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I'm Calen Crossley and this is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're hitting the rewind button on this week's news from the great lady's front pages to the stories on the small screen and the reporting that never reached our radar. We're going to look at the news that was and wasn't. We'll be dropping in on community and alternative presses for a look at the big stories from the small papers where today's neighborhood news becomes tomorrow's mainstream headlines. We'll top off the hour going tring from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with ragtime. A tour of the tabloids and a round up of this week's pop culture. Up next on the Calla Crossley Show from gumshoe reporting to gossip rags. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying President Obama is

wasting no time in signing the eight hundred fifty eight billion dollar tax cut bill. As NPR's Scott Horsley tells us the president will sign the measure into law this afternoon. Less than 24 hours after it passed the House. President Obama says the bill is not perfect and includes something for everyone to dislike. But House Democrats and Republicans backed the measure in nearly equal numbers last night clearing the way for a two year extension of the Bush era tax cuts for everyone. The measure also provides extra jobless benefits for the long term unemployed and a new cut in payroll taxes that workers contribute to Social Security. Mr. Obama says it's the best deal he could strike with Senate Republicans. It prevents a tax increase that otherwise would have taken effect on January 1st. Scott Horsley NPR News the White House. The economy's pace appears to be picking up last month the Conference Board's measure of leading economic indicators rose more than 1 percent an increase not seen since March. PNC Financial Stuart Hoffman the unemployment rate is painfully high don't remain high.

I think that there will be more people going to work when we get big increases than the leading index like we had it. November that is a positive side supporting a better job market that continued debt crisis concerns in Europe European Union leaders announce their new US plan for convincing investors that eurozone nations are stable. Moody's credit agency though downgraded Ireland which has already been bailed out. Teri Schultz details the EU's new permanent crisis mechanism and with the E.U. hopes it will do. The whole concept of bailing out a fellow Eurozone member was hugely controversial when it was reluctantly agreed upon for Greece earlier this year and then Ireland and now it looks like Spain and Portugal might be candidates to accepting the economic plight will not be short lived. EU leaders have now created a permanent rescue fund designed to end market uncertainty about Euro Zone solvency. Germany's Angela Merkel resisted expanding the bailout option and has been accused of creating doubt about EU solidarity. But now through an

interpreter she had a change of tone after the summit decisions. Here we are at night it. We are united thoughts of fortune for us a will for Destiny. Britain which doesn't use the common currency insisted on getting an exclusion from paying for any eurozone bailout. For NPR News I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels. Meanwhile EU's foreign policy chief warrant today that the Bloc was losing influence in the United States. Catherine Ashton issued her first report to EU leaders today and it sided us increasingly seeking partnerships in other parts of the world to further its foreign policy objectives. At last check on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1000 points at eleven thousand four hundred eighty with the Nasdaq gaining nine it's a twenty six forty six. This is NPR News. Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show. Today we're hitting the rewind button on the week's news. Joining me to talk through some of the local stories that might have escaped our attention

are Richard Lodge editor in chief of the Metro West Daily News. Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. And Sue O'Connell co publisher of big windows and the South in news welcome all like okay great to be here. So this might not have escaped our attention but we got to start with it. Senator Scott Brown a story you've been covering for quite some time has come out and said that he will support a stand alone stand alone repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Yeah it's a great moment for the Scott Brown world ahead poor gay lesbian been in Massachusetts Scott Brown who had earlier indicated that he was going to support a repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell he was waiting to see the report which came back and said we should. Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. And then there was some concern about how we would vote about moving the bill forward. You know there's a lot of inside baseball happening now at the last days in the Senate but the short of it is he's

voted correctly if you will for it to be a civil right. Moving forward on each step of the bill and now we're hoping that by Saturday night or Sunday it will be a vote to move it even further which would would end it for this session and put it on the table for both with the new the new Congress in 2011. But you know this is you know this is props go where props are due and Senator Brown is not adhering to the party lockstep on the Republican side he's with Senator Snowe from Maine and the senator from Alaska whose name I can spell but can't say. And see he's doing what we hope is the right thing he still won't call me back. But if he can. Because of the way I don't you know that I think you know that. OK Peter what do you think about this. I'm pleasantly surprised. I honestly thought that he would find a way the waffle and I have to give him

terrific credit for doing the right thing. As with Susan Collins Actually they have been some surprises for example Joe Lieberman who was a very conservative Democrat technically he's an independent I realize Lieberman has been fighting for this and was conspiring with Senator Collins to try to take some last minute steps. If if the mood hadn't changed. So more power to Scott Brown frankly I think this makes him it it underlines his claim to be a non partisan Republican and frankly I think it strengthens his re-election chances. It was an important vote as well because it keeps it from being the anti repeal people for being able able to filibuster. So it's not just you know isn't it great he's doing the right thing it was a crucial vote in a crucial number total for the repeal to move forward.

