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The criticisms being directed at Girls are misguided. The much hyped new HBO show created by Lena Dunham, and co-produced by Judd Apatow, focuses on the lives of upper class, twenty-something, white girls living in New York City. That Girls was promoted as representing a generation is the fault of journalists, and HBO, but not Dunham, or the show itself. If the show was intended to speak for an entire generation, its failure to incorporate a minority character, and a minority perspective, would be a major

New York is running out of people like George Gurley. He’s a journalist at home uptown and down, a committed drinker with a muckraking streak, and in possession of an unrivaled sense of humor. Gurley’s won a devoted following through his columns at the New York Observer. His dispatches from the front lines of New York society evolved into reportage of Gurley’s own exploits in botes he patronized until he stumbled home, or was ejected, with his dignity in

By Lillie Marshall
Like other states across the country, mine (Massachusetts) is in the midst of piloting a new teacher evaluation system. I’m a teacher, so this matters deeply to me. But it also matters to anyone with any stake in education, as the impact of how we measure teacher effectiveness will be immense.
Now, how are these evaluations going so far? Last month, Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellows sent a survey to teachers in Boston’s Level 4 Turnaround Schools, who are currently piloting the new

What does the intellectually curious would-be football fan need to know about the NFL draft?
Football is so popular that the league’s annual player draft, which involves no actual athletic participation whatsoever, is now a three-day event. While this is a beautiful thing for those of us who think way too much about football, one realizes that not every citizen is filled with unmitigated glee that two prime time evenings and one full Saturday of television viewing will consist of a man at a podium announcing the names of other men, who then enter stage-left, put on a hat, hold up a T-shirt and take photos. Some will cry. Did I mention the part about the delusional screaming audience members? Doesn’t this sound like fun?
If it does, you should move on to the next column because you, too, think way too much about

Like so many of you I heaved a sigh of relief when the announcement was made that George Zimmerman had been arrested. After weeks of marches and protests, letters and articles, tweets and media appearances, justice has been served – or has it? Over the course of the past few weeks our country has experienced what many have referred to as our “Emmett Till Moment.”
Emmett Till, just three years younger than Trayvon, was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. Till was beaten, one of his eyes gouged, and shot for allegedly whistling at a white woman. When Till’s body was returned to Chicago his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open

On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money — and the tax money of other nations — went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war.
World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 — an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion.
Some news reports have emphasized that, from the standpoint of reducing reliance on armed might, this actually represents progress. After all, the increase in “real” global military spending — that is, expenditures after corrections for inflation and exchange rates — was only 0.3

The Board of Trustees at the University of Pennsylvania appointed Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Honorary Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies on February 17th 2012. The day included three intellectual panels, an art installation, musical tribute, and a poetic tribute.
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by Jay Ducote, BBQ Expert for the Menuism BBQ Blog
Photos by Jay Ducote
Compared to Louisiana, other states have it easy. Sure, Louisiana is home of the Big Easy and we locals are known for our joie de vivre, but we are also parents to some of the most precious cuisines in the world. While we may, on occasion, have one too many Bloody Marys at Sunday brunch or add some “punch” to our milk, we don’t take this responsibility lightly. Even when away from the motherland, Louisianans still find ourselves bragging about and defending our pride and

With Romney as the GOP candidate, I wanted to see how other Americans feel about this race. It seems the Constitution is a take-it-or-leave-it sort of thing these days… who needs to actually read it, right?
I say ‘poo poo’ to these candidates.
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Mayor Emanuel insists on moving forward with the Chicago Infrastructure Trust ordinance, despite widespread questions around equity, transparency, and accountability.
Gaper’s Block wrote about the Sunlight Foundation, who states that “transparency and openness are the very foundations for public trust; without the former the latter cannot survive.”
Without transparency, there is no Trust. Pretty straightforward. So why does Emanuel insist on bulldozing this through?
For a mayor who campaigned on his administration ushering in a new era of transparency, ramming through legislation which, as written today, lacks core taxpayer protections and has no clear mechanism to enforce basic public access, and forcing a vote on such flawed policy makes no sense.
Mayor Emanuel’s ordinance, and the subsequent Executive Order, does not protect Chicago working families from paying billions more than they might if the city used other financing

