to be one of America's greatest contemporary writers. He's revered and he's reviled, sometimes for the same thing. Critic Dwight MacDonald once called Roth's Our Gang "far-fetched, unfair, tasteless, disturbing, logical, coarse, and very funny." Roth is the only three-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner award and he's taken home most of the other prestigious awards given to today's writers, including a Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. Happy birthday to novelist Philip Roth, who turns 75 today.
Question of the Day: What books were on the NY Times Book Review's top works of fiction of the last 25 years?The favorite book was Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Runners-up were: Underworld, by Don DeLillo; Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy; Rabbit Angstrom: the four novels, by John Updike; and American Pastoral by Philip Roth.
The books were chosen by a list of about 200 hundred writers, critics and editors, who were asked by the New York Times Book Review editor to come up with what they thought was "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." More
Word of the day: peccadillo(n., pl. -loes or -los.
A small sin or fault.
[Spanish pecadillo, diminutive of pecado, sin, and Italian peccadiglio, diminutive of peccato, sin, both from Latin peccatum, from neuter of peccatus.]
Usage: "It's just a simple hunting accident. It's a striking example of the media obsession with any peccadillo that may come from the White House." — Roger Pilon
Every week, it seems, there is a new scandal in the world of politicians. Take a peek at this week's words about scandals or scandalous behavior.
Today's History:
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| Faust |
- bank robbery: the first recorded bank heist took place in NYC; Edward Smith escaped with some $245,000, but was later caught and imprisoned (1831)
- Faust: opera by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris; it was to become one of the top 20 most performed in the US (1859)
- 25th Academy Awards: was the first televised Oscar ceremony (1953)
- invasion of Iraq: began (on March 20 local time, 2003)
Today's Birthdays:
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| Bruce Willis |
- David Livingstone (1813-1873): missionary and explorer; another explorer born on this date was Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890)
- Earl Warren (1891-1974): 14th Chief Justice of the US; jurist John Sirica (1904-1992) was also born on this date
- Harvey Weinstein (55): producer and co-founder of Miramax
- Bruce Willis (53): actor, Die Hard; actors Patrick McGoohan (80), Glenn Close (61) and Craig Lamar Traylor (19) also share a birthday today