OK Richard but we know that the next Congress coming in is very different from this one. Even with this support can it pass. I think it can and just to just a word about Scott Brown I think he does deserve some credit but he's also become very very good at keeping his cards hidden and he's long talked about his long service in the National Guard. I think he's going on 30 years now so he's extremely familiar with the military. Surely he could have had his own opinion formed on this issue a long long time ago. I suspect he did. He held out all eyes are on Scott Brown these days and they have been since he was elected and I think the way he plays issues like this I don't mean he's playing it but he holds off on it. Coming forward saying where he stands how to vote or whether he'll support something. It's an important tactic that you'll see him using because people will keep looking to him. How is Scott Brown going to come on this.

Peter you want to add something. I was just going to say you know I mean that's a that's a point that I think those of us in the press unofficial referees of public life pay a lot of attention to but I think for the voter the average voter all that matters is the black and white yes or no and that's why I think this is so powerful. Well I just want to add this that I think that it's such a win win for him. I'm with Richard's page on this because I thought about it in this way earlier in the day before he changed his mind I heard him on W.T. K.K. talking about I'm not voting for this bill because it's loaded down with all of these other things. If it were a stand alone maybe but I'm not doing it so he's OK with it. So you think he can he could stand on that and people would feel pretty good about his position because it was clear. And then now it's a stand alone so he says he'll go forward with it. But as I said it's a whole different world with that new Congress coming in. So either way he doesn't lose. I said I would stand up for it if it's standalone if it goes down in January. He can say hey look at it I did my part and I was for it.

Pretty smart guy. Have to say either way it goes Yeah all right. Moving over to you in Phoenix Peter Katz says I'm really was taken with this piece about the last defendant marijuana different. What do you call it the last leader weed crim of all lost we defend. Yeah yeah fellow by the name of John Rocket who I had the misfortune of being arrested like a hundred days before the the decriminalisation here in Massachusetts and you know he's still facing hard time now. You know John rocket is not a poster boy for marijuana decriminalization. In fact he's not a poster boy for much as he himself would say I mean he's a classic hard luck story. As a young man his dad lost his job the family ended up homeless. He's wrestled with alcoholism and has as Phoenix writer Christopher Rose said the rap sheet of

alcohol and substance abuse related charges that's literally about six feet long. Why what he is accused of is no longer a crime. And you have to ask yourself if the Suffolk County district attorney who has dismissed about 400 cases like this can do it. Why isn't the Bristol County district attorney waking up and smelling the smoke if you will in dismissing this woman. I think because it's become sort of a guy thing you know well they don't like his looks. Figuratively speaking he's got a long rap sheet. You know they're going to prosecute them to that. It's a waste of taxpayers dollars. Thank you. Oh yes. I was just apoplectic figuring up I mean again to stress this guy John Rocker he doesn't claim to. He's just a poor soul who was

trying to save his life right. His life has been a mess. It's just an unbelievable two things I want to put out here for our listeners he's been fighting this for almost years. He's been back and forth in and out of court. He seems to have maybe lost his job as a truck driver because they found less than an ounce less than one ounce of marijuana. And if they if he is convicted he could serve up to six months in prison so this is not a small thing in terms of impact on his his life Richard. Yeah and in fact according to the Phoenix story the prosecutors offered him a deal I think 90 days and he turned it down. It seems like the guy was getting his life back together he'd cording to the story he had stopped drinking. He was headed down to do a little bit of gambling in Rhode Island and that's when he got stopped. But he's clearly tied up with us now. I can't imagine the assistant D.A. and Sam Sanders office is just I just can't believe this is being taken so seriously and there's dish gotta be something there like Peter

says somebody is just either out to get this guy or they feel that he has such a long rap sheet that hey why not he deserves time in jail and yet he turned down a deal because he he wants to get a job he wants to stay out of jail he apparently is still trying to get his life back together but this is hovering over him. So just to be clear the crimes that and the other situations he's been in as we've alluded to bad times are petty kinds of crimes so that should be clear it's no not a big thing. But let me take the devil's advocate position and maybe the law enforcement position and say OK so somebody committed a different kind of crime. One hundred twenty days before the law changed Do we ignore that I mean a crime is a crime. And in this case less than a half less than an ounce Yes it was but it was a crime at that time. So what do you say. Yeah well I mean yes but it's marijuana. I mean this is then the the the the drug that is proving to be less harmful than alcohol and less harmful than tobacco in many cases. So it's it's not just like you know any

crime you Plus this guy is everybody's brother in law you know. Sorry Harry if you have somebody like this guy in our family and from the story in the Phoenix that looks like it was really you know get the feet on the ground he had a job. He was sober and then I just can't understand what benefit comes from putting somebody through this at taxpayer expense when it's been decriminalized. I mean it is beyond you know I think maybe because he didn't take that there were no i gotta give him now. And listen it's not that every prosecutor was mean now so be but too many prosecutors whether the affair have federal or state. I think they are God. It goes to their head. They have no sense of proportion. And this is another case of that. Well I have to say this is the most under the radar radar story I've seen in a while. John Rock at the last weed defendant lots of people should know his case and maybe if more people did

