The Supreme Court took on the role of constitutional truth-seeker in an especially vigorous argument Wednesday, dealing with the harm from lies and the value of honor.
The stars were out Sunday night as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts bestowed its prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on actor and comedian Will Ferrell.
A life insurance broker told me that if I put my portfolio in a variable universal life insurance policy it would be a great investment and tax shelter. I was also shown an illustration that my money will grow at 10% a year. Do you believe that a stock market investment will grow at 10% in such a policy? -- Todd C.
The Apache chief Geronimo was still alive, as were the outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, not to mention the former slave Harriet Tubman, and the first nurse, Florence Nightingale, and the writers Mark Twain and Leo Tolstoy. Every one of them was drawing breath on October 14, 1908, and thus capable of seeing the Chicago Cubs win the World Series that afternoon, something they rather famously haven't done again in 103 years.
CNN's Ed Lavandera reports on how one Louisiana town is trying to fight off floodwaters from the swollen Mississippi.
I saw my first Mississippi River flood in Mark Twain's hometown in June of the year that Roy Rogers married Dale Evans and my St. Louis Cardinals finished second in the National League: 1947.
As quotable American figures go, it's hard to top the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mark Twain. So, in the wake of the historic raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, it's not surprising that both had quotes that were all over social media.
Whenever I stumble across a new travel columnist, I think one thing: "Who the hell are you?"
Just because icons like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison aren't alive today, doesn't mean their leadership lessons should be forgotten. And since history always repeats itself, there is some career advice that never seems to change.
The vapid, smiley-faced effrontery of it corrodes the foundations of respect for American literature.
A publisher has deleted the N-word from two Mark Twain classics. Right move, or unjust censorship?
Let's start this conversation from the beginning: Censorship is almost always wrong. As a scholar, I can't condone the suppression of ideas, and I am typically against it. Now that I've said what I am supposed to say, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
"Running dogs," "imperialist lackeys," "criminal gangs" and "brigandish moves" -- that sort of propaganda language died with the Cold War, except in the offices of the Korean Central News Agency.
Senators pushing for a repeal of the ban on openly gay troops serving in the military say they are encouraged by the progress toward a vote.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's memoir, "A Journey," is sparking all sorts of picketing and protesting around the U.K., so we thought it might be a good time to take a look at a few presidential memoirs from this side of the pond.
Vice President Joe Biden had a strong message for fellow Democrats on Friday: After Election Day, expect to keep a majority in Congress.
I couldn't do it, but I'm glad some parents could let their 16-year-old daughter get into a 40-foot sailboat and attempt to be the youngest person to sail around the world.
The 30 Rock star collects this year's Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Washington, D.C.
When news started to trickle out two weeks ago that a consortium of private equity firms were in talks to buy up a Fortune 500 provider of real estate and financial services called Fidelity National Information Services, chatter among financial types went right off the scale. At a proposed $15 billion, the offer, from Blackstone Group LP, Thomas H. Lee Partners and TPG Capital, would have been the largest leveraged buyout since the end of the great PE boom in 2007.
If life were filled with historical figures facing perilous situations along an endless, winding river, then Syfy's "Riverworld," premiering this Sunday, would certainly promise an action-packed trip.
The evening before they set off on their voyage across the Pacific on Saturday March 20, skipper Jo Royle and David de Rothschild spoke to CNN about their last minute preparations.
A boat made from 12,000 used plastic bottles leaves San Francisco on a voyage to Australia.
We have just heard this week about the allegations of bullying in the Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office in the UK, which hit all the headlines and raised the issue of "what is bullying and how do you deal with it?"
"Dewey Defeats Truman," "Kerry's Choice: Dem Picks Gephardt," and, now, "Looming Paterson Scandal Involves Affair with N.Y. Woman" -- if and when The New York Times reports it. Or not.
Tiger Woods: He may be the greatest golfer now -- or ever. According to tigerwoods.com, Woods "has had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 95 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour." This prowess made him one of the planet's most admired and wealthiest athletes. The Web site reports, "Tiger increased his record total on the PGA Tour career money list to $92,862,539, through 2009, and had won $111,433,044 worldwide."
