Free Republic

On this day in 1890, the writer Boris Pasternak was born into an affluent and cultured Russian-Jewish family. His father, Leonid, was a renowned artist and professor at the Moscow School of Painting; his mother Rosa, nee Kaufman, was a concert pianist. His parents’ social circle included notable figures of the day such as Sergei Rachmaninoff and Leo Tolstoy. The influence of this creative community led the young Pasternak to study first music and then philosophy, both in Russia and abroad. In 1912 he abandoned academia to pursue his true calling: poetry and prose. The outbreak of World War I...

California may be on the verge of eliminating single-family zoning statewide. This is huge. And it’s a sign of how quickly the politics around housing and land use have shifted in just the last year. ... Senate Bill 50 — San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill to allow denser, taller housing ... Single-family houses could be converted to four-unit buildings, by right, anywhere in the state. That is, a property owner could subdivide or remodel a house to turn it into four apartments. Or a developer could build a fourplex on a vacant single-family lot. ... Let’s just pause on...

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, best known for his roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago died at age of 83, Egyptian media reported. “He died this afternoon of a heart attack in Cairo,” Steve Kenis told AFP, adding that the actor had been in a hospital for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Born in a Syrian family and named Michel Demitri Chalhoub in Egypt in 1932, he was brought up as a Roman catholic and earned a college degree in mathematics and physics before he joined his family’s business. Read: Hollywood film legend Omar Sharif suffering from Alzheimer’s disease Omar...

Omar Sharif, star of Dr Zhivago and one of the world's greatest bridge players, has died aged 83. His agent Steve Kenis said on Friday: "He suffered a heart attack this afternoon in a hospital in Cairo." Egyptian-born Sharif, who had Alzheimer’s disease, won international acclaim for his role in the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia – his first English-language film. He won two Golden Globes and an Oscar nomination for his turn as Sherif Ali in David Lean’s iconic film.

A secret package arrived at CIA headquarters in January 1958. Inside were two rolls of film from British intelligence — pictures of the pages of a Russian-language novel titled “Doctor Zhivago.” The book, by poet Boris Pasternak, had been banned from publication in the Soviet Union. The British were suggesting that the CIA get copies of the novel behind the Iron Curtain. The idea immediately gained traction in Washington.

Another TCM alert: tonight at 8PM it's airing "Doctor Zhivago". Definitely worth seeing as Hollywood film that actually showed how terrible life was in Soviet Russia. The only thing I don't like about it is its hero cheating on his cute wife with Lara. Otherwise, a truly great film with Rod Steiger stealing the show as the opportunistic lawyer Komarovsky.

For those interested, Turner Classic Movies will air "Doctor Zhivago" tonight starting at 8PM E.S.T.. While I don't approve of the adultery of the film's hero, it is one of the few times when Hollywood produced a huge epic showing how awful life under Soviet totalitarian communism truly was. For that reason alone it's worth seeing at least once. Tom Courtnenay's youthfully idealistic Pasha provides a great example of a liberal who gets power then proceeds to torment everyone else for the "common good." The scene where Zhivago returns to his wife and family after World War I only to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- More than 40 years after his death, the entire works of Russian Nobel prize-winning novelist Boris Pasternak are to be published in his homeland. A full 11-volume edition of all of Pasternak's work, including his famous love poetry, will be published within the next year, according to a report on news.com.au. Pasternak is most famous for his massive novel "Doctor Zhivago," which was made into a motion picture starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. The novel was finally published in Russia in 1988 as part of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness....

THE secrets of Saddam Hussein’s overseas business networks have been uncovered in the records of his eldest son, Uday, whose diary also reveals that he spied on his father. British Intelligence got its hands on some of Uday’s prolific collection of records before looters could make off with them. They are hopeful that the diaries will identify businessmen in Britain who helped to keep the regime in Baghdad afloat. A vain and temperamental figure, Uday insisted that every order he gave should be meticulously recorded in his office diaries, whether it be the Hollywood videos that he wanted to watch...