Society & Culture

We remember Quentin Crisp, who died last Sunday at the age of 90. Crisp became a cult figure after the publication of his autobiography, The Naked Civil Servant. He came out of the closet in his native London in 1931, when homosexuality was very clandestine. His flamboyant and exhibitionist style often made him the object of ridicule and violence. Crisp moved to New York at the age of 72. (Rebroadcast from 1/21/1986)

Pokemon (POH-kay-mahn) is the latest kid craze and worldwide phenomenon. It hails from Japan, and began as an Nintendo game, featuring the superpowered animals called Pokemons. There are 150 characters in all. After the game came the trading cards, comic book series, and weekly cartoon. Now there's the Pokemon movie. We meet the American translator of the Pokemon characters, Gerard Jones.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan weighs in on writer and feminist, Naomi Wolf.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the decade of the suffix "thon" as in walkathon, bowlathon. . .etc.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the dot com craze started by the Internet.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man" (Morrow) by Susan Faludi. It's a non-fiction account of the myths and betrayals American society has perpetrated on men. Faludi's first book was the highly acclaimed "Backlash."

The Kansas board of Education decided recently to leave evolution out if its required curriculum. Linguist Geoff Nunberg examines how the language of the controversy has changed over the century.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Tis" Frank McCourt's sequel to "Angela's Ashes."

Writer Philippe Wamba ("Phil-EEP WAM-bah"). He is the son of an African father and a African-American mother. His new book looks at the affinity between African-Americans and Africans, the things that divide them, and they myths they each hold about the other. It's called "Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America" (Dutton). Wamba has lived in both countries. His father, Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, is currently leader of the rebel faction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the puns in country music.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on slang.

Writer and flight attendant Elliott Neal Hester. He writes the bimonthly column "Out of the Blue" for the online magazine, Salon. He's also working on an upcoming book about flying the "not so friendly skies."

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reviews the new edition of the venerable grammer book "The Elements of Style."

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the staying power of new words that enter the lexicon.

Adventure writer Randy Wayne White. He wrote the "Out There" column for "Outside" magazine for many years. He's now a monthly columnist for "Men's Health" and is the author of the new book, "The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua: True tales of adventure, travel, and fishing." (The Lyons Press).

Film translator Henri Behar is one of the most sought-after subtitlers in the business. He's subtitled over 100 films, mostly from English to French, but also from French to English. He's subtitled films by Woody Allen, David Mamet, and Spike Lee. Recently he subtitled "Shakespeare in Love," and "Halloween 2." For over 10 years he's also served as moderator at the Cannes Festival press conferences. And he co-wrote the book "Hollywood on the Riviera: The Inside Story of the Cannes Film Festival." (William Morrow, 1992).

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on the history of combing two words to create a new one. i.e. Swirl and Twist = Twirl.This is called a portmanteau. Today, they are common place, such infotainment, Reganomics, and Medicare.

Stand-up comic Margaret Cho. Her new one-woman show "I'm The One That I Want" is about her foray into the TV sitcom, when she was the first Asian-American to star in her own TV show. The series, "All-american Girl" was short lived, and a nightmare for Cho.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the state of the English language.

James Farmer, one of the architects of the Civil Rights movement, died Friday at the age of 79. He was the last surviving major Civil Rights leader of his generation. Farmer co-founded CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, which was one of the first Civil Right's groups to apply Ghandi's principles of non-violent resistance. Terry spoke with James Farmer in 1985.