Free Republic

...there was nothing like Ernie Harwell. Just as Harry Caray spoke to the irreverent, rowdy side of White Sox and Cubs fans, Harwell hit home with the direct, blue-collar ethic of Detroit Tigers fans. Harwell died on May 4, 2010, at the age of 92. He is the subject of the theatrical tribute “Ernie,” which runs through June 26 at Detroit’s City Theatre...

Recently-posted video footage showing a cat's incredibly cute encounter with dolphins at a marine park in Islamorada, Fla., is touching the hearts of viewers from around the world.

Play presents peaceful perspective on IslamMembers of the Saudi Arabian Student Association star in the University Theatre production Kayla Harr Issue date: 3/3/11 Oregon State University Theatre Arts and the Saudi Arabian Student Association presented the opening performance of "I See God/I See Allah," a play that explores the meaning of Islam, Wednesday night. "I See God/I See Allah," by Saudi Arabian writer Raja Alem, presents a female author's experience being interviewed by a talk show host about her controversial book that was inspired by a young woman's intense spirituality when she prays. The cast was entirely comprised of students...

Makes "cowboys and Indians", or "cops and robbers" seem pretty lame.

The Heartland Institute knows all about global warming skepticism. Indeed, you could say we wrote the book. So we were surprised that a play about global warming skepticism called "The Heretic" is now running in London — and that the left-wing Guardian newspaper gave it favorable notice. A quick summary of the play: [It] starts from a promising premise: the isolation of Dr Diane Cassell, a leading light in the earth sciences department of a Yorkshire university. Her speciality is measuring sea levels in the Maldives, and her pragmatism leads her to conclude they have not risen in 20 years. Inevitably her...

Imagine a play where conservatives invite a far-left wing activist to dinner, only to kill him or her afterward. Would such a play get rave reviews, or would it be shown as an instance of conservatives and Tea Partiers inciting violence? Most of us know the answer to that question. But such a play is making the rounds in Madison, Wisconsin. Except the killers aren't crazed gun-toting Tea Party activists, they're liberal students, and the victims are conservatives. The Last Supper, a production of the Mercury Players Theatre, is set to run through Feb 12 in Madison, and the performance...

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Forster has been signed to play Ronald Reagan in The Lifeguard: Ronald Reagan and His Story, a one-man stage play written by David Rambo to be directed by Tony Award winner Peter Hunt. The play is being produced by David Permut and Mark Travis, with Merry-Kay and Steven Poe. Permut and Travis plan to follow the template they established with James Whitmore and Give 'Em Hell Harry. That Harry Truman story was first mounted as a stage show that toured the country, and it was filmed and released as a theatrical feature in 1975. Hunt directed Whitmore in...

It is an unlikely piece of modern stagecraft. Contemporary drama strives to be not so much dramatic as to be shocking, not to present the truth but to wallow in clichéd, politically-correct truisms. “Lombardi: A New American Play,” at New York’s Circle in the Square Theater, breaks the mold of permanently adolescent modernity to narrate a tale of mature sensibilities superficially disguised in a story that might conceivably lack any sensibilities whatsoever: a narrative of a long-dead middle-aged football coach in a nondescript Midwestern city a time zone removed from Broadway. The play, however, is aided by the fact that...

Scene: Night Court, Manhattan, a date in the near future. Players: Prosecutor, Judge, and Gandler, the defendant. Judge: Mr Prosecutor. Prosecutor: Your honor, case 12A. The defendant, Mr Helmut Gandler, was caught giving possible offense earlier this evening, a clear violation of the Totenberg Act. Judge: Details? And since it’s almost that time, perhaps we can cut these short. Unless we’re expecting difficulties? Prosecutor: None that I foresee, your honor. Mr Gandler was coming out of Macy’s with an armload of parcels, and a gentleman—do we have his name? No?—at any rate, this unnamed gentleman opened the door for Mr...

If he plays his cards wisely, he can say no to Obama and avoid an open confrontation. Just ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip next week to Washington, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went on a charm offensive towards the Israeli media. On Tuesday, Abbas invited representatives of the Hebrew-language press to his office in Ramallah and assured them of his good intentions towards Israel. We have been here before. In Netanyahu’s last go-around as prime minister, it seemed like every time he was due to visit Washington, then president Bill Clinton’s advisers would set up a meeting for...

A manhattan dad nearly choked on his Wheaties when his 14-year-old son timidly asked: "Dad, do I have to wear a dress to school?" No joke. These conversations went on in kitchens and living rooms around the city, as a top school that educates learning-disabled and autistic children staged a student production of "La Cage aux Folles" -- a cross-dressing, limp-wristed, gay comic romp whose main characters are a pair of "married" men. (snip)the kiddie version of "La Cage" was cooked up by the executive director of Child School, a private institution on Roosevelt Island that takes on youngsters from...

Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel played while the oil spilled into the Gulf. See the pics.

Obama's schedule of late reads like a self-indulgent narcissist's dream come true: April 23: Four days after the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Barack and Michelle begin their golf-filled vacation in North Carolina. April 26: Even after it is clear that thousands upon thousands of gallons of crude are spilling into the Gulf daily, Obama pays no real attention to the crisis. He's busy entertaining the New York Yankees at the White House. April 29: Tired of campaigning for legislation in stops across the country, Obama stays in Washington, D.C.-and attends a DNC fundraiser at a private...

This is wrong on so many levels. Anyone who can tell me where this little tyke production was staged gets a limited edition DVD of Scarface, a Tony Montana action figure, and a used coke vial.

For the millions of fans who daily followed the "Peanuts" cartoon by the late Charles Schulz, the "Charlie Brown Christmas" television special and the musical "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," a New York playhouse organization is working on a stunner that portrays the characters as homosexuals...

As the Tories pledge to curb meddling officials, glorious images of days when childhood was allowed to be fun. A new book presents scenes from a bygone era when men from the council with clipboards did not swoop down on children swinging from lampposts, climbing walls or dangling from the string of a kite. Not to mention practising the noble art of boxing...

10/20/2009 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- Nearly 100 Iraqi children spent Oct. 10 running, playing and, more than anything, smiling as they had fun with American servicemembers on Joint Base Balad. The local Iraqi youths, from 5 to 18 years old, were invited to the base as part of a project initiated by the U.S. Department of State's Salah Ad Din Provincial Reconstruction Team, and Joint Base Balad Airmen and Soldiers jumped on the idea to coordinate the details for the children. Capt. Amy White, the 332nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group executive officer and lead organizer for the...

Free, imaginative play is crucial for normal social, emotional and cognitive development. It makes us better adjusted, smarter and less stressed. Childhood play is crucial for social, emotional and cognitive ­development. Imaginative and rambunctious “free play,” as opposed to games or structured activities, is the most essential type. Kids and animals that do not play when they are young may grow into anxious, socially maladjusted adults. On August 1, 1966, the day psychiatrist Stuart Brown started his assistant professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 25-year-old Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower...

WASHINGTON – Wall Street is not going to play as dominant a role in the economy as regulations reduce "some of the massive leveraging and the massive risk-taking that had become so common," President Barack Obama says.

George Orwell's 1945 satiric novel Animal Farm was performed with a distinctively Palestinian flavor in a debut production this week at the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp, taking aim at internal politics and the alliance between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In scene one of the play, Farmer Jones assassinates the animals' leader. In scene two, the animals - a few horses, a donkey, a crow, a chicken and some pigs - rally around a revolutionary sow named Snowball, who leads an uprising against their oppressive master. "Intifada!" the animals scream, using the Arabic word for uprising....