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Monday, February 6, 2006
Spotlight: French filmmaker François Roland Truffaut was born on this date in 1932. Truffaut started out as a film critic; he was so critical of French cinema that he was not allowed a pass to the Cannes Film Festival in 1958. A year later, he was named Best Director at the festival for his film The 400 Blows. In 1968, Truffaut, Claude Berri, Jean-Luc Godard and others stormed the stage and demanded the screening of Gone With the Wind be halted, due to social and political unrest in France. Among his most famous films were Jules et Jim (1961), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), and The Story of Adele H (1975). Truffaut died of a brain tumor in 1984. He was 52 years old.

Quote: "In love, women are professionals, men are amateurs." – François Truffaut

Word: auteur: a director who exercises such control over his film that it is as if he authored it; Truffaut created the auteur theory.

DETROIT - Paint this Super Bowl black and gold. With a whole lot of satisfaction for Jerome Bettis, Bill Cowher and his Pittsburgh Steelers. The final Bus stop featured a little trickery starring MVP Hines Ward, a bunch of help from the Seattle Seahawks and a huge boost from the Terrible Towels, a handful of football fortune that added up to One for the Thumb. (full story)

Sunday, February 5, 2006

Final: Steelers 21 -- Seahawks 10

Spotlight: It's Super Bowl Sunday! The NFC's Seattle Seahawks face off against the AFC's Pittsburgh Steelers at Ford Field in Detroit in the year's biggest football game. ABC will be broadcasting the game; commercials are going for $2.5 million for a 30-second spot. ESPN, owned by Disney (as is ABC), will also be providing full coverage of "Everything But the Game," with the two networks providing over 100 hours of NFL coverage over the few days running up to Super Bowl XL.

Quote: "There is no future. This is the season. Get to the Super Bowl." – Troy Vincent

Word: sack: in football, to tackle a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage as he attempts to pass the ball

Friday, February 3, 2006

Spotlight: The 15th Amendment, granting black men the right to vote, was passed on this date in 1870. Discrimination against blacks was still rampantat and violence at voting polls was common. Literacy tests, poll taxes and other voter qualification laws became common. It took nearly a century and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for the amendment's quasi intention to be achieved throughout the US. There is little doubt that many of the members of of congress really believed in the sincerity of the amendment. (February is Black History Month in the US.)

Quote: "I too mean to be out of politics. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment gives me the boon of equality before the law, terminates my enlistment, and discharges me cured." – Rutherford B. Hayes

Word: ratify: to adopt formally; Amendment XV was ratified on this date.

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Spotlight: On this date in 1990, South African president F.W. de Klerk ended a 30-year ban on the African National Congress and promised to free ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who had been in prison since 1964. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The following year, Mandela was elected president of South Africa in the country's first all-race election; he served for five years (1994-1999). (February is Black History Month in the US.)

Quote: "After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb... I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended." – Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Word: apartheid: a system of racial segregation and discrimination, especially in South Africa; the ANC was an anti-apartheid movement

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Spotlight: Poet, novelist, playwright Langston Hughes was born on this date in 1902. A major voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes was a devotee of blues and jazz. He wrote musicals and operas and three autobiographies. Hughes worked to publicize the efforts of other black authors and musicians and to further the status of blacks in America. In his poem, "I, Too," he wrote, "I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes. But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong."

Quote: "I will not take 'but' for an answer." – Langston Hughes

Word: manifesto: declaration of principles and intentions; Langston Hughes helped to provide a manifesto for the Harlem Renaissance movement in his essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain."

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Spotlight: On November 5, 1605, a group of conspirators intended to blow up the English Parliament and King James I, in retaliation for increasing severity of laws against Catholics. A soldier in the group, Guy Fawkes, was arrested as he entered the cellar where the gunpowder and supplies were hidden. The Gunpowder Plot was aborted and on this date in 1606, Guy Fawkes and some of the others were executed for their role in the conspiracy.

Quote: "A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy." – Guy Fawkes, on the Gunpowder Plot, using the words of Hippocrates

Word: phoenix: legendary bird that burned and regenerated itself, rising from the ashes; in the Harry Potter books, the phoenix is named Fawkes after Guy Fawkes.

