Society & Culture

Linguist Geoff Nunberg has some gift suggestions for the language lovers on your gift list.

Tammy Schnitzer lives in Billings, Montana. She grew up there, as a Lutheran and married Brian Schnitzer, a Jew, and then converted to Judaism. They are the subject of a new PBS documentary "Not In Our Town," (December 17th, 10:30 p.m. EST) about how the community in 1993 rallied behind Schnitzer and her family when they were targets of hate crimes. The local newspaper printed full page menorahs and they were displayed in nearly 10,000 homes and businesses.

Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, Manning Marable. His new book is Beyond Black & White, (Verso). In the book he argues that race is "essentially a social construction, not a permanent fact of biology or genetics." He calls for a politics that goes beyond "racial-identity" where the goal is "a black face in a high place."

Felice Picano talks about losing 74 friends to AIDS. He recently came across a list with 75 people who attended his 40th birthday party in 1984. All but one....who is unaccounted for have died from AIDS.

Broadway singer John Raitt. He's the father of singer Bonnie Raitt. The two have collaborated on a new album of show tunes, "The Broadway Legend," (Angel). Raitt made his Broadway debut as Billy Bigelow in the original production of "Carousel." He also was in the original Broadway cast and film of "The Pajama Game." He's performed in many other musicals including "Oklahoma," and "South Pacific."

Maureen Corrigan reviews Women on Ice: Feminist Essays on the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle (published by Routledge).

American folk singer Rosalie Sorrels may not be wildly famous but since the 1960s she's developed a near cult like following. Her admirers describe Sorrels as someone who has lived the life she now sings about. In fact, she was immortalized in a song by Nanci Griffith describing Sorrels as "Salt of the earth.....with a voice like wine." .Her newest CD is "Borderline Heart" by Green Linnet Records Inc. The book "Way Out in Idaho" is a collection of her poems, songs and recipes.

An inside account of the world of high-fashion. Nina Blanchard is founder of Nina Blanchard Agency which is considered one of nation’s most prestigious modeling agencies. Blanchard herself discovered supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. She’s been called The Beauty Broker. She has written a novel based on the fashion world The Look, (Dutton 1995) Blanchard talks about what it takes to be a model, the pressures they’re under and why she herself finally had enough.

Journalist George Lardner, Jr. is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. In 1993 he had to investigate the murder of his own daughter, who was stalked and killed by an ex-boyfriend. Lardner won a Pulitzer Prize for his story which showed how the system had failed to protect his daughter, Kristin. His new book is The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of his Daughter. (Atlantic Monthly Press). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on what it means to rename something.

Stand-up comic Suzanne Westenhoefer. She recently appeared on the latest "Comic Relief" special on HBO (November 11).Westenhoefer. is a lesbian, and uses her humor to challenge the stereotypes about gays and lesbians. She also was the first lesbian to have a comedy special on HBO, "Nothing in My Closet but my Clothes." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Novelist Amy Tan. Her best-selling books include The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife. Her newest novel is The Hundred Secret Senses (Putnam's), about two half-sisters. One is Chinese-American, the other is Chinese, and has the ability to see ghosts.

Actress Mary Tyler Moore. She starred in the Emmy award television show "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and the film "Ordinary People." She is now starring in a new CBS series "New York News," a drama about life at a fictional New York newspaper, and has recently written her autobiography, "After All," (Putnam's Sons).

Steven Levy tells us why it's taken him to so long to use CD-ROMs and other multimedia.

Robert Carter is a clinical social worker with Project RAP (Reduce Abuse Program) part of the Family Service of Philadelphia. He counsels men who are abusive with their partners and family. Carter is also a group facilitator working with adolescent fathers, and he meets with pre-teen and teen groups in a prevention to violence program. (Family Service of Philadelphia, 215-875-3300).

Composer and jazz musician Ornette Coleman and his son, producer Denardo Coleman. They've just collaborated on a new album, "Ornette Coleman & Prime Time: Tone Dialing." It's on a new label that Coleman has founded: Harmolodic (a division of Verve Records). In 1959 Coleman he started the era of "free jazz." Since then Coleman has been one of jazz's most innovative and controversial composers. In 1994 Coleman was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship Award

South African playwright and actor Athol Fugard. For years Fugard fought apartheid on the stage in his plays including "My Children! My Children," "The Blood Knot," (in which he put a black actor alongside a white actor on the same stage) and "Sizwe Banzi is Dead." For his efforts Fugard's passport was revoked, and he was put under virtual house arrest from 1967-1971. His new play "Valley Song" is his first play in the post-apartheid Africa.

Co-founders of Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corp. James "Rocky" Robinson and Joe Perez. They began the corp in 1988, after watching people die because the Ambulances responded too slowly to calls. (There are 39 volunteer ambulance corps in New York City). They are the focus of a new "The American Promise" PBS documentary. (The program premiered October 1).

Geoffrey Canada is author of Fist Stick Knife Gun; A Personal History of Violence in America (Beacon Press 1995) It provides a look into the lives of children living in violence. Canada is President and CEO of Rheedlan Centers for Children and Families in New York. He helps at risk children in the inner-city to find alternatives to violence.

Terry Johnson is a local organizer for the Philadelphia contingent headed to Monday's Million Man March. Johnson plans to walk to Washington to help symbolize his determination for a positive change in U.S. race relations. He and others will follow the path once used by the Underground Railroad.