he might have a little support in his fighting of this as he goes along. Now speaking of under the radar Richard I love these kinds of stories. Richard Lodge from the Metro West Daily News and if we will start it and we'll probably have to finish on the other side of the break. But a teacher was interested in looking at the gingerbread man that we all know the gingerbread man. Catch Me If You Can. What else is there to say you figure you're Frost him he runs that's the end of it. Turns out there is more to this story. Yeah it's ladies teacher Jennifer Kane as a first grade teacher at the center school in Hopkinton and she was going to make gingerbread cookies with the kids and obviously as a first grade teacher she wants to use this as a teaching tool. A little reading writing mystery thinking things through and she worked with a librarian and found out that the Gingerbread Man story goes back to 1875 but that all sorts of cultures around the world actually and in the United States have written their own stories. There's the sourdough man she found out and the runaway tortilla and Cajun

cornbread boy so you know depending on where you are where you grew up you could have your own gingerbread kind of story. So she told her kids about that. They learned a lot about other cultures other parts of the country. And then they they had a gingerbread I think they call the Mister ginge and she hid it in different places in the school and then on weekends the gingerbread man would be taken to one of the stores in Hopkinton and the kids had to follow clues and try to piece together where would they find Mr. Ginn. And again for first graders It was a great mystery it got him out of the building you know had him talking with her parents about this and working in teams to try to solve the mystery and I think they probably had a lot of fun and learned something in the process and didn't even realize it. Well Richard I have to say for second graders like myself I learned a lot from this story. I just think this is fantastic. This is what we talk about we talk about great teachers and they're doing this everywhere not just there but I love this Peter what do you think.

Well I'll tell you what it reminded me of Christmas Eve when I was a little boy. I think it was WGBH in those days. No it had to be different station broadcast. Peter on the wolf and would be listening that my mother and grandmother would be making cookies and they would be telling us stories most of which they made up about this cookie you know who invented this is a little this is a little more pointed than scientific but it really brought back sort of a warm and wonderful feeling. And I'll tell you I went to the Boston Public School Yarborough we have one of my kids is in the fourth grade and was amazed they have this United Nations group of kids singing Hanukkah songs in Spanish. That's what it's all about right. Well yeah I mean what I love most about all I mean this is I'm sure our human wide experience is that we think that you know the story we know and the way that we celebrate Christmas and

the way it always was you know and I just you know we're we're reading. Christmas Carol and watching at my house all this week my daughter is home sick so I'm completely up to date on every version of it and you know we don't really celebrate Christmas this way in the western world until trial taken you know before it was a drunken holiday where you know bands of people went from door to door to the rich demanding money you know and it wasn't until the introduction of Saint Nick and then Santa Claus and then Charles Dickens that it became this family holiday and I just I just love the history of the book. Well my favorite is the Cajun cornbread boy because I don't know what I'm saying now. Thanks for that. We are talking between the headlines with Richard Lodge Peter Katz's and Sunil Cano. I'm Kalee Crossley. We'll be back after this break. Stay with us. Support for WGBH comes from you and from safety insurance. Working

with independent agents in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to provide coverage for homes autos and business. And supporting the world weekdays at 3:00 and 6:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. And from Elsa Dorfman Cambridge portrait photographer still clicking with the jumbo format Polaroid 20 by 24 analog camera and original Polaroid film online at Elsa Dorfman dot com. That's Elsa Dorfman dot com. And from its moving. A move management company specializing in the planning orchestrating and execution of moves for senior citizens downsizing from large homes to smaller spaces. More info at. It's your move ink dot com. When the film Winter's Bone was released earlier this year film critic David Edelstein described it as miraculous. It's now out on DVD on the next FRESH AIR we hear from the director Debra Granik and the author of the novel it's based on Daniel Woodrell joining us this afternoon at two point seven. Right now an eighty nine point seven we're not interrupting any of your favorite programs with

this whether you get five ten twenty a hundred instead we're playing more of this. From NPR News this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Thanks to WGBH sustainers listeners who make ongoing contributions of 5 8 or 9 dollars a month WGBH can spend less time fundraising and more time reporting help. Eighty nine point seven reduced pledge by becoming a Right now securely online at WGBH dot org. People that I can treat the world decision for anyone to make. Coming up at 3 o'clock on eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston NPR station for news and culture. I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Cali Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're hitting the rewind button and looking at the local news that went under the radar this week. Joining me to talk between the headlines are Richard Lodge of the Metro West Daily News. Peter Katz of the Boston Phoenix. And Sue O'Connell of bay windows and the South in news and sue want to begin with