Since its premiere earlier this month, HBO’s “Girls” has become the show everyone is talking about, for better or for worse.
Though a majority of the “Girls” backlash stems from racism claims and what I presume to be jealousy towards 25-year-old creator/director/writer/star Lena Dunham, that’s not my problem with “Girls.” The thing I couldn’t get past in the first episode was a cupcake — or more specifically, the idea that two non-romantically involved female friends would be in the bathroom together naked in a non-gym setting: one shaving her legs atop the tub and the other taking a bath in it, while eating a cupcake. Where did she put it when she undressed to get in the bath? How does she plan on actually bathing while holding a cupcake? The questions are endless.
Cakebathgate issues aside, I think Dunham’s character Hannah is a smart young woman, if not incredibly naive. But when comes to some of the things Hannah and her “girls” do and say, I’m not convinced she’s as refreshingly self-aware as many claim she is

Until I was 40 years old, I was a botanical field researcher and constantly on the move, so much so that I seldom bothered to have an actual residence. I was also an only child and did not marry until I was 49 — a fiercely-independent streak is a fundamental part of my makeup. Where would a dog fit into this picture?
Yet something in this untethered lifestyle never really worked for me. I was depressed for much of my early adulthood — not clinically so, as I could still function, but I was miserable more days than not, often for weeks at a time.
In 1982, a longtime friend — one of those rare, priceless people who can see gaps in your emotional life that are invisible to you — gave me a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy as a birthday

Anthony Davis, the most talented player coming out of college basketball, is projected as the first pick in this year’s NBA draft, having left the University of Kentucky after one year of school. Davis became the latest in a long list of “one and done” players over the years who have played one year of college before heading to the professional basketball. Mr. Davis had a lot of incentive to leave for the pros, from an NBA contract to marketing deals and the chance to make a big impact on the game, coming off a national championship with

Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 5, Episode 21 of The CW’s “Gossip Girl,” entitled “Despicable B.”
How do you solve a problem like Blair Waldorf? Our staple “Gossip Girl” anti-heroine has been suffering from something of an identity crisis over the past couple of seasons, lurching from man to man and plan to plan with none of her former wit or withering disdain. The good thing about “Despicable B” is that the writers have apparently wised up to the fact that she’s had totally bipolar characterization for a while now, and I guess it’s better late than never to address that imbalance. We all know that the show is never going to recapture the glory days of its first two seasons, but this week’s episode was at least a little less blunt-force obvious than “Salon of the Dead” — enough for us to scrape together five OMG moments …

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. — Buddha
One of the truly great things in life is to discover our genuine and authentic self, to dance to the beat of our own

Have you ever felt off, but not know why? Stuck not knowing what to do to get back on your path to being efficient, fit, more relaxed or just plain well? That has been my mode for the past few months, hence my hiatus from posting a new article. Things just were not clicking. In hindsight, it could have been because I was constantly pushing the wrong button.
For two years, I have been clicking pictures with my small handheld digital camera received as a gift. I would pose and re-pose my victims hoping one day that basic camera would record our memories with the glow and color of a professional

Last week President Obama gave the nation a briefing from the White House on the perils of speculation and the potential for abuse in oil futures trading contributing to the distortion of oil prices and in turn the high price for gasoline we are paying at the pump. Though short on specifics the president did call for increasing penalties, both civil and criminal, for market manipulation and significantly increasing the budget of the oversight agencies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) so as to “crack down on illegal activity and hold accountable those who manipulate the market for private gain at the expense of millions of working families.”
Promptly of course, as if on cue, from their headquarters in Chicago’s Loop, the prodigious exchange operator, the CME Group, the largest in the country comprising the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMerc-where oil futures contracts are traded), and the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (Comex), called the president’s plan “misplaced.”
Wall Street, in the mantle of a Citigroup head of commodities research, would immediately opine, according to CNBC’s dutifully entitled “Obama’s Plan Could Increase Price Swings” (4.20.12), quotes, “The attack on speculation is an attack on better functioning markets. If there were not liquidity in the futures market

