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12:22pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Ask Me Another

Compound Interest

Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 4:05 pm

Quick, what word goes before the following: man, model, market? If you guessed "super", you may be the exact kind of super-genius who will enjoy this next game, wherein our own John Chaneski challenges contestants to find the common link to create three compound words.

12:22pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Ask Me Another

Celebrity Cross-Breeds

Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 4:05 pm

Celebrities like to intermingle. This next game imagines some creative combinations of the rich and famous that make Brangelina look tame. For example, if you merged the singer of "Candle in the Wind" with the mobster nicknamed the "Dapper Don," you'd get Elton John Gotti. Saturday night's alright for fighting, indeed.

12:22pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Ask Me Another

Young Adult Fiction

Originally published on Fri February 1, 2013 12:03 pm

You may have a New York Times brain, but we know you've still got a Scholastic News heart. Ophira Eisenberg feeds some of your favorite childhood books through the Five-Dollar Word Machine for our contestants. Can you figure out the original titles without your thesaurus?

12:22pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Ask Me Another

We Will Rock You

Originally published on Fri February 1, 2013 12:03 pm

When your house musician has the guitar chops of Brian May and the fourteen-octave vocal range of Freddie Mercury, you can't pass up the opportunity to sneak "We Will Rock You" into the set. We've embedded clues about famous rocks (yes, rocks) in the iconic Queen song, and Jonathan Coulton takes the lead. Plus, a rendition of "We Are The Champions."

12:22pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Ask Me Another

Initial This

Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 4:05 pm

FWIW, you've probably spent a lot of time on AOL Instant Messenger, or were forced to decipher jargon from a family member who did. This next game is for you. John Chaneski conducts this Ask Me One More final round in which contestants must decode Internet shorthand FTW, from the common (BRB) to the obscure (IANAL).

12:04pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Television

Gabourey Sidibe, From 'Precious' To 'AfroPop'

Gabourey Sidibe burst onto the Hollywood scene in 2009 with her Oscar-nominated performance in Precious. Now she's hosting the new season of AfroPop, a documentary film series on public television. Sidibe talks to host Michel Martin about the series, her career, and the secret meaning of her name.

12:04pm

Thu January 31, 2013
Monkey See

Doing The Work: What '30 Rock' Meant For Women On Television

Credit Ali Goldstein / NBC

I have never considered Liz Lemon a feminist icon of any kind, nor have I ever considered 30 Rock especially strong when it comes to gender politics.

I don't care for the obsessive joke-making about how Liz is ugly/mannish/old/awkward, and I haven't always been comfortable with the way some of the "she's baby-crazy!" or "she's relationship-crazy!" comedy has played. I was ambivalent about the way the Jezebel parody and the "women aren't funny" storylines were executed.

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11:43am

Thu January 31, 2013
Television

Spacey And Fincher Make A 'House Of Cards'

Originally published on Thu January 31, 2013 12:18 pm

Credit Melinda Sue Gordon / Netflix

Ten months on the road playing Richard III in theaters around the world is a good way to prep for playing a ruthlessly ambitious politician and Washington insider — according to Kevin Spacey, at least.

Just before he took the role of Francis "Frank" Underwood, the fictional majority whip of the House of Representatives who hatches a plan to take down the president in the new Netflix original series House of Cards, Spacey spent nearly a year playing Shakespeare's murderously ambitious king.

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10:45am

Thu January 31, 2013
The Picture Show

Google Street View Takes A Hike. So?

A few months back, Google released a few of its engineers into the wild with a camera called the Google Trekker.

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7:03am

Thu January 31, 2013
Book Reviews

In Search Of A Father, Finding Herself

Nicole Georges grew up believing she became a half-orphan when her father died in his 30s, but when a palm reader suggested that her father — the one her mother had told her died of colon cancer — might still be alive, she began to look more closely at the whole of her unexamined life. This personal reconsideration is the heart of Calling Dr. Laura, an inventive graphic memoir that recounts this quest, as well as Nicole Georges' coming into her own as an artist and daughter.

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