you have some kind of a bitter story. Sweet story about the Blackstone school shooting principal Stephen dreich. For our listeners just to remind them Blackstone is one of the turnaround schools and Stevens Reich was appointment as principal there was heralded with all kinds of fanfare and you know well deserved he's a great guy. So this was a meeting of the parents trying to regroup after his announcement that he's leaving. You know what you know I made this appointment. You know it's big. It's one of those moments when you get private. It isn't who's doing a job and at the same time he's a public servant and we had just piled so many hopes on him on being able to turn the black stone around in so many positive reports on his work and what was happening. And last week officers got a call that that he had resigned and the editor texted me and my text back was oh no you know that we had also invested so much in him. But off he goes and he's being

everyone hopes that he's done the kind of job that you need to do to have a replacement you know or have your staff ready to work without you. And in this this environment in this atmosphere where these schools are being closed and schools are being combined it's just another hurdle for the parents at the Blackstone and there was a meeting at the school I think on Tuesday night and just trying to find a way to keep the momentum going to keep people invested in the change and remembering that he was the principal but there are also teachers and all sorts of folks there. And of course lots of folks trying to play it as sort of a bump in the road rather than a major sidelining for the blacks. But you know I think I speak for the the folks who were trying because we're very invested in the success as well. Yeah you raise a lot of stories about black school. Yeah I mean it's just been you know we're hoping that it will be the model or at the least the success of the best the model for the rest of the public schools. And we're just hoping that.

It is a bump in the road and the school and the parents will be able to overcome the loss of what everyone heralded and believed in was a great principle. How do you view this in light of all the school closings in there and the very emotional place that a lot of people are right now. PETER Well it it to me again speaking is not just a news person. The father of three kids in the public schools. I think it shows how fragile the progress that has been made actually is. I think the Boston schools have really even though the progress has been incremental Leon's have been stacked so high against them that the incremental progress is not to be discounted. And I I I wish I hope that it's that there was a stronger psychology in the system in the parents you know that we all had

more confidence in where we were at. This isn't a criticism this is just sort of an off the cuff. And as for the school closings I think they are very tough but the financial problems the city is facing is so great that if if these tough steps are not taken this year they are going to be even deeper cuts in the next year. And I think it that's why when the single person who was so demonstrably strong leaves it so tough. I mean we have decentralised some many of the schools and given so many principals much more power that power the influence that it's tough there's no easy answer to this sort of thing. Richard Yeah I think Peter it's interesting that this gentleman had such a. Leadership influence at the school. From what I've read and I would think that hopefully there's somebody waiting in the wings who would be a good replacement. You might be able to answer that soon but I would also think people looking

at this school and the challenges it's faced and the progress it's made would also be looking at Steve shrike and where he's going. He wouldn't have been hired in that position in Chicago unless he had really made a very very good impression. And he's going let me just say as the assistant superintendent in the Chicago school system overseeing 25 schools and 900000 students which is a mess. And yet in the pre-interview process of course you know we're all we're all geniuses when someone we hire leave very soon like you said he wasn't sure you wanted to be a principal again. So you know it was sort of all there for us to see if we had if we had to. Do I have to say he was all in when I talked to him. I mean yeah you know. So I continue Richard I'm sorry I interrupted you. Well I think that he has anybody looking at the position would be looking at the school and what challenges that face is there looking at where he went and thinking Well we've you know maybe that is a place to to to make an impression and to step into some big shoes but certainly not shoes that have been there for decades.

You know it's sometimes it's harder to come into a school replacing somebody who has just been there so long and made the standards their own standards and everybody is sort of set in the ways I would think that this is a place where they're looking for somebody who is an innovator and a leader and hopefully they can somebody else step forward. Well that's a good point. Yeah I mean it's been interesting. School superintendent Carol Johnson in talking to parents who have been upset about changes in the school has been very candid in his talked about. She said Look I realize you know the school becomes like your home the teachers become like family members and. It does become very basic when very emotional and I think Boston school superintendent has has really tried to reassure people that everyone understands this. People should understand too that that's Carol Johnson who brought these people into Boston. And I think for once we have a

superintendent and not just for once the last three have been very good but there is presently the people currently running the Boston school system may not be perfect but their heads are screwed on right. Even more important in that their hearts are in the right place. Well it should be noted that because the school was designated this is Blackstone elementary school as a turnaround school. He was charged first thing with you know getting rid of all of the teachers and then rehiring so he's hired 85 percent of the teachers who were on board and they had already put into place several changes including before and after school programs. He tightened up some attendance policies there adding some home visits. And they're staging interventions for underperforming students so in terms of reform they were they're on a path and they have a plan. So to Richard's point somebody could pick up those reins and keep going and he hasn't been there long enough to be interested so that's a bittersweet sweet story. As I said But you know changes happen.

Speaking of. Changing change is happening. A couple interesting things first Richard your your paper has a interesting piece about a guy who was arrested picked up for running a meth lab by having meth lab materials and a handgun on his property and he said he described himself as a member of Hell's Angels which some people in our listener ship will understand as a notorious motorcycle gang. But then but then tell us about what your paper value. Oh this is a gentleman named Jason Cavuto he's a 35 year old man lives in Marlboro and he was actually arrested a couple of months ago and charged with possession of a loaded handgun in his car. He was bailed on that charge and is awaiting trial. But just this week police pretty heavily armed police went to his house in Marlboro and. Acting on a tip I believe and they raided it and they found a materials for a methamphetamine lab in a shack on his property.

