Society & Culture

Critic-at-large John Powers reviews Mikey & Nicky, a film first released in 1976 written and directed by Elaine May starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. It's now out on DVD.

Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs for US Airways, Christopher Chiames responds to comments made last week on the show by Scott McCartney, who writes about the Airline industry for The Wall Street Journal.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg discusses political language and the word democrat, with a small "d."

In the new film, The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon plays a sex offender just released from prison. Bacon was first recognized in the 1982 film Diner, and went on to roles in Mystic River, A Few Good Men, Flatliners, and Footloose. He's made over 50 films and inspired the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in which players try to link another actor with Bacon in as few steps as possible. He is married to the actress Kyra Sedgwick, who also co-stars in The Woodsman.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews In Good Company, starring Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace.

What's going on with the airline industry? We talk to journalist Scott McCartney, who follows the airline industry and writes the weekly column "The Middle Seat" for The Wall Street Journal.

Peter Singer's new book, Children at War, takes a look at the use of children as soldiers -- which happens much more than many of us would like to think. From Afghanistan, Thailand and Lebanon to Sudan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, Singer examines how children are recruited and indoctrinated into warfare.

Director Jean Pierre Jeunet's new film A Very Long Engagement is set during the end of World War I and is based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot. It stars Audrey Tautou, who also played the title role in Jeunet's previous film, Amelie.

Miriam Toews has written her third book, A Complicated Kindness. One reviewer called it "a kind of Catcher in the Rye for Mennonite girls."

Bandleader and clarinetist Artie Shaw died Dec. 29 at the age of 94, apparently of natural causes. In the 1930s and '40s, Shaw's band ranked with the Goodman, Dorsey and Miller bands in popularity. But he largely rejected pop tunes and stuck with music by composers like Porter, Gershwin and Berlin. We remember Shaw.

Writer Susan Sontag died Wednesday at age 71 of leukemia. We listen back to two interviews with her: a 1989 conversation about her book AIDS and Its Metaphors; and 1993 interview conducted shortly after Sontag returned from Sarajevo, where she directed a performance of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in Serbo-Croatian.

Bishop Robert Duncan is the moderator of a group formed in opposition to the ordination of Bishop Robinson. It's called the Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes. Their stated mission is to allow "Episcopalians to remain in communion with the vast majority of the worldwide Anglican Communion who have declared either impaired or broken communion with the Episcopal Church USA." For many Episcopalians, the ACN has come to represent the hope for a return to the historic faith and order of Anglicanism." Duncan is Episcopal Bishop of Pittsburgh.

On Nov. 2, 2003, Bishop Gene Robinson became the world's first openly gay Episcopal bishop. He was elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire. His appointment and confirmation have caused some division in the Episcopal Church. Robinson was married for 13 years. He continues to be close to his ex-wife and two daughters. For more than 16 years, he's been in a relationship with a man.

The intersection of religion and politics was a subject of dispute this year when the question arose over whether Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should receive communion. McCarrick is the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and heads of the task force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about the phrase "curling up with a good book," and what it says about the way we read.

Also we remember mystery novelist Joseph Hansen, who we just learned died last month at the age of 81. He created one of the genre's first gay protagonists, the private eye Dave Brandstetter.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Closer, starring Jude Law and Natalie Portman, and directed by Mike Nichols.

The latest book by Israeli author Amos Oz is A Tale Of Love And Darkness, a memoir of growing up in Jerusalem in the turbulent 1940s and '50s, when a war-torn Israel was achieving statehood. Oz's home life was as intense as the world outside.

The book follows Oz through his mother's suicide to a growing interest in politics and writing. Along the way, he chooses a new name for himself — Oz, the Hebrew word for strength — over his family's name, Klausner.

We remember the gay journalist who was the founder and first president of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He died Sunday at age 70. He worked at The Washington Post for 14 years, with posts as bureau chief in New York and Los Angeles.

Caouette made his filmmaking debut with the autobiographical documentary Tarnation. He made it on his home computer for only $218. It includes snapshots, super-8 home movies, answering machine messages and dramatic reenactments from his chaotic upbringing in a dysfunctional Texas family.