By Stephen Richardson As a budding young bookworm, Michael Silverblatt was attempting to wriggle away from reality, rather than toward enlightenment. But since 1989, he has hosted KCRW-FM’s "Bookworm," a weekly program in which he speaks with contemporary authors. Read more...

By Lael Loewenstein In 1895, when future MGM mogul Louis Mayer was in grade school and Warner Bros. scion Jack Warner in diapers, a young French visionary named Léon Gaumont took over a photographic equipment firm and created what was to become one of the world’s foremost film companies. Read more...

By Jennifer Richmond Daily Bruin Staff Death can be a scary thing. But the revelations about oneself and one’s family that come with impending demise can be the most wonderful experiences in life. Read more...

By Judith Newman The New York Times NEW YORK — Worried that the Menendez brothers’ trial, violent movies and talk-show depravity have numbed the nation’s sense of moral outrage? Read more...

By Barbara E. Hernandez Daily Bruin Staff The month of September holds special meaning to Jews, a month centering around Judaism’s high holidays, a time of moral analysis and the celebration of the new year. Read more...

By Nisha Gopalan Not since the Revolting Cocks’ "Beers, Steers & Queers – Drop Your Britches Mix" has a band so provocatively incorporated the subject of sodomy into a song – until now. Read more...

By John Irvin The camera shows what appears to be a female figure seated on a chair. She is wearing tight pants and stockings, and she is blindfolded. Read more...