Anyway they also found another loaded handgun in his house. It's actually the tough guy would think well you know you know that it's a little self protection I don't know but. So the assistant district attorney in the case and the Mabo police have labeled him the Hell's Angels motorcycle club member which you know isn't just a label drawn out of the air I think it's the assistant D.A. points out that could imply he's a pretty dangerous character. Certainly she at this early stage is trying to paint a picture of him as somebody that they're going to prosecute and take very seriously. So short long story short. After his first arrest when he was called a Hells Angels member we actually got an e-mail from a gentleman in Worcester who said Jason Cavuto is not now and never has been a member of the Hell's Angels and if you continue to call him this and your paper we may have to get a lawyer to call you. Well I get you know I get calls like that now and then if you put my name in a paper you know you hear from my lawyer. But this is the police and the

prosecutor calling Mr Kudo a Hells Angels member and then a guy who purports to be part of the Hells Angels in Worcester is telling us the guy's not in the club and that he's damaging the reputation and he's going to get a lawyer which is not the image one has of Hell's Angels let's just say it. Well that's it for this is I mean really this is just so. OK so that's this is the 21st century Hell's Angels that's the only thing I can figure. Well we'll have to let them fight that out. I just think that was kind of an interesting twist on that story to end on that well I know everybody. Defend their brand. Exactly. Now that is 21st century trademark. All right. Over at the Phoenix. Great story by David Bernstein called the New Black Peter. He's looking at a new group of leaders in Boston. Black leaders hoping to finally shed the image of Boston is hostile territory for persons of color particularly African-Americans. Very interesting.

Well this all came together in the wake of the kewl lounge episode which if listeners are unaware of this the weekend of the Harvard Yale game alumni group of largely black professionals from various Harvard and Yale professional schools and graduate schools you know have a get together at the Cure nightclub in downtown Boston. Well through some snafu no one told the the the god's at the door. I don't know why they needed to be told. But nevertheless that the crowd was going to be largely African-American and seeing a large crowd of African-American people I decided oh this could be gang related me kicked everyone out. Not bright and shining moment for Boston and unfortunately one all too typical. Let me add something because we've done a big piece about the Cure lounge incident with members who were there. They had a guest list. You could only get in if your name was on the guest list so there should not have been a problem. And even with that they people were being kept out of the

lounge and their names were on the guest list and they looked on the line and said there are a lot of African-American women here they could attract gang members so we're shutting it down. Yeah I mean and these are law students by the way mostly from Harvard and Yale not so bright. But yeah I'm sure these guys will and very dangerous as most like. So anyway in the wake of this you know we asked David Wilson to take a look there were two huge Kidwell one huge convention the European league coming and another blacks in government. And feed at the National Organization of minority architects coming in the fall. Well that's right thank you I said I. Nice addendum. Now this is important because Boston's racial climate has kept professional black groups outside of Boston for a long time and the city fathers and sisters if you will have a lot invested in these conventions going well. It happens all the time too when there's a change taking place in the political infrastructure of

the city and within the black community itself. One is there's a whole new gob of blacklead is perhaps a figurehead is Michael Curry who was recently elected head of the MWC pay forty two years oh yeah 42 years old in people he said. Why is this significant. Well young he was born here in Boston but I challenge anyone to scratch their head and say when the last 10 years have you heard of them doing anything other than having the annual meeting. You can look in the Boston City Council and see Ms presently who I do want to present in the present and Felix Arroyo who we're together just a very different breed of I hate to say minority members because people of color are now in the majority the city of Boston. But but but so strong is the white power infrastructure that I guess they deserve the minority I think a shorthand way might be post civil rights

generation. Actually you know I'll let you off that OK. All of this is to say to make a complicated or rich story simple is that things are in fact changing in Boston in that while incidents like the kewl lounge are unfortunate. They are no longer as indicative of the truth is they once might have been. However these three I was going to say two conventions but these three lodge conventions coming to Boston are going to be a real acid test for the city on how black government professionals black architects are treated when they are here and I don't mean treated officially. I mean they do day to day and that's right so you're here to enjoy the culture. Yes exactly. Do you know when to say something. Yeah I mean I think that. It has to happen I think in Boston. You know the moment has come and

it's evolving and changing to where so many other major cities are and we had a couple years ago folks in the national gay newspaper guild in that we were at club cafe in Boston and these are guys all men from all the major cities and they look around club cafe and said hey where do you keep all your black people you know. And we've jokingly said in this day. But but it it's it's that way now in the suburbs you know we have to have this middle class emerge which we know is there that isn't just in Randolph and isn't just in Milton and isn't you know it needs to be a much more integrated feeling just like it is in all the other major major city and you know it's just it's just really a stunning change for those of us who live here. I mean I still laugh but you know our offices are in a window in South Boston now bay windows is in South Boston and every now and then I'll see an African-American jogging and I feel fear. And I have to remind myself it's 2000 and

