The Deep Roots Yuletide Baedeker 2023

No Down Payment (1957)

In 1957 director MARTIN RITT shattered the facade of bucolic suburban life in post-war America in his lost classic, NO DOWN PAYMENT. TONY RANDALL, JOANNE WOODWARD and PAT HINGLE lead an excellent cast. Plus two obscure Popeye-r...

by David McGee

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‘You’ll Go Down In History’—And How

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen… But do you know the real-life tragedy that spurred Robert May to write a poem for his four-year-old daughter that became a cultural and multimedia phenomenon? Rudolph takes fl...

by David McGee

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Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

With more than one million views at present, this video of CARL SAGAN's eloquent, poetic meditation on 'the only home we've ever known' is even more timely and important than it was when published in 1994. To say it speaks for ...

by David McGee

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Hark the What? Ironies of a Beloved Carol

REV. MARK D. ROBERTS knows 'If you don’t want to tick people off, then don’t change the words of the hymns and carols.' As he explains, 'HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING' is a perfect example of this maxim.

by David McGee

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I Smell a Rat, A Rat Smells Danger

APOPO, a Tanzania-based non-profit organization, is having great success training African giant-pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. You read that right. Join Duncan Strauss for the scoop.

by David McGee

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Surf in Verse

SURF IN VERSE: Our annual feature marking summer's arrival. This month we spotlight, exclusively, the poetry of BRYAN KNOWLES, who has posted a wealth of his original poetry at the website Surf Poetry.com. Also: some choice SUR...

by David McGee

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Bound Together in the Spirit of Cultural Exchange

On DUSTY ROAD, KLEZMER-ISH explores music of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds who left their homelands in search of a different and better life.

by David McGee

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