Arts and Entertainment

Anybody who has wended his or her way through the linguistic excellences and frequently petulant schemers in Shakespeares plays longs, at some point, to say to Lady Macbeth herself, Out, out, damned spot! After all, how much can anyone take of such a relentlessly scheming prod to the plot of Duncans uninvited demise and Macbeths unmotivated remorse. Perhaps Macbeths own murderously ambitious temperament can be traced to having to live with such a harridan. At any rat...

An unexpected manuscript showed up in our inbox. We were immediately convinced of its authenticity and decided we had to share it with you. It was accompanied by the following note: Hi, there. Hows life working out? Who am I? Thats for me to know and for you to guess. Let me just say that I witnessed the invention of everything. And I kept good meeting notes. "I wanted every planet to come with an instruction manual, but my suggestion was a nonstarter. I decided the ...

(Suggestion: Read The First Half of Part One First) What? Brush burns. What do you mean? What are we making the skin out of, vinyl? Youre right. Hey, I have it. What? We take an idea right off the top of their heads. Whats that? Hair. We put some hair down there, sort of like a cushion. Long hair like they have on their heads? That might complicate things. I have it. What if we make a special kind of short, fuzzy hair? F...

In a world caught up in effects, with scant attention being paid to causes, we find that France which has, in the understatement of the current issue, abstained from a full-throttle commitment to the war on terror has gotten its terrorist wakeup call. Al-Qaeda announced it had formed a union with Algerian insurgents who consider France their enemy. The deadly duo have agreed to work together against French and, you guessed it, American interests. Naturally, the terrori...

It appears, scandalously enough, to be the question Islamic terrorism foists on us. Of course, there are times when a chancy question can diplomatically be allowed to slip by unanswered, especially by a humor magazine. But there are also times when, instead of slipping by, it just keeps putting itself in your face. On such occasions, apparently, the only way to deal with it for ourselves and our readers is to address it. We became even more convinced of the necessity as we...

After decades of refusing to admit that Palestine has a legitimate right to exist, Israel inched toward possible approval of the idea it has opposed as part of its militantly anti-Palestine platform. Palestinians, who have by now grown used to the belief that they are the ones who get to decide which state has a right to exist, were bewildered by the surprise announcement. They also puzzled over whether it meant that they really ought to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. ...

In case you havent heard, there is a brash new movement afoot to make America a nonaligned nation. The principal motivation behind the movement is worldwide ingratitude for the sacrifices America has made for the benefit of other nations, while getting back precious little in return, materially or even in simple gratitude. Certainly, the group maintains, the payback in either form has hardly been commensurate with the sacrifices America has made in life and treasure. The ...