Arts

'The Game's Not Over' Takes On The Traumas Of Football

10:24am December 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

The most popular sport in America causes head trauma. Some famous players have been convicted of domestic abuse, or accused of cheating. But author Gregg Easterbrook won't give up on the gridiron.

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The White House is decked out with 62 Christmas trees and more than 70,000 ornaments this year. The decorations on the East Landing include garlands made of airmail envelops, mailboxes and iPad stations that allow visitors to send messages to military ser

Christmas At The White House, Where You'll Want To Hang That Snowflake Just Right

10:24am December 05, 2015

by Tamara Keith

Every year, hundreds of people apply for a chance to volunteer to decorate the White House for the holidays. All 70,000 ornaments and 8,000 snowflakes of it.

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Arts

New Exhibit Remembers Shakespeare's Silent Soirée

7:57am December 05, 2015

Forget the Merry Wives of Windsor, NPR's Scott Simon recalls a time when Shakespeare spent the night with a groupie.

Arts

Moment Of Truth In 'Youth' Hits Home For Actor Harvey Keitel

7:57am December 05, 2015

Harvey Keitel plays a film director spending time at a spa in the Swiss Alps in the movie, "Youth." He talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the production and a chance meeting in Sarajevo, years ago.

Books
Arts

'The Blizzard' May Leave You Cold

7:03am December 05, 2015

by Carmen Maria Machado

Vladimir Sorokin's surreal road trip novel follows a doctor rushing through a blizzard to deliver a vaccine to a zombie-plagued village — but that rich premise is let down by clunky, uneven prose.

Phila Hach (standing, center) and her husband, Adolf Hach, are seen here with Minnie Pearl (right) of Grand Ole Opry fame, and an unidentified woman. "What the Grand Ole Opry did for country music, she has done for Southern food," one food writer wrote ab

Phila Hach, Who Spread The Gospel Of Southern Cuisine, Dies At 89

7:44pm December 04, 2015

by Debbie Elliott

"What the Grand Ole Opry did for country music, she has done for Southern food," one writer says of Hach, host of the South's first TV cooking show and a cookbook author and caterer for world leaders.

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Shanice Williams and Amber Riley were two of the stars of NBC's The Wiz Live!

Arts

NBC Raises Its Musical Game With 'The Wiz Live'

7:27pm December 04, 2015

by Eric Deggans

NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says NBC's production of The Wiz was "fully and fearlessly filled with blackness."

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler think the force is with them.

Arts

WATCH: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler Take On 'Star Wars'

3:37pm December 04, 2015

by Elizabeth Blair

Their film Sisters comes out the same weekend as Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Are they worried about getting crushed? "R2-D2 is my bra size," Fey says in a Sisters trailer called "The Farce Awakens."

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Set in New Orleans in the 1960s, the comedic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces centers around Ignatius J. Reilly, a glutton in a city known for its legendary cuisine. A new cookbook looks at the food culture that helps define the characters in the book.

Books
Arts

'A Confederacy Of Dunces Cookbook': A Classic Revisited In Recipes

3:17pm December 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

Set in 1960s New Orleans, A Confederacy of Dunces centers around Ignatius J. Reilly, a glutton in a city known for its cuisine. A new cookbook looks at the food central to the heralded comedic novel.

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Books
Arts

'New Yorker' Cartoon Editor Explores What Makes Us Get It

2:12pm December 04, 2015

Humor is both a creative and a cognitive process, says Bob Mankoff, who has contributed cartoons to The New Yorker since 1977. Originally broadcast March 24, 2014.

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