Dan Webster

Dennis Miller is a wiseass and proud of it. Thing is, he’s a political wiseass and that sets him apart. Because at least since Sept. 11, 2001, he’s been leaning toward the right side of the political spectrum. As he told Time magazine in 2003, “I’m left on a lot of things. It two gay guys want to get married, I could care less. If a nut case from overseas wants to blow up their wedding, that’s when I’m right.”

It’s been an up and down couple of months for Spokane-based writer Sherry Jones. First her novel “The Jewel of Medina,” which tells the story of Muhammad’s wife A’isha, was supposed to be published by Random House.

The essence of life is change. But what happens to the old ways as we shuffle madly to cater to the latest fashion? Or to meet the dictates of the most recent political turnover?

What your middle-school English teacher told you is true: Language is important. Think of the word “contractor,” for example. It likely brings images of baseball-capped guys who build houses or direct the crews that renovate kitchens, bathrooms, etc.

We’re all products of our past. And if that past happens to include abuse, then our options for a happy and fulfilled life tend to narrow. Here’s one thing that many abuse survivors have discovered: The key to finding a measure of happiness in life comes not just from surviving the pain that life hands out, but from the decisions we make in response to that pain.

On Thursday, Spokane author Sherry Jones received the kind of notice for her first novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” that most writers would kill to have. Internationally renowned writer Salman Rushdie sent the Associated Press an e-mail about the book.

Some of us walk outdoors and see nature in all its splendor. Others do so and think of books we could write.

The man in black is back. And most movie critics, along with theater owners, are glad that he is. We’re talking, of course, about Batman as he is portrayed in “The Dark Knight,” Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his 2005 film “Batman Begins.” “The Dark Knight” opens today on more than 4,300 screens.

Ernest Hemingway is, to a number of academics, little more than a joke. Despite having won the 1954 Nobel Prize, he's seen as a writer whose terse prose is ploddingly simplistic. And his themes, which so often detailed his own view of what it means to be a man, are prone to caricature.

Summer isn't the traditional time for book-publication parties. But poets are different sorts. That divergence from the norm is part of their charm.

Summer reading programs are mostly for kids. Not so with the Spokane County Library District. As part of the district's summer program, adult readers can win prizes for their reading efforts.

Rich Landers and Dan Hansen, longtime colleagues of mine here at The Spokesman-Review, have forgotten more information about Washington's waterways than many of us ever would want to know. That's why those of you who are interested in boating, floating or merely exploring the state's many rivers, streams, lakes and ponds might want to catch the two of them when they give a free slide-show talk about their new book at 7 p.m. Tuesday at REI, 1125 N. Monroe St.

If it's true that history is written by the victors, then men have been victorious at most things. Traditional history, the kind that many of us learned in the decades immediately following World War II, is largely a story of men – fighting wars, negotiating peace, exploring the unknown and recording their exploits for the generations that followed.

His name is Henry Walton Jones Jr. But everyone knows him as Indiana. He's the protagonist of four films, all directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, based on Lucas' original idea and on scripts co-written by Lucas and writers that include Philip Kaufman, Lawrence Kasdan and – with the most recent film, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which opened Thursday – David Koepp. He's also been the subject of a television series, a book series, a Disney theme-park ride and has even appeared in a number of video games. Those of us who have seen the films all know the character. Or at least we think we do. But who is Indiana Jones, really? A trek through Web sites such as www.theindyexperience.com can elicit lots of information, most of it compiled from the sources listed above balanced with the odd interview from the Lucas-Spielberg crowd. The rewards of such a search can result in a fascinating look at a fictional life. (Warning: There may be a spoiler or two for those who haven't yet seen "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.")

The name Anu Garg likely means nothing to you. Garg, a computer software and network guy who lives in the Seattle suburb of Woodinville, is creator of the Web site www.wordsmith.org and the person who oversees the A.Word.A.Day e-mail newsletter (which has more than 600,000 subscribers, some 500 of whom live in or near Spokane).

Culture, like the approaching summer, is in the air. In the paragraphs that follow, you'll find references to Irish poet Kevin Kiely and Puerto Rican memoirist Esmeralda Santiago, both of whom will give talks at Eastern Washington University's Cheney campus during the coming week.