NRU...mish mash with some silver linings

This is probably the most eclectic collection of news I have ever posted... but there are some true gems here, I hope you enjoy them.

I am trying to decide whether or not to pay $5 for the matinee or wait til redbox when it comes to the new OZ movie.  I enjoyed this piece, however, on the various theatrical versions of Baum's work.  When my first niece was a little, tiny one, we watched Biz of Boz (what she called it) incessantly.  Eventually she broke the tape and my brother came to the rescue with a fix of the video tape...

Google is clearly not for the people ... retiring the Reader because it isn't monetizing ... or better yet because they haven't figure out how to monetize it?  That's the world we live in ...

I have been meaning to try out this young man's restaurant ... just haven't made it over there, but I was happy to hear this conversation between his dad and him.

When you go mining for stories on NPR, sometimes you come up with gold ... and this is one.  It is so SoCal...in so many ways.  And a lovely remembrance of a neighbor.

Gloria Malone telling NY what they can do with their "educational" promotion about teen pregnancy.
I have been struggling with the LA Times lately ... as you might have noticed ... but then I got this gift, it reminds me why I love it and keep coming back ...the real stories of people in Los Angeles, I place I love as though it were my own.

It feels a little like we are tilting towards the resilience of people in this NRU, it is hard not to be moved by this story.  I hope and pray this man can hold on to the silver linings.

I read this piece with tears in my eyes... not only because this man is facing the last and most challenging battle, but because I wish I had had just one day with my brother to say goodbye.  Even just a moment...I was heartened to see the way in which he and his wife are finding ways to cherish this life and to say goodbye.  I wish him ease in these months of challenge and look forward to reading his book someday.

Having just passed the ten years since we invaded Iraq (unwarranted and after many millions protested around the world so that we would not), many reporters have been reviewing the war from many angles.  I hope that you have the time and the inclination to read about this man, Captain Pete Linnerooth.  I wish I could have spent some time with this man.  I would have loved to thank him for his service, including what he did after the war.  I would have also offered to hear and hold some of his grief and frustration.  I know it's a long story, but it is important not to look away however hard it is.  These soldiers have done all of this in our names whether we supported the war or not.

This is a lovely story about toll booth workers on the Golden Gate Bridge ... working their last hours and days before being replaced by machines.  I can only imagine all the things they've heard and seen throughout the years.  

Let me just say that if this is what young people think *dating* should be -- posing for pictures that will be posted for an anonymous critical horde -- then I am glad to be old.  I was already over internet dating, this one just pushed me further over the edge.

Finally, another look, from a different vantage point, on the issue of guns and the destruction they cause.  We cannot only care about cute blond six year olds that get mowed down with guns that should be in war theaters.  We have to care about all people whose lives are marred, taken and destroyed by gun violence.