Bowing To Pressure, McDonald’s Makes Happy Meals More Healthful

The Happy Meal is headed for a nutrition overhaul. Bowing to pressure that its kids’ meals haven’t been healthful enough, McDonald’s will downsize french fries and put a fresh fruit or veggie in every Happy Meal. Apple slices have long been an option with the Happy Meal. But the problem has been that parents have [...]

3-D And Headaches: Why ‘Avatar’ Made Me Sick

The 2009 movie Avatar may have been box office magic, but for me, it was a 3-D exercise in movie theater misery. I felt so nauseated through most of the 162-minute-long running time that I failed to appreciate the vaunted visuals other viewers praised. I’m hardly alone. Reports of people suffering headaches, dizziness, eye fatigue [...]

Donald Ray Pollock On Finding Fiction Late In Life

Knockemstiff, Ohio is a tiny hamlet in southern Ohio. In the 1950s, Knockemstiff had three stores, a bar and a population of about 450 people. Most of those people, says fiction writer Donald Ray Pollock, were “connected by blood through one godforsaken calamity or another.” “When I was a kid, it was claustrophobic for me,” [...]

Kristin Scott Thomas: ‘Sarah’s Key’ To A Dark Past

In 1942, the French police rounded up thousands of Jews in a Nazi-approved raid called the Vel d’Hiv Raid. The Jews were taken to an indoor cycling arena, where they were held for a week without access to food or toilets, before they were eventually shipped to death camps. The police who conducted the raid [...]

‘Werewolf’ Simmers With Hot, And Hairy, Love

For Jake Marlowe, the last werewolf on Earth in this rollicking novel by Glen Duncan, the difference between werewolves and vampires is simple: “The vampire gets immortality, immense physical strength, hypnotic ability, the power of flight, psychic grandeur and emotional depth. The werewolf gets dyslexia and a permanent erection.” It’s true that werewolves often pale [...]

Five Stories To Watch As The TV Networks Roll Out Fall Shows For Critics

It’s that time again: I’m headed to Los Angeles for the Television Critics Association press tour. (You may hear it referenced as “TCA” by those you follow who write about television.) This is the time when critics gather for panel discussions and Q&As with everybody from big broadcast networks to cable outlets you might not [...]

Housing May Be Bottoming Out

The housing market still isn’t getting better. But two key reports out today suggest it has stopped getting worse, at least for now. 1. Home prices rose a bit between April and May, according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers. Note the little uptick on the right side of the graph: Major caveat: The rise was [...]

Bad Economy May Be Leading To Less Surgery

HCA Holdings, the biggest for-profit hospital chain in the U.S., reported lower earnings than expected Monday. And one of the reasons might surprise you: some people appear to be forgoing surgery, in part, because of hard economic times. When the company looked at surgical admissions hospital by hospital, it found they declined 1.6 percent in [...]

Norway Questions Its Tolerance Of Extremism

As Norway struggles to comprehend last week’s brutal twin attacks, Norwegians are starting to question whether their open and free society has been too lax in tolerating extremist views. Hours before the bombing in central Oslo and a shooting rampage that killed at least 76 people, self-described perpetrator Anders Behring Breivik reportedly posted a video [...]

Obama, Boehner Try To Win On TV What Has Eluded Them At The Table

President Obama played one of the last cards left to him Monday evening in the debt-ceiling fight — a prime-time speech from the White House East Room to the American people, the bulliest of all bully pulpits. A little more than a week before the federal government could default for the first time ever on [...]