Tiger Woods's agent says the golfer will make a statement Friday to discuss his past and future and plans to apologize.
An Irish atheist group has published a series of quotations on religion in an attempt to challenge a blasphemy law that went into effect on New Year's Day.
Dear Annie: I got a fantastic promotion when my boss retired a few months ago, and I love the job. Just one small fly in the ointment: One of my new duties is giving a year-end presentation to the executive committee and the board of directors. So far in my career I have managed to avoid doing much public speaking, but I can't get out of this, and although it embarrasses me to admit it, I suffer terribly from stage fright. Can you and your readers recommend any proven techniques for losing the jitters? -Quaking in My Shoes
Comedian Bill Cosby received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Monday after refusing to accept the award twice in the past.
CNNMoney: Is the dollar doomed?updated: Fri Jun 26 2009 12:25:00
Don't look now. But the dollar is starting to weaken again against the euro, pound and yen, leading some to wonder if its days as the world's No. 1 currency are numbered.
Jasper Warren is the second child for Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley
He's the second child for the country star and According to Jim actress
Question: Whatever happened to the supposed benefit of diversification? I diversified broadly - large- and small-cap index funds, foreign shares, corporate bonds, T-bills, even REITs and TIPs. But everything has gone down dramatically over the past year. Doesn't that kill the theory that diversification will moderate the impact of a downturn and help us grow faster with less risk in the long term? I think Peter Lynch had it right when he said most people would be better served by selecting five to seven individual stocks of major companies, instead of diversifying with funds. Patrick, Rochester Hills, Michigan
It's one of the first things you learn about stock investing: Diversification reduces your risk. U.S. blue chips, foreign stocks, small-caps, and real estate investment trusts may each have their risks, but they won't all go down at once ... right?
Technology improves our lives in so many ways -- from our toasters, ovens and refrigerators at home, to our computers, fax machines and BlackBerrys at work. Technology makes once burdensome tasks easy and fun.
If I had to guess, I would bet that at least once in years past, come January 1, you've resolved to lose weight, be more organized, spend less and save more, find a better job, or simply be a better person.
The hotel that will be home to President-elect Barack Obama and his family for the next couple of weeks offers one of Washington's best views of their future home, the White House, and a past linked with political movers and shakers.
The Obamas are coming to Washington early. Samantha Hayes reports on their hotel of choice.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
The great paddlewheel turned the Ohio River water to a froth as the Delta Queen steamboat, a floating National Historic Landmark, departed Cincinnati, Ohio, on its final scheduled voyage this week.
There's no doubt about it. The European media has given Sarah Palin a hard time.
The country star and According to Jim actress are due in April
Time.com: Roy Blount, Jr.updated: Fri Oct 10 2008 13:00:00
TIME talks to the American humorist about the most literary band in America, why he advises investing $20,000 in mass transit and what Sarah Palin might mean for the future of politics
Water rushes through a levee, sending floodwater into St. Charles, Missouri.
CNN's Reynolds Wolf reports from Grafton, Illinois, where the Mississippi River is still rising today.
The counterculture icon passed away from heart failure Sunday
George Carlin, the influential comedian whose routines used profanity, scatology and absurdity to point out the silliness and hypocrisy of human life, has died. He was 71.
The water is still well above the banks of the upper Mississippi River, but residents of both flooded towns and those protected by levees and sandbags can see an ending
An impoverished town in Illinois has had its flood insurance revoked by the Federal Government. Now the floods are coming. And don't even talk about earthquakes
Hal Holbrook has made his name playing famous historical figures. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a 1974 TV miniseries, accolades as "Deep Throat" in 1976's "All the President's Men," and a Tony as Mark Twain -- a performance he's been giving now for a half-century -- in "Mark Twain Tonight!"
The lights of Broadway will shine brightly again after stagehands and producers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday evening, ending a 19-day strike.
