News and reports from North, Central and South America.
As learning improv becomes a popular pastime for nonactors, classes have also sprouted up for seniors, encouraging them to loosen up, have some fun and build new social networks in their latter years. Ruth Schwartz is caught in a medical payment snafu that elderly patients know all too well. The customer service rep at her […]
Continue ReadingSome Pacific Northwest Christians are giving up their Starbucks – and their sodas and energy drinks too – in a novel Lent observance that has its roots in ancient custom and is making a difference in developing countries. Susan Lea Smith didn’t set out to tweak a Christian tradition. In 2001 the environmental and natural […]
Continue ReadingA new study from Vanderbilt University says parents can help their children learn by simply listening, instead of providing all the answers. When the kids explain a problem themselves, the study says, they end up better understanding the solutions. What two numbers add up to 51, where one of the numbers is five more than […]
Continue ReadingThe backing of communists may be a bit of election help that Barack Obama would rather do without but the Young Communist League are vowing to stay visible through November for whoever wins the Democratic party nomination. “Don’t forget to vote!” Erica Smiley of the Young Communist League, USA, bellowed from her perch on a […]
Continue ReadingWhether by choice or by birth, more than 200,000 Americans, known as “Leapers,” have a life milestone that arrives only every four years, on Leap Day. When Kyle Tirpak and her fiancé, Joshua Martin, began planning for the biggest day in their lives, they opened a calendar to help choose the perfect date. Searching for […]
Continue ReadingIn its heyday, the Prohibition Party influenced national politics. In 2000, its presidential candidate won only 208 votes, but the few remaining members of America’s oldest third party are as dedicated as ever. If you’ve never seen a presidential candidate dressed as the Grim Reaper, you might consider a visit to Bourbon Street in New […]
Continue ReadingLiberal churches offer sex ed programs for kids as young as six – and they don’t just preach abstinence. A high school freshman in Salt Lake City was talking on the phone with her grandmother one Sunday afternoon last April. “What did you do in church today?” her grandmother asked. “I got to taste a […]
Continue ReadingFamily restrooms have started appearing in more public buildings. Will these restrooms one day lead to the elimination of gender-specific bathrooms? Most states now require family restrooms, places where parents or caretakers can accompany members of the opposite sex who need help in the bathroom, in any new facilities, especially stadiums and parks. At the […]
Continue ReadingIs film photography a dying art? Not according to some students in photography programs at public high schools… Even in the age of the digital camera, the magical quality of film photography continues to enchant teenagers today. On a recent Saturday morning, the darkroom at the Cooper Union School of Art was nearly silent, except […]
Continue ReadingErv Raible is the artistic director of the annual Cabaret Conference at Yale, and his passion has reached a new stage… When Erv Raible watched Anais St. John perform at Le Chat Noir, a club in New Orleans, one Saturday night in November, he felt certain he was witnessing a cabaret star in the making. […]
Continue Reading