10 now you know and it's that old way of thinking that really is still evolving and changing but there is you know there's there's a black middle class out there that is just becoming more and more evident. And yet Sue let me get Richard in on this. Yeah your allowance just happened a few weeks ago. Did you know Kelly I think back to about 30 years ago the great stand formen photo on the front of the Boston Herald American I believe at the time you know theater a landmark walking last Boston City Hall Plaza getting attacked by a white guy with an American flag. And it's not that he's now you know with the blocks in an architectural Centurion posting you know meeting the National Organization for minority arc. Yeah not just with residents Yes but here you have you know a story about. College you know Harvard and Yale and Yale alarms and grad students and and they get thrown out of a place or kept out of a club.

I just have to wonder you know here we have somebody who's 25 and a working class black man in Boston or Cambridge. How much trouble do they have all the time you know being questioned all the time when they're perfectly good citizens and they can't go in places or they get that look it's got to be with them all the time well that's the profile of the question to leave our conversation on and one well worth asking. We've been talking news with Richard Lodge you just heard him editor in chief of Metro West Daily News. Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. And Sue O'Connell co publisher of bay windows and the South in news. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Coming up we're taking a turn from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with a tour of this week's tabloids. We'll be back after this break. Stay tuned to eighty nine point seven. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Somerset Subaru. You were invited

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Next time on the wall coming up at 3 o'clock here at eighty nine point seven WGBH. It's a long commute car trip or just a quick jaunt across town wouldn't be the same without public radio. Then consider supporting the programs you love through the WGBH vehicle donation program. Just call 866 409 for two for a representative will arrange a time to pick up your unwanted vehicle and take care of the paperwork and you'll support WGBH and qualify for a tax deduction. That number again is eight six six four hundred nine for two for. Joy you buy a Donovan every Saturday at 3 for a session. Well just like that on a Celtic sojourn here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. It's rag time a view of the week's coverage in tabloids. It's a

low brow examination of the salacious to the ridiculous and everything in between. But this being public radio we'll conduct our review with the help of some highbrow analysts. Our pointy head of pop culture Thomas Connelly and Rachel Reuben Thomas Connelly is a professor in the Department of English at Suffolk University. And Rachel Reuben is the chair of the department of American studies at UMass Boston. Welcome. Hello again Good afternoon. Well they've made the announcement the Golden Globes the nominations are in and guess what. Boston based films have done pretty well. Listeners Here's a motor montage of the Boston based films that got a nod from the Golden Globes this year. You can look right here. Saying it was an idea. You guys sweepin girlfriend. Secrets just. Might happen. I'm going to kill. Some. 22:00. It's been two hours. That was and.

This idea is potentially worth billions of dollars millions in the store website. They're saying we stole the Facebook. I didn't censor did we. Not make it. Nobody's got hard like you you're a very talented player. I want to give you a real shot. Make one last one of this and push to hit one of over. You can't do it with. All due respect just too much trouble. We were listening to scenes from the films The Town The Social Network and The Fighter and Tom in total all these films got 13 Golden Globe nominations. It's pretty extraordinary for Boston but the Golden Globes it's distressing to me that they seem to get bigger every year and seem to get more and more panache and cache which we're talking 80 to 90 people who are mostly known for increasingly obscure even you know website type gossip journalism in Europe. There's very little vetting process for becoming a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. And in spite of what The Washington Post or The New York Times would say most people regard the Golden Globes

as a dress rehearsal for the Oscars. Absolutely and it shot it the worst thing is it's shutting out a lot of smaller productions and independent films. These people only go and see the big blockbusters. They are star struck in the worst sense of the word and I'm just going to put my Grinch costume on now and head for L.A.. What do you think Rachel. Well I'm going to try to take hope in one thing about the Golden Globe nominations and that is a couple of nominations a fantastic young actresses none of whom you know starred in The Boston based movies but in particular Jennifer Lawrence the remarkable 17 year old who starred in the movie Winter's Bone which won was not a huge blockbuster but was a very important and and really good movie. And and Emma Stone who starred in easy and just just completely adorable I mean she was very very charming in it. So you know I do think I do think that there are some interesting things you have to look for though in them and Thomas is

absolutely right. And I personally will put a go ahead put on my you know my Grinch costume and say I just hate the way they talk about people's clothes we know what it comes down to the ceremony if you like that distracts from anything real that might be there. All right well I'm going to take up for the designers because that when you talk about the clothes and that gives them you know some boost in the retail area I know it's commercial. But I'm just about I think it's commercial. Right that is the other thing that reveal what's in the goodie bags. How do you know that's interesting I have said that we don't want to see what I know because those are good. Now speaking of films there is one made in Texas recently by a filmmaker actually of some note of speaking of independent films and like Texas like Massachusetts Texas has a bill to give a minute some courtesies to films that that that film in Massachusetts but this one got rejected for that and we'll talk about it but I want to give people a sense of what the film is