Five ways to take in the sea cliffs, pastures and rain-forested valleys of Kauai.
What to do when loved ones can't let go of the old you.
Kurt Vonnegut, whose absurdist visions and cynical outlook infused such books as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," has died. He was 84.
SI.com: Ass good as it getsupdated: Tue Apr 10 2007 16:58:00
LIFE is unfair, and then you die. Right? You'd think that after the well-documented torture I've put my body through that I would be a physical wreck. But I went tomy doctor for my annual physical and it turns out I'm a perfect specimen: cholesterol 161, pulse in the high 40s, blood pressure 126/74 before they lubed me up and made me yodel. Meanwhile as I write, Gary McCord, who has always kept himself slim, fit and mentally acute, and by comparison, a paragon of virtuous sobriety, is at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale with pericarditis, an inflammation of his heart and the sac around it, which has filled up with fluid. In other words, he has a dodgy strawberry. The irony of his having a sac full of fluid, and it being the wrong one, is not lost on him. Apparently, his sense of humor is alive and well.
"There are three kinds of numbers: lies, damned lies and statistics."
When it comes to colds, flu, stomach bugs, and ear infections, everyone has a theory. Some have been passed down through generations, or are based on outdated science. A few just seem like common sense. But whatever their origin, many just aren't true. The facts behind these myths:
I've traveled to close to half-a-dozen refugee and displaced people's camps across Africa -- from Sierra Leone to Uganda, Kenya to Congo -- in the year since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Let's face it: We all desperately wanted it to be true. We wanted the improbable to happen in the worst way. So when we heard a dozen miners were alive, we all ran with it. Practically skipped.
The lesson that equity can evaporate quickly is something Brooks and Judy Butler of Coral Springs, Fla., learned the hard way.
What a blast!updated: Fri Mar 11 2005 11:48:00
There's an old saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth puts its boots on.
Former President Bill Clinton's memoir, "My Life," will be published in June, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
Money Magazine: Off The Markupdated: Mon Dec 01 2003 00:01:00
Mark Twain made a lot of money in his 75 years from writing and lecture tours, but he also nearly bankrupted himself with a series of highly speculative investments. In a new biography, The Singula...
James Gipson, the veteran investor who runs the value-oriented Clipper fund, sums up his attitude toward shorting stocks--the risky practice of betting that a stock will decline rather than rise--w...
April may well be the cruelest month, but when it comes to fostering fear among investors, no page on the calendar can match the wasteland that is October. And with good reason: Five of the ten big...
People sometimes ask me, "What's your favorite road trip?" There's no singularly definitive American road trip, of course--it's too big a country for that--but there's a scenic byway that comes clo...
If you live with a teenager, you may think he or she is a little peculiar. (Strange. Inscrutable. Maddening. Pick your adjective.) But here's something even more so: federal unemployment statistics...
"When I first started writing histories of companies, I learned that business people were at least as much interested in how to avoid mistakes as in how to achieve success. It might be the human de...
Forgot to plan ahead for Valentine's Day? Well, don't worry--the Internet may just bail you out yet. But remember, Feb. 14 falls on a Sunday this year, making last-minute deliveries trickier.
When I go to New York City on business--for a few days in the spring, for a week in the fall--I don't stay in hotels anymore. I take advantage of the city's rich underground hospitality by renting ...
Hoo boy. Want to get hundreds of impassioned E-mail messages? Just bring up the subject of why some people think Generation Xers are so unmanageable. In the January 13 issue, I was foolhardy enough...
Fortune: EDITOR'S DESKupdated: Mon May 28 1990 00:01:00
TO BORROW from that famous remark about the weather that Mark Twain really didn't make, everybody complains about education -- but in this special issue of FORTUNE, we assume you can do something a...
If one of your grandmother's sterling silver forks gets mangled by the garbage disposal, don't despair. The following services can replace anything from a piece of silver to a Model T carburetor. C...
America's professors of literature do not understand capitalism, and they do not like what little they know about it. Some of their disdain is Marxist- inspired, but not much. After all, one has to...
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