Today's Highlights
Monday, January 30, 2006

Spotlight: Happy 76th birthday to award-winning actor Gene Hackman. Hackman was in his 30s when he decided to pursue a career in acting. He got some roles off- and on Broadway and moved on to film. His first of several Academy Award nominations was for Best Supporting Actor for his third film role, in Bonnie and Clyde. He won an Oscar for his work in The French Connection (1971) and another one for Unforgiven (1992). Years earlier, his acting class at the Pasadena Playhouse in California voted Hackman and fellow classmate Dustin Hoffman "least likely to succeed."

Quote: "Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors." – Gene Hackman

Word: paranoid: showing irrational distrust of others; Gene Hackman played a paranoid surveillance expert in The Conversation.

Today's Highlights
Sunday, January 29, 2006

Spotlight: The Library of Congress is the depository of all written material copyrighted in the US. Established in 1800 with a few thousand books, it is now the world's largest library with some 530 miles of bookshelves housing more than 130 million items, including printed materials, photographs, manuscripts, maps and recordings. On this date in 1802, Thomas Jefferson appointed John Beckley as the first Librarian of Congress.

Quote: "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?" – James Madison

Word: copyright: exclusive legal right given to an author to control publishing or distribution of a literary, musical or artistic work

Today's Highlights
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Spotlight: It's been twenty years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 seconds after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The problem was found to be due to a faulty O-ring seal, which reacted unexpectedly to the cold at take-off. Francis R. Scobee (shuttle commander), Gregory B. Jarvis, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Michael J. Smith, and Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut, all died in the explosion. It took nearly three years for NASA to send astronauts into space again.

Quote: "Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." – Richard Feynman, explaining in Life magazine why the Challenger exploded by showing that O-rings grow brittle when immersed in water (January, 1987)

Word: promontory: a projection of land into a body of water; Cape Canaveral is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic Ocean

Today's Highlights
Friday, January 27, 2006

Spotlight: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the genius musician, was born 250 years ago today and the world is celebrating his birth and his music. In Salzburg, where he was born, dignitaries from around the globe will attend a giant birthday bash this evening. Over the next year, Salzburg will host 260 all-Mozart concerts and 55 Masses devoted to his sacred music. In New York this evening, the Philharmonic will debut a three-week "Magic of Mozart" tribute, and the Metropolitan Opera will present a production of The Magic Flute.

Quote: "Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream." – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Word: divertimento: usually lighthearted musical piece, in several movements, but with no fixed form; Mozart was a famous composer of divertimenti.

Today's Highlights
Thursday, January 26, 2006

Spotlight: Happy birthday to hockey star Wayne Gretzky. The all-time NHL leader in points (2857), goals (894) and assists (1963), and all-time Stanley Cup leader in points, goals and assists is 45 today. Gretzky was born in Ontario and played professional hockey with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers. When he retired, his number 99 was retired permanently throughout the NHL. Gretzky is now part owner and head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Quote: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." – Wayne Gretzky

Word: sudden death: a tie-breaking method in some games in which the first point to be scored in overtime determines the winner; ice hockey has a 5-minute sudden death system. If no points are scored within five minutes, a shootout is played.

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Spotlight: Happy 25th birthday to songstress Alicia Keys. Keys was nominated for five Grammy Awards this year, including Best R&B Song ("Unbreakable") and Best R&B Album ("Unplugged"). She was also nominated for four NAACP Image Awards, to be presented on March 3. Keys recently teamed up with Bono to record a song called, "Don't Give Up (Africa)," with all proceeds going to Keep A Child Alive, which provides medicine for Africa's children. An aspiring actress, Keys first appeared on-screen in a 1985 episode of The Cosby Show, playing a friend of Rudy's. She is currently working on

Quote: "I'd like to dedicate this to just thinking outside the box and not being afraid of who you are no matter what you do." – Alicia Keys

Word: a cappella: singing without accompaniment; in her signature single, "Fallin'," Keys sings an a cappella introduction.

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