called Machete and to give you a taste of it. Here's a clip from the trailer. As you know illegal Americans are being forced out of the country and for the good. Just because he was given an offer he couldn't refuse to talk to us like we are at war everytime an illegal dances across our border. It is an act of aggression against a sovereign state an overt act of terrorism. Set up. A double cross that left for dead ends and what you do is right. Rachel tell us about this to how this is become a little bit of a controversy. Yeah actually quite a bit so Texas has set up incentives to get filmmakers to make their movies there. Richard Rodriguez the director of machete is Texas's most prominent film maker. He made machete there and now actually it's retro actively Right because the movie has come and gone. That they're

trying to remove the incentives from the film because the charge is that it portrays Texas in a negative light. And if you just think about. Accepting that kind of logic that kind of thinking what it opens the doors to it's actually quite chilling you know think about any movie that's ever made you know any state or city look bad in some way I think machete makes Texas incidentally look good as much as it does bad and in fact the ending of the movie Machete is is somewhat utopian I have to confess I love the movie I saw it twice in the theaters I got a little teary eyed and the the sort of solidarity and hopefulness of the ending of machete which you know is so so a waste to do that I was you know what are they going to do come after the remake of True Grit next because there's a Texas Ranger in it who pursues a vendetta. You know they're they're just it's appalling. It's really appalling but you know it does show that a

movie can't shake people up. Right you have to you have to say that if they didn't take it seriously in a particular movie like this which is you know it's really it's gory it's gross out it's funny but it's still dead serious and so their reaction maybe is saying that that that that wow this movie has has made an impact. Tom before you jump in let me just let our listeners know that the film really deals with the whole immigration issue. And there's a character in there who's very much anti immigration reform and there are some other people obviously who are not and that's a quite a sensitive subject in Texas right now. But important yes. Yeah. I mean if just listening to the trailer you can tell this is an over-the-top film that is just stream at every level irrespective of the ideology of the film to put out tax incentives to businesses and then make it conditional after the fact. Seems to me that the height of both hypocrisy and bad business I mean take it from the point of view of

strictly You know bottom line economics. How can you possibly expect the filmmakers to come to your state if you're going to pull the rug out from under them and then I'm thinking about your good will hunting if the town would just listen to it. Plenty of people would say this is a negative depiction of Massachusetts. Yeah. And this is by the way not a small thing because the incentives work add up to something more than a million dollars for an independent film as this was. This makes a difference so we should note that. OK switching topics totally. Tom and Rachel for no money a computer is facing off to humans. What television game show what is. Now Tom Riddle your final answer Jeopardy. Bickering Why is it always for no money oh yeah. I don't want to play for no money here you know why do you need my winnings to be a no money or WGBH I once is about well this is two of the

greatest champions in Jeopardy history going to square off against an IBM designed computer named Watson named in honor of the founder of IBM and they're hoping to generate a lot of excitement for their technology and also for the show itself. IBM also made many years ago a chess playing computer and I'm just hoping that they get my recording of Hal from 2001 so that I can hear something like you know Popery for 10 Alex you know very mellow the way he was. What do you think Rachel. Well I think. Think actually that it's a little bit late I mean when the when the chess playing computer was out computers were mostly an idea for people we didn't you know. Now computers are something you shove in your pocket or you you know text on during while you're driving which is unfortunate. Right and so I think that was like a mystical nature to playing the computer meant playing somehow the sum of all logic and knowledge. And that's really not true anymore people play versions of game shows on their home computers all the

time you know I'm I'm always you know yelling at my daughter you know quit playing Family Feud and go do your homework you know she played us against the computer so I'm afraid that the Splash would be just people. People don't think about computers as as in this elevated way anymore. I think IBM thinks they do because they're quick to say that Watson is not going to look like Rosie from the Jetsons So that kind of retro perspective I think yeah throws your heart out of it they may wear out I think there. Yeah I think what they're going to make that popular if it is that is an element that they haven't really banked on which is the two people who are playing where the most popular contestants for Jeopardy. Jennings the guy that was on you know 74 weeks in a row. And actually I think it's going to be kind of a celebrity interest if at all. That's right but you don't tell about the people not the computer. Well that's exactly right. You're right so there you have it. OK. So this week. This is just so ridiculous I can't even talk about it.

These people that regulate depictions of TV teen girls on TV have come out with some strong messages saying that under aged female characters or are shown participating in a higher percentage of sexual depictions all kinds of stuff in a report called sexualized teen girls Tinseltown's new target. Now all of that's very important and very true except when you know who's on the advisory board and before you speak they give you a sense of this guy. We'll talk about him on the other side. Here is here is an interview with Access Hollywood in 2009. Now Miley did the teen choice awards and you know some people that you know she got you know a little ahead of her so she got on the stripper pole What were you thoughts about that. You know what I just think that all Miley loves entertaining people. She loves singing songwriting I always tell her you know if you love what you're doing and stay focused you know for the love of the art and not worry so much about opinions.

