Society & Culture

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg shares his thoughts on the peculiar grammatical logic of telephone answering machine recordings.

New York Times columnist William Geist, who wrote the paper's popular "About New York" column. He has collected his favorite columns in a book titled City Slickers. Geist recently left the Times and is now a contributor for the CBS News show, "CBS Sunday Morning."

Jan Harold Brunvand will explore the urban legends that have sprung up around computer glitches, the so-called "mystery glitches."

August Darnell, lead singer of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Kid Creole is the dapper stage persona of August Darnell, a wildly inventive showman whose music fuses salsa, rock, jazz, reggae, funk and rap. The group has found fame in Europe and South America, but success in America has proven elusive.

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone discusses the new ABC television series "thirtysomething."

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Cry Freedom," starring Kevin Kline as South African journalist Donald Woods, and Denzel Washington as anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. The movie portrays the friendship that developed between Woods, a white reporter, and Biko, one of the leading foes of apartheid. "Cry Freedom" is directed by Richard Attenborough.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg will discuss the misleading nature of words, or when a "direct flight" isn't direct at all.

Adventure essayist Tim Cahill. Cahill's writing appeared in the premiere issue of Outside magazine and has been a regular feature ever since. In his latest odyssey, Cahill drove from the tip of South America to Purdhoe Bay in Alaska. His newest collection of adventure tales is titled Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.

Singer Judy Collins. She's just written an autobiography; it's titled Trust Your Heart.

Actress Colleen Dewhurst. She is currently starring as Eugene O'Neill's widow in the one-woman show "My Gene."

Russell Jacoby, whose new book, The Last Intellectuals, American Culture in the Age of Academe, contends that American culture is not producing the intellectuals it did during the 40s and 50s.

Jan Harold Brunvand explores the urban legend about the shared bite of the Snickers bar.

Writer Joan Didion. Known for her self-reflective essays and reporting, Didion is one of America's most important writers. Her books include A Book of Common Prayer, Slouching Toward Bethlehem and Salvador. With her husband John Gregory Dunne, she co-wrote the screenplay for "True Confessions." Her new book is titled Miami.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the centennial of Esperanto, a movement devoted to establishing a world language.

Randy Shilts, author of And the Band Played On - Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, a controversial book that reveals the identity of the first person to the bring AIDS to the United States. The book also raises questions about the government's response to the crisis.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews The Dresden Gate the novel by Michael Schmidt that explores the misbegotten efforts of Europeans to export their systems of civilization - religion, government, culture - on the Latin American soul.

Comedian Yakov Smirnoff. He arrived in the U.S. from the Soviet Union 10 years ago with $100 in his pocket. Today he is a leading comic who has appeared in movies and had his own syndicated TV show called "What A Country."

Ed McBain (also known as Evan Hunter), prolific writer of detective fiction, best known for his "87th Precinct" series of police procedurals and mystery novels. His most recent novel is titled Tricks. McBain writes in other genres under different pseudonyms.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the overuse of the superlatives "world-class" and "serious."

James Conaway, author of The Kingdom in the Country, which looks at the wide expanse of public lands in the West and how the myths of the west - cowboys, gunslingers, gold miners - are enduring.