| Charisse: Hushing talk of race, gender
This just in: Barack Obama is black. The Constitution, as Justice John Marshall Harlan liked to say, is color-blind. But most people aren't. So I think the outrage over Geraldine Ferraro's comment that Obama wouldn't be where he was today if he were white is way overblown. OK, it was a dumb thing to say, but I don't think it was racist or that she deserved to lose her job with the Clinton campaign. As former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich put it, "Are we now going to say that nobody is allowed to notice that Sen. Clinton is female and nobody is allowed to notice that Sen. Obama is African American ... Are we not allowed to be honest?" It is honest to say that Obama's race has helped make him a media darling and that his candidacy has energized black voters.
A tribute to Federici at the Stone Pony
Friends, fellow musicians and fans congregated at the Stone Pony last night for an informal tribute to E Street Band member Danny Federici, a musician who played the organ and accordion with Bruce Springsteen for more than 40 years. They came to the Asbury Park club -- a cathedral of the Jersey Shore music scene -- to mourn his death, but also to celebrate his life and talent. Federici died Thursday after a three-year battle with skin cancer. An original member of the E Street Band, he was by Springsteen's side as they worked their way from clubs, university gyms and small theaters to play arenas and stadiums around the world. "He was the ultimate background musician," said Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez of Cream Ridge, who played with Federici in the late 1960s in bands that pre-dated their gig with Bruce Springsteen.
Bulgaria`s rescued bears still dance alone
Misho got up and danced for us the minute we peered through the electrified fence. We watched him swaying backwards and forwards, padding the bare ground with his paws, as he`d done a thousand times before. As long as we looked he performed. It was a mindless and pathetic soft-shoe shuffle, learnt through torture. Only as we dragged ourselves away, tears in our eyes, did this gigantic creature stop the world`s saddest dance. It will take Misho, the latest arrival at Dancing Bears Park, Bulgaria`s brown bear sanctuary, months to throw off a lifetime`s cruel conditioning. Even then, he`ll never be quite normal, explained Petar, our guide. Last July this 19-year-old dancing bear joined 24 others at the park near Belitsa, deep in the Pirin Mountains, making him the last to be rescued from the humiliation of performing before paying audiences.
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