Jan 6th, 2009 · Maureen Corrigan reviews Jayne Anne Phillips' Lark & Termite, a novel that weaves together the story of an American soldier fighting (and dying) in Korea in 1950, with that of his family struggling with their loss nine years later.
Dec 30th, 2008 · Chip Saltsman, one of the candidates for chair of the Republican National Committee, sent a CD full of song parodies to several RNC members. Among them, "Barack the Magic Negro." The 'magic negro' is an old term that dates to the 1950s. Used today, is it satire or racism?
Dec 12th, 2008 · Bettie Paige, the pinup bombshell from the 1950s, has died in Los Angeles. She was 85. Paige was a secretary-turned-model who helped inspire the sexual revolution.
Dec 7th, 2008 · President-elect Barack Obama has called for the most ambitious stimulus program since the government built the interstate highway system in the 1950s.
Dec 1st, 2008 · The 1950s insult comic Don Rickles made a name for himself by poking fun of audiences and public figures. His new book, Rickles' Letters, is a collection of imaginary correspondences to a variety of historical and contemporary figures.
Nov 15th, 2008 · British, American, Russian and French nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and '60s left permanent records in trees around the globe. Scientists have found chemical signatures of the explosions in the wood of old trees in many countries.
Oct 24th, 2008 · William Bolcom's searing opera, after a play by Arthur Miller, is a sometimes bleak, yet always vivid drama set in the Italian-American community of Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the 1950s.
Oct 14th, 2008 · In 1950, a mathematician asked, if a computer could think, how could we tell? His answer: it could hold a conversation. In this spirit, the annual Loebner Artificial Intelligence Prize goes to the most human-like computer. This year, to a program called Elbot. When asked, how's it going? Elbot responded: I feel terrible today. This morning I poured milk over my breakfast instead of oil, and it rusted before I could eat it.