Scott Simon

The X-ray Vision Of Mothers

Scott Simon — Sat, 11 May 2013 12:54:00 +0000

Mothers have eyes in the back of their heads. They may not show up on X-rays, but they're there.

Like a lot of youngsters, I used to get my mother to turn her head so I could search through her hair for the eyeballs she claimed to have back there, telling her, "No you don't! No you don't!" But when I'd scamper off to another part of the apartment and pick up an ashtray or fiddle with the window blinds, I'd hear my mother's voice ring out, "I can see you!

A 'Tough, Smart, Proud Town' Meets Terror With Determination

Scott Simon — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:52:00 +0000

People in Boston can speak for themselves. And do. Loudly, bluntly and often with humor that bites.

It's a city that speaks with both its own broad, homebrew, local accent — although no one really pahks thea cah in Havahd Yahd — and dialects from around the world. It is home to some of America's oldest founding families, and fathers, mothers and children who have just arrived from Jamaica, Ireland, Bangladesh and Ghana.

There are people in Boston who dress in pinstripes and tweeds, and tattoos and spiked hair.

At The Spelling Bee, Spelling Is No Longer Enough

Scott Simon — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:07:00 +0000

This week, the National Spelling Bee announced that spelling will no longer be enough.

Beginning this year, contestants in the early rounds will not only have to know how to spell, say, "flocculent," but also know whether it's:

A) an intestinal disorder among sheep
B) the stuffing inside a sofa pillow
C) a clump of wool

It's C, by the way.

Paige Kimble, executive director of the Spelling Bee, says the change was made to reinforce that the purpose of the whole national contest isn't just to produce a newsclip of brainy and endearing youngsters in bottl

Roger Ebert: Elegance and Empathy

Scott Simon — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 09:11:00 +0000

Roger Ebert was a critic, not a blowtorch. He could be sharp if he thought a movie insulted the audience, but had a champ's disdain for a cheap shot.

Many critics ridiculed the film Deep Throat when it came out in 1973. Who couldn't mock its absurdities?

Back From Extinction: Brooding Frog Or Thank you Note?

Scott Simon — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:13:00 +0000

The gastric brooding frog may be coming back. Does that give us a lot to brood about, too?

This week scientists at the University of New South Wales' Lazarus Project announced they have reproduced the genome — that bit of biological material that carries our genetic structure — of a gastric brooding frog.

The gastric brooder once lived in the rainforests of Queensland, Australia, and was declared extinct in 1983. It was not so named because it had the temperament of a Russell Crowe character, but because it gave birth through its mouth.

Power Of A Father's Love Overturns Longtime Beliefs

Scott Simon — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:28:00 +0000

When Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio on Friday became the latest conservative politician to announce his support for same-sex marriage, he disclosed that his son, Will, a junior at Yale University, had told him two years ago that he is gay; and that love and admiration for his son had moved the senator to reflect — and change.

When Mr. Portman was in the House of Representatives, he co-sponsored a 1996 law to prevent same-sex marriage.

"At the time, my position ... was rooted in my faith tradition," he wrote in Friday's Columbus Dispatch.

Snowquester Fizzles, But We're Humbled Anyway

Scott Simon — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:18:00 +0000

Snowquester fizzled.

Wednesday was more or less canceled this week in official Washington, D.C. An enormous winter storm bore down on the region, threatening ice, a foot of snow in the city (more in the suburbs), and wind and misery throughout the region.

Most of the federal government was closed. I know, I know. How could they tell? Local governments and schools, too.

Pianist Van Cliburn, Warmed Russian Hearts During Cold War

Scott Simon — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:11:00 +0000

Van Cliburn thawed out the Cold War.

He went to Moscow in 1958 for the first International Tchaikovsky Competition. When he sat down to play, Russians saw a tall, 23-year-old Texan, rail thin and tousle-haired, with great, gangly fingers that grew evocative and eloquent when he played the music of the true Russian masters — Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Borodin.

Cliburn died Wednesday at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 78.

"Van looked and played like some kind of angel," the Russian pianist Andrei Gavrilov told a Cliburn biographer.