If Billy Ray Cyrus that you heard speaking there is on the advisory board of the same group that's saying let's put out a report called sexualized teen girls and she's on a stripper pole Tom how does that work. It's a freight train calling through their argument not to mention some of the TMZ viral video that's been going around of how Ms. Cyrus chooses to celebrate her latest career moves Billy Ray Cyrus being on this board I mean what are these people thinking it just shows some of the inherent inconsistency of of the board also. If you go to the website and you're not in high dudgeon and you want to know should my children watch this. It's a select list you can't just type in any show. You can only type in the shows that they've already pre-selected for you. So they're really thinking for us on two levels which is really really all Americans. Well I mean I don't care as much about Billy Ray Cyrus frankly I think I think it's really good no important for us to remember that that that the council was formed by Pat Buchanan's national finance manager. And that you know along

with their report on the way teenage girls are portrayed they had reports on you know taking note of whatever say organized religion is negatively portrayed. So you know this is part of a conservative agenda let's just call it what it is. And I am much more concerned with the portrayal of teenage girls in their sexualization in advertising yeah than in that content and they're not touching that. Right so because that's you know and that's where I don't pressure. That's right that's right. Also the website is disingenuous and loudly in bold face. This is not political this is not a right or left issue but the way they structure the whole thing it obviously is and it's unfortunate that something that should be addressed has been it de facto politicized if you've got a guy that lets his daughter get on a stripper pole come on at a conference I mean I think you need to look at your advisory board. And finally there is this this week Henry Mann seen a fabulous piece called The Pink Panther very much

associated with Blake Edwards the director who directed that movie and who died this week. Left quite a legacy of film and popular films as well. Well everyone will remember him for the Pink Panther and that cinematic excrescence tan. But I want to mention some of his Peter Gunn his groundbreaking television series drawing on the hard boiled detective Richard dime he created for radio and what I think is his most innovative film experiment in Terra which is a sort of proto slasher film without the slashing. Ross Martin is a chilling asthmatic Strangler stalking Lee Remick in San Francisco with an opening scene that has been imitated so many thousands of times a silent intruder silent house and I think Edwards really deserves a lot a lot of credit for for that kind of thing rather than the sort of generic slapstick that he's become well known for. Rachel Well I I actually would rather not remember the generics flap either and it's not generic I mean it is you know unfortunately there was a time when certain

kinds of racial characterizations were more acceptable than they are now we already talked in a previous show about the you know. Horrifying you know Japanese caricature on Breakfast at Tiffany's that he made that movie completely unwatchable and I actually found I tried to watch one of the Pink Panther movies and found that to be unwatchable because of you know the character of Kato and you know so you know perhaps it was a time when humor when one when that slapstick was grounded in kind of racial assumptions that I'm hoping that we're finding at least less publicly acceptable now. So I'm perfectly happy to have other movies to remember him by because you know those movies that he's remembered for mostly are not just silly. And I was going to point out that I didn't I for I had forgotten until the obituary started running that he was 88 years old by the way he was married to Julie Andrews That's right. And that he really helped shape her career in terms of moving past just Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music in that at the time I think was a

groundbreaking film Victor Victoria yes which she played and she played a male impostor male and a female person a male impersonating him which is about the third go around for that. Yeah but I mean you know. Hard to play SARS really I think I thought open and he also saying s o b he had her exposing her breasts right and everybody was like oh you know you don't reinvent trot you know. Taken her shirt off that's right. I so I thought that was an import I thought though. You know those roles and they were of course she's very devastated about his loss but I think that impact is that they were one of the most devoted Hollywood couples of the last 40 years. Yes that was great. Just a note from each of you a brief one about Larry King's last days at CNN. He finished his 30 year career yesterday. Last night thing to do with Larry King how you can't have your suspenders on the show you got to stand there. Yes all right well suspender clad as you are what do you think. I've been dismayed by.

I don't mean to be nasty and the guy had a great long career but he is the original softball interview. Yeah and I think that is a baleful legacy of on his part. OK. Fame. Yeah more or less I think it's time it's a good move yeah yeah. OK. As many have said enough already. Well Professor Rachel Ruben Professor Thomas Donnelly thank you. There we go. And it's appropriate because we got through now Kate Gosselin no Tiger Woods were onto it. Well we did have Miley Cyrus I don't know where to put her. But thank you for joining us for another edition of ragtime and we're going to go out on a little more of that Pink Panther music made so popular by the wonderful Henry Mann singer Seanie the composer thanking those who know this. Today's program was engineer by Alice Madison produced by Chelsea Mercer and white knuckle be an abbey Ruzicka. This show is a production of WGBH radio.