The Zen and the Damaged

Given: If there’s one question besides “Who should this character hook up with?” guaranteed to start a fervent, polarized, opinionated fandom discussion, it’s “What Hogwarts house should this character be in?”

By Willem Marx Source The studio lights come up, illuminating a stenciled graffiti panda behind the anchor chair, and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, bounds onto the stage. The onetime candidate for Egypt’s presidency seems to have buffed up and grown taller, while the eyes behind his familiar tortoiseshell [...]

Just recently got back from my first-ever Daily Show taping. Spoke to Jon. Very exciting. August 18, 2011: a day that will live in infamy, or at least in blog-entry.

By Helen Lewis-Hasteley Source I was on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme this morning to talk about satire with John Oliver of The Daily Show (the link is here – it’s about 2 hours 38 minutes in). We hopped around a few issues but one of the most interesting was whether big broadcasters such as [...]

By Nosheen Iqbal Source While the UK has to make do with 10 O’Clock Live, everyone from Israel to Iran has their own take on The Daily Show

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Amro Hassan Source Reporting from Cairo —— Bassem Youssef is barefoot, pacing around the dining room of his apartment in the tony Maadi neighborhood where he has assembled a crack team of twentysomething bloggers and activists.

by Ari Siletz Source I’m guessing VOA’s new Perisan news network director, Ramin Asgard, was among the crowd at Kambiz Hosseini’s Berkeley talk for the same reason I was:

On October 2, 2007, TCR flashed briefly into an alternate universe. The Wørd: Troops Out Now. The host: a pipe-smoking long-haired peacenik hippie version of the straightlaced conservative character we know and love.

An exchange with a psych major who was struck by this analysis, and emailed to ask about…well, you’ll see.

What follows is the result of a whole lot of reading on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rather than a full-fledged essay, it’s the raw material for one: excerpts of the most interesting and relevant material, with notes on how it applies to “Stephen”.