Feiler Faster

As we were leaving the White House, I asked if we could see the new press digs, and we were escorted into the room, which is no larger than the old room, of course, but much fancier, with leather seats and the new, high-tech backdrop. Later I learned that Stephen Colbert must have been there…

The backsplash is growing! PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to Corporate Accountability International, a U.S. watchdog group, the world’s No. 2 beverage company will include the words “Public Water Source”…

In my reading pile this weekend from my father: An excerpt in Smithsonian of a new book about the unlikely man who discovered the Epic of Gilgamesh and made the connection between the oldest flood epic ever uncovered and the story of Noah. I wrote about this quite a lot in WALKING THE BIBLE but…

Where are the moderate Muslims? Everywhere, apparently. A new study by Pew shows that support for suicide bombings has been cut in half in many parts of the Muslim world. Most notably, the survey finds large and growing numbers of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere rejecting Islamic extremism. The percentage of Muslims saying…

A few weeks ago I complained (joining what turned out to be a chorus of complainers) when Angelina Jolie besmirched the legacy of Danny Pearl by imposing absurd media-restrictions on her interviews to promote “A Mighty Heart.” Now it turns out that Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, T.O, and everyone else in the sports world might…

It can happen to anyone, even the most experienced traveler. One of Lonely Planet’s most well-traveled writers, Clem Lindenmayer, has been found dead on a Chinese mountainside, three months after he was reported missing. Mr Lindenmayer, 47, had set out to climb Mount Gongga, in a remote area of south-west China, telling his family that…

Here’s one of the more exciting stories I’ve seen in a while. One of the most common questions I get when the subject turns to interfaith relations is, “What about the people who don’t want to talk?” Well, it looks like those who don’t want to talk are suddenly talking to one another. A major…

In February, I received a call from my father one day, “The president of the United States just mispronounced your name on national television.” With a little digging, I soon learned that at the end of an interview with C-SPAN the president was asked what he had read lately, and he said the following: Well,…

Kudos to my brother for pointing out on Saturday night what I’ve now seen elsewhere on the web. TIME has a provocative cover this week showing a helicopter airlifting the A(merica) out of I-R-A-Q. The image is clearly evocative of images of the USA airlifting out of Vietnam. There’s only one problem. The helicopter is…

I just returned from a weekend at the beach on Tybee Island with my two-year-old twins girls. My wife, having just come through a skin cancer scare, has imported long-sleeve, UV-protected bodysuits for them from Australia. Looks like she may have been looking to the wrong continent. Is this SPF 1472? Time, on the newest…

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