Society & Culture

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the coverage of the Democratic National Convention, or lack of it.

The Fresh Air critic has written a new book, Sore Winners (And The Rest of Us) in George Bush's America. Powers is critic-at-large for Fresh Air, and deputy editor for L.A. Weekly, where he writes a media/culture column called On. He's also an international correspondent for Gourmet magazine.

The son of the late President Ronald Reagan has been invited to speak at the Democratic convention next week. He and his mother have become outspoken proponents of stem cell research. Reagan has edited the book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President.

What does it say about electoral politics that "values," formerly a political bromide, is now a battle cry?

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews An Unfinished Season, by Ward Just. He's known for weaving American history and politics into his fiction. This book is set in Chicago during the Eisenhower years.

The Fresh Air linguist comments on the speaking styles of 2004 presidential candidates John Kerry and George Bush.

Journalist Larry Tye examines the social history of the porter in Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class. Tye says that the job was one of the best for African Americans at the time, and that it was a foothold in the American workplace. Tye reports for The Boston Globe.

He's been playing piano and singing at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City since 1968. He's considered one of the great cabaret singers of our time. The 79-year-old song stylist was slated to retire from the Cafe Carlyle this coming New Year's Eve, but he's extended his schedule, and he's not going anywhere for the time being. Short has been named a "living landmark" by New York's Landmark Conservancy and a "national living legend" by the Library of Congress.

He's just published his autobiography, My Life. Clinton talks about what he knew about Osama bin Laden during his administration and how he tried to strike a balance between informing and terrifying Americans. Clinton currently lives in Chappaqua, New York and works in Harlem.

Nunberg considers profanity and how certain words, in certain eras, have had the power to offend.

Film critic David Edelstein discusses The Stepford Wives, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Frank Oz.

Donna Brazile managed the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. She's written a new memoir about her years in politics, Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics. Brazile is currently chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She is also a political commentator on CNN's Inside Politics.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the language of the Vietnam War and how it's being used today.

Nunberg's new collection of commentary (originally written for broadcast and print) is Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times. Nunberg is senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University and consulting full professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He also writes for the Sunday New York Times Week in Review.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the final episode of Fraiser.

Nunberg considers the word "torture."

Patterson's book Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy looks at the historic Supreme Court case and its aftermath. Patterson also wrote Grand Expectations: The United States 1945-1974.

In 1949, when he was 24, Greenberg joined the Inc. Fund, which would later be called the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He worked on some of the most important civil rights cases, including representing Martin Luther King, Jr. He also led the Fund's campaigns to help integrate the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi. With others, he tried the Delaware and Topeka cases of Brown v. Board of Education. His memoir and history of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is called Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews last night's series finale of the hit NBC sitcom Friends, and looks at the history of series finales.

Critic at large John Powers considers the 100th birthday of Peter Pan and our cultural obsession with youth.