Jack Nicholson, one of the great screen actors of all time, turned 75 this week and, in honor of that milestone, I wanted to publicly say:
Thank you, Jack Nicholson.
Thank you for being so perfect and unpredictable and bold as an actor.
Thank you for having taste in choosing scripts that so often led to memorable quality films.
Thanks for being one of the actors whose films defined the 1970s and 1980s. You were part of a coterie I think of as the post-Brando generation, an outstanding set of actors that included Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman.
What made you stand out was your wild-card quality. It was shared by Pacino, Hoffman and De Niro, all of whom could be quite funny early on, but who ultimately focused on more serious roles. But you, Jack, understood the value of comedy – and how to find serious material that injected comedy as both leavening and relief.
Hoffman, De Niro and Pacino conveyed an unmistakable ethnicity in their onscreen

Brace yourself for another round of ideologically-driven hysteria from wealthy right-wing power brokers, aided and abetted by the entrenched power elite which Bill Clinton and his kind of Democrat have come to represent.
They won’t call it “hysteria,” of course. They won’t even call it “ideology.” But they’re really peddling an ideologically-driven assault on two of government’s finest programs, Social Security and Medicare, in the form of a “Grand Bargain” which President Barack Obama has proven all too eager to embrace in the past.
Don’t fall for the hysteria or the

We’re so hard on ourselves. On the edge of a new project or chapter we start to think of all the reasons that we’re not qualified, all those the times we didn’t get it right in the past, and what’s at stake (and the stakes seem high).
The precipice of expressing your Creative Genius is precisely the place to blow some sunshine up your own hemline. Remind yourself on a cellular level that you have pulled stuff off before — and you will again. Anchor into positive proof.
Join My ’30 Days To Fire Up Your Creative Genius’ Challenge NOW!
Today’s Worksheet: Glory Boarding
What are your victories and accomplishments? Sing your

They say that you never forget your first time.
I teared up listening to the stunning new album “The McEuen Sessions – For All The Good” – a truly luminous effort that brings together John McEuen, “The String Wizard” who first made his good name with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and his two extremely gifted musician sons Jonathan and Nathan.
Part of the reason for my tears is sentimental – the first concert my own late father ever took me to was to see The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at Carnegie Hall when I was around ten years old. The opening act was a comedian named Steve Martin who blew my mind weeks before he became world famous. Yet it was seeing the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performing songs from classic albums like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy” that night changed my life forever – giving me a lifelong appreciation of country music and

Remember last week when Bethenny bowed her head to a heavenly marble figure outside a supply warehouse, embodied Satan when she realized she’ll be relinquishing all of Julie’s powers, and cried enough tears to fill her new giant closet? Wasn’t it just FAB?! Well, if we’re lucky (which according to the previews and the pre-aired clips the network so generously floods Twitter with), tonight won’t be any different. The opposite of a happy duo are headed to Cabo Wabo for some much-needed tequila shots (and lovin’), I’m sure. That’s right, a romantic vacation for the two of them orchestrated by the camera crew for our viewing pleasure. On we go …
“Can’t Get Enough of You” Bethenny
Arriving at the One & Only Palmilla Resort with Brynn in her arms, who adorably greets the bellboys with a cheerful “Hola!” No,

A recent New York Times article, “The Road Gets Rougher for Judyism’s Faithful,” asked whether Judy Garland is still a gay icon. On his SiriusXM radio program, HuffPost Gay Voices editor-at-large Michelangelo Signorile asked listeners to weigh in, eliciting a variety of opinions. Responses ranged from diehard “Judyists” expressing their undying love for the singer, to those who expressed respect for Judy but are admittedly out of touch with her influence due to generational shifts in icons. Most gay men had moved on to Madonna, and some even said Lady Gaga has taken over as gay icon du

The music may have been Motown, but the contestants seemed like they were still caught up in the heat from Latin week, as several couples were pushed to their sensual limits on tonight’s “Dancing With the Stars” (Mondays at 8 p.m. ET and Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC).
William Levy and partner Cheryl Burke ended up getting horizontal on the dance floor, while Katherine Jenkins wowed the judges with her newfound saucy spunk. However, Disney star Roson Fegan’s attempt at being sexy may have just cost him the