Fri, Sep 07 2007
GOODNIGHT, MADELEINE
Reunited with Meg and Charles Wallace at last? I hope so. "A Wrinkle In Time" was one of the seminal books of my youth, a story that made me question for the first time if perhaps time and space and thought are not the separate things I was being taught to believe they were...
Author Madeleine L'Engle dies at 88
HARTFORD, Conn., Associated Press - Author Madeleine L'Engle, whose novel "A Wrinkle in Time" has been enjoyed by generations of schoolchildren and adults since the 1960s, has died, her publicist said Friday. She was 88.
L'Engle died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield of natural causes, according to Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The Newbery Medal winner wrote more than 60 books, including fantasies, poetry and memoirs, often highlighting spiritual themes and her Christian faith.
Although L'Engle was often labeled a children's author, she disliked that classification. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, she said she did not write down to children.
"In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write.
"When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work."
"A Wrinkle in Time" — which L'Engle said was rejected repeatedly before it found a publisher in 1962 — won the American Library Association's 1963 Newbery Medal for best American children's book. Her "A Ring of Endless Light" was a Newbery Honor Book, or medal runner-up, in 1981.
In 2004, President Bush awarded her a National Humanities Medal.
"Wrinkle" tells the story of adolescent Meg Murry, her genius little brother Charles Wallace, and their battle against evil as they search across the universe for their missing father, a scientist.
L'Engle followed it up with further adventures of the Murry children, including "A Wind in the Door," 1973; "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," 1978, which won an American Book Award; and "Many Waters," 1986.Fri, Sep 07 2007
HOW DO YOU SPELL "CORRUPTION"? R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N
Uneven-Stevens
USA Today - Senate Republican leaders were relieved when Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, announced Saturday that he intended to resign this month after pleading guilty in a Minneapolis airport sex sting.
Oops, not so fast. Craig un-announced Wednesday, declaring that if he could undo the guilty plea, he just might stick around. That left a pained-looking Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, allowing that he thought Craig had made the right decision the first time.
No matter how this strange story ends — Craig's reversals have left him in an untenable position — it won't make the Senate's ethics problems go away. McConnell's unforgiving treatment of Craig has thrown a harsh light on his far looser treatment of other Republican senators.
Particularly troubling is the case of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who has been swept up in a major corruption investigation. Associates, including an Alaska businessman who oversaw the renovation of a home Stevens owns in Alaska, have been convicted or pleaded guilty. The FBI searched Stevens' home in July.
Stevens hasn't been charged and is, of course, entitled to a presumption of innocence. Even so, his senior position on the Senate Appropriations Committee means that he helps set the budget for the Justice Department, the FBI and the IRS — all of which are investigating him. Despite this obvious conflict of interest, Stevens has declined to step aside from his committee post, and McConnell won't push him.
Interestingly, if Stevens were a House member, the situation would probably be different. After a series of scandals there, leaders in both parties have gotten tough. When the home of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson was searched and $90,000 was found in his freezer, he was removed from his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Republicans Rick Renzi of Arizona and John Doolittle of California lost committee seats after searches of a home and an office.
In a case similar to Stevens', senior House Appropriations Committee member Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., has given up any funding authority over the Justice Department or related entities while he's under investigation for possible corruption.
Mollohan's move is the least Stevens should do. The House is setting a good example of how to deal with members under a cloud. The Senate simply doesn't get it.All news articles and images provided under the Fair Use Notice.