Linda Holmes

These dogs, cats and robots have a few 'tiny confessions'

Linda Holmes — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:00:41 +0000

Let me tell you a quick story from NPR's move from our old headquarters to our new one.

When I was emptying out my old desk and workspace, in addition to all the shoes under my desk and an alarming number of vessels designed to keep coffee warm, I had quite a lot of books lying around. Some were upcoming books, most were old books, and a few were books I neither had any use for nor could bear to get rid of.

10 clues that the zombie outbreak announced on T.V. is not a hoax

Linda Holmes — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:52:21 +0000

As reported on Tuesday's Morning Edition, KRTV in Great Falls, Mont., was apparently the victim of hackers who broke in and broadcast a warning of attacking zombies. The station now says that it was a hoax, fortunately.

But in the future, how can a viewer at home identify a similar alert that really requires immediate action to avoid a very real zombie horde?

Oscar nominations: 'Lincoln' leads the pack, but where is Kathryn Bigelow?

Linda Holmes — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:08:27 +0000

It turns out that if you ask the Academy at large who are the best directors, you get a very different answer from the one you get if you ask the Directors Guild of America (DGA). The DGA nominations a couple of days ago went to Ben Affleck for Argo, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, Tom Hooper for Les Miserables, Ang Lee for Life Of Pi, and Steven Spielberg for Lincoln.

But when the Oscar nominations came out Thursday morning, of those five, only Lee and Spielberg made the cut.

The car-sized bow and other gift-giving lies pop culture told me

Linda Holmes — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:41:22 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfVev7TBo3E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmb-PK0xlVU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDhjpqIQS84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl-Lw_Qz8Rk

Top Ten Things I Am Not Going To Do During This 'Les Miserables' Screening

Linda Holmes — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:56:00 +0000

It's just about that time when members of the press begin to attend screenings of Les Miserables. I hereby vow to engage in none of the following conduct.

1. Throw crusts of bread at the screen and yell, "HEY, JEAN VALJEAN, ARE YOU HUNGRY?"

2. Do my imitation of Amanda Seyfried singing "There are so many questions and ah-nswers that somehow seem wrong," even though it's really funny and quite terrifying.

3. Refer to the short-haired Anne Hathaway as "Ruth Buzz-y."

Let's Rush To Judgment: 'World War Z'

Linda Holmes — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:51:38 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwTxRuq-uk

Does The Hallmark Channel Have Basic Cable's Most Efficiently Defined Brand?

Linda Holmes — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:03:26 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8raXyNwTNA

A day later, the space jump guy is OK, but how about the rest of us?

Linda Holmes — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:06:45 +0000

More than 7 million people were watching as Felix Baumgartner sat at the edge of his space capsule yesterday 24 miles off the ground and got ready to jump, in what was known as the "Red Bull Stratos" project, better known as the "space jump."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I

A Dull Night At The Emmys, But A Big One For 'Homeland' And 'Modern Family'

Linda Holmes — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:14:32 +0000

Let us say this first: As an actual determination of the utmost merit in television, the Emmy Awards are ridiculous and have been ridiculous for quite some time. Naming shows that the Emmys failed to take seriously is easy: The Wire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, most of the run of Friday Night Lights and so forth. If you look to the Emmys to actually anoint the best show or the best performance, you will bawl your eyes out over and over, and also, anyone who watches very much television will make fun of you as a rube and a dupe.

Nobody, Not Even Your Mom, Has Such Small Hands: 10 Other Products 'For Her'

Linda Holmes — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:15:14 +0000

Okay, so Bic has been taking a lot of flack for selling this pen "for her." (As it says on its web site, it is "a ball pen essentially for women," although that seems to invite a caveat, such as, "although there may be certain men to whom it appeals and we don't judge.")

It appears that the Bic For Her's "for her"-osity is primarily related to (1) being pink, and (2) being slightly narrower, to fit your itty bitty lady fingers.

Rovers are from Mars: How Curiosity is killing it on Twitter

Linda Holmes — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:41:59 +0000

Twitter wasn't built to give voice to Curiosity, the rover currently exploring Mars, but it's awfully well-suited for the purpose.

One of the risks of science experiments taking place on other planets, after all, is that people lose track of them. We forget they're up there. We know they're doing something, but we don't really remember day to day all the things that the engineers and scientists are trying to do with them, and when they come home, absent some major piece of news ("Our rover has discovered 8-track tapes on Mars!"), it almost seems like nothing happened.

The Id, The Ego And The Superhero: What Makes Batman Tick?

Linda Holmes — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:06:19 +0000

When you look at Batman with a coldly analytical eye — and he's hard to avoid these days, with The Dark Knight Rises set to come out Friday — a few things stand out as potential red flags: the secrecy, the lair, the attraction to danger, the blithe self-sacrifice, the ... cape.

It's unusual, all of it, you have to admit. Sure, he's handy to have around in an emergency, and you can't beat a fella who can be summoned with a giant light in the sky in the event you've got no cellphone reception.

But is he entirely ...

Explaining Muppet Theory: Are You An Ernie Or A Bert?

Linda Holmes — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:41:15 +0000

Most of the time, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick covers the Supreme Court. She's been doing that for the last 13 years. But recently, you may have seen her name floating around in connection with the piece she recently wrote that she discusses with Scott Simon on Saturday's Weekend Edition.

In short, Lithwick posited that the world can be separated into what she calls Chaos Muppets and Order Muppets. Ernie versus Bert. Cookie Monster versus Kermit. Gonzo versus Sam the Eagle.

Kristin Chenoweth On God, Comedy And Dolly Parton

Linda Holmes — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:25:58 +0000

Kristin Chenoweth talks to Jacki Lyden on today's Weekends on All Things Considered, and if the only thing you got from the interview was Chenoweth warbling a bit of the first solo she ever did in church, it would be well worth it.

The Emmy-winning actress stars on ABC's new GCB, a sort of Desperate-Housewives-ish dishy, soapy comedy-drama premiering Sunday night at 10.

'American Idol': It's Still Big, But It's Not Quite The Ratings Monster It Was

Linda Holmes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:08:08 +0000

It may not sound like much that American Idol came in second, by the tiniest of margins, among those viewers who happen to be 18-49 years old, for one half-hour of the three hours it ran on Wednesday and Thursday of its premiere week.