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Author Interviews
3:27 pm
Sun October 21, 2012

A Reminder To Tolkien Fans Of Their First Love

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Credit Andrew Olsen / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Corey Olsen is an English professor at Washington College in Maryland. He is also the president and founder of the Mythgard Institute, an online teaching center for the study of Tolkien and other works.
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Originally published on Sun October 21, 2012 6:40 pm

Seventy-five years ago, J.R.R Tolkien wrote a book for his children called The Hobbit. It isn't just a landmark piece of fantasy literature; it's a movement — a work that's inspired everyone from director Peter Jackson to the band Led Zeppelin to Leonard Nimoy (who recorded his own homage to the book in the late 1960s — "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins").

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Music Interviews
1:48 pm
Sun October 21, 2012

Stephen Hough's 'French Album,' A 'Musical Dessert Trolley'

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Stephen Hough's newest release is the French Album.
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Originally published on Sun October 21, 2012 6:40 pm

As with food, as with fashion, as with film, there does seem to be a distinct French style when it comes to composition. The much-heralded English pianist Stephen Hough has been studying what makes a piece of music uniquely French. It's resulted in his latest collection: the French Album.

With works by Debussy, Faure, Poulenc and a number of lesser-known composers, Hough says he considers this new album "a sort of musical dessert trolley."

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The Two-Way
10:52 am
Sun October 21, 2012

Deadly Blast In Syrian Capital; Protests Swell In Lebanon

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At least 13 people are dead after a car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday. The attack comes as Syria's President Bashar al Assad gave no commitment for a ceasefire, blaming the violence in his country on outside interference.

Reporter Rasha Elass in Beirut shares details with our Newscast desk:

"The bomb exploded in front of a police station that overlooks a busy square in Bab Touma, which is a historic Christian quarter in Damascus. It is not yet clear who was responsible for the attack.

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Remembrances
9:08 am
Sun October 21, 2012

McGovern's Life Leaves More Than A Lost Presidency

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McGovern listens to a constituent in 1974.
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Sen. George McGovern introduces Sargent Shriver as his new vice presidential running mate to the Democratic National Committee in Washington in 1972.
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Originally published on Mon October 22, 2012 7:03 am

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Remembrances
7:06 am
Sun October 21, 2012

McGovern's Candidacy Inspired New Wave Of Voters

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Former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.C.) accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla.
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McGovern receives the Distinguished Flying Cross during World War II in 1944.
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President John F. Kennedy talks with McGovern, at the time a special presidential assistant and director of the Food for Peace program, at the White House in 1961.
Credit Henry Burroughs / AP
In the Senate, McGovern took on the issue of hunger in America. Here he discusses his recommendations for more vigorous efforts to use surplus food at a news conference in Washington in 1961.
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McGovern, the presidential candidate, stands with Sen.Thomas F. Eagleton, the vice presidential nominee, at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla.,1972.
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In the final hours of his campaign for the presidency, McGovern speaks at a rally in Long Beach, Calif., 1972. He lost the race to Richard Nixon in a landslide.
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McGovern (third from right) ran for president again in 1984. He conceded his race to Democratic nominee Walter Mondale (third from left). Here, moderator John Chancellor (left) stands with five of the candidates for the Democratic nomination prepare a debate.
Credit Mike Okoniewski / AP
McGovern, who lost his Senate seat in 1980, teaches American foreign policy at Cornell in 1990.
Credit Charles Dharapak / AP
Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark (right) is endorsed by McGovern during a pancake breakfast in Keene, N.H., 2004.
Credit Matt Sayles / AP
McGovern in Los Angeles, 2008.
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Former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.C.) accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla.
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By Charles Michael Ray

Former Sen. George McGovern, the liberal senator from conservative South Dakota, died on Sunday. He was 90 years old.

McGovern lost the 1972 presidential race to Richard Nixon by a landslide, carrying only Massachusetts. But his candidacy and opposition to the Vietnam War were embraced by a new generation of voters.

The defining moments in McGovern's life included not only winning the Democratic nomination for president in 1972, and not just the dismal loss to Nixon that followed, but also safely landing an airplane that the German army had tried to blow out of the sky.

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