Longform

Manning misses practice to attend funeral

By Alyson Brodsy and Michael Marot · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:35 p.m.

Bob Sanders, safety, to return to team Monday

Half a Hilly Hundred, one heckuva long, bike-riding experience

By Alyson Brodsy and Jonathan Hines · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:31 p.m.

Broken bones. Fractured faces. Road rash. These were the fears that kept me from sleeping soundly last Saturday night, the night before I participated in my first Hilly Hundred. I heard all the horror stories earlier in the day from a few longtime Hilly riders. "I was raw meat," one 14-year Hilly veteran told me of the year he ended up in the emergency room, drugged up on pain medication after a nasty spill. "I had to call a friend from Indianapolis to pick me up and take me home."

Comic Relief!

By C. Warner Sills and Andrew Roberts · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:15 p.m.

Nate Powell makes comic books. And do not insult him by calling them "graphic novels." He begins with a scene, develops characters and allows imagination to carry him away from the autobiographical and into an accessible story line that turns and tells truths with intelligence and purpose, despite the preconceived notion that comic books are a distasteful and unintelligent medium.

Lost in the maize

By C. Warner Sills and Sonia Rana · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:11 p.m.

If you were to fly a plane over the state of Indiana, every once in awhile, you might think you were in the movie "Signs." An aerial view of the terrain would show elaborate shapes and patterns like a giant patchwork quilt. That's because autumn marks the season of corn mazes -- the human-scale labyrinths beaten through the stalks of farm crops. Though they might look like the crop circle handiwork of aliens from outer space, they're actually the fruits of hard Hoosier manual labor. Maze making has a long and winding past. From the Minoan temple at Knossos, prior to, and ever since then, many world cultures have joined in the fascination. Some traditions even had a spiritual aspect connected to the maze, which often incorporated dance and other ceremonies. In European history, garden mazes sculpted out of topiaries and tall hedges were often used to deter unwanted visitors or enemies from castles.

President calls Foley conduct "disgusting"

By Alyson Brodsy and Associated Press · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:11 p.m.

President George W. Bush on Wednesday called ex-Rep. Mark Foley's approaches to House male pages "disgusting" and backed Speaker Dennis Hastert's efforts to learn how officials handled the problem. Peggy Sampson, the supervisor of the page program, was questioned for less than two hours before the House ethics committee. The panel is investigating Foley's inappropriate electronic messages to former pages and if House officials covered up Foley's come-ons.

AT&T purchase of BellSouth gets OK from feds

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:10 p.m.

T&T's $78.5 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp. won Justice Department approval Wednesday, a decision that sets the stage for further reuniting modernized parts of the old Ma Bell phone monopoly broken up by the government in 1984.

Science vs. Séance

By Elisha Sauers · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:09 p.m.

If not for Pythagoras -- that old, gray-bearded Greek philosopher and mathematician from 2,500 years ago -- students today would still be hunched over their geometry homework, wondering how to draft a proof for the area of a right triangle. Good ole Pythagoras. Now he was a man of rational-thinking and logic, one might say. He also, around 540 B.C.E., led a cult of other mathematicians known as the Pythagoreans in séance rituals which involved our earliest documented accounts of Ouija-like boards: A mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from an unseen world. Logic obviously did not govern all of his actions.

Army plans for current troop levels in Iraq through 2010

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:08 p.m.

The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far. The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, cautioned against reading too much into the planning, saying troop levels could be adjusted to actual conditions in Iraq. He said it is easier to hold back forces scheduled to go there than to prepare and deploy units at the last minute.

Small plane crashes into New York highrise

By Alyson Brodsy and Colleen Long · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:06 p.m.

A small plane with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle aboard crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan's Upper East Side, killing at least four people and raining flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said. There was no immediate confirmation that Lidle was among the dead.

What's in the frame

By C. Warner Sills and John Barnett · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:06 p.m.

When describing his life's work, director Martin Scorsese once made the astute observation that cinema is "a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." After seeing his latest masterwork, "The Departed," thrice already, I think I can better understand what he meant. Don't fret. This is not a glowing review of "The Departed" from a longtime Scorsese devotee. I'll leave that to my esteemed colleague in this issue's Reviews section. This is, however, my attempt to decipher what exactly makes Martin Scorsese, after more than 20 feature films and 40 years in the business, the greatest American film director alive today.

Meet the slickest man on the planet

By C. Warner Sills and Mark Perlman-Price · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:03 p.m.

Christopher Buckley, the author of "Thank You for Smoking" - the novel on which the movie was based - has a knack for developing character... er, a character that is. I'm referring to Nick Naylor, the main character. Naylor is one of the most charismatic characters I've seen in a movie in a long time, while the rest are more or less flat -- which still works since Naylor is so interesting he makes up for the rest (not to mention they provide a nice contrast to the centerpiece). And Aaron Eckhart is perfect for the role, born to play it. For a relatively unheralded actor, Eckhart may now be forever associated with Nick Naylor.

Felber's latest novel offers 'Ball' of confusion

By K. A. MacDonald · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:02 p.m.

There are some books that simply beg to be read. "Schrödinger's Ball" by Adam Felber of "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me" fame should be one of those books. If you are not a fan of "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me," this book might not be for you.

Horror in the heartland

By C. Warner Sills and John Barnett · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 11:01 p.m.

Rummaging through my DVD collection to pick out the best films of the past decade, a few heavy-hitters become apparent. "Saving Private Ryan," "Magnolia," "Eyes Wide Shut" and "The Thin Red Line" come immediately to mind, but besting all comers is the Coen brothers' black comic masterpiece "Fargo." Supposedly based on actual events, "Fargo" is nothing if not surreal, yet it anchors itself among the mundane world of the Midwest, showing how murder and greed can corrupt even the most genial locales.

Online Only: Unveiling stupidity

By Alyson Brodsy and Ayesha Awan · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:59 p.m.

Much like the USSR and the evils of communism were deemed the permanent enemy of America in the 20th century, today's eternal threat seems to be "Islamofascism" via terrorism. Though I do not agree with the idea, I can understand how those in power and many others believe that to make the world a safer place, they need to somehow change the way people practice Islam and modernize Muslim society. This led politicians, pundits and policymakers alike to figure out how to go about this daunting task in some other way besides invading countries that have no ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Diane Setterfield tops best-seller lists

By Sue Leeman · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:59 p.m.

LONDON -- When Diane Setterfield sent the draft of her first novel to a literary agent, she prepared a file for rejection letters, jokingly marking it "they'll kick themselves later." That file remains empty, though, because the agent immediately snapped up "The Thirteenth Tale," a Gothic horror mystery and within a few days secured Setterfield a two-book deal, reported to be worth $1.4 million, with Britain's Orion Books.

Chaotic genius, minus genius

By C. Warner Sills and Eric Smith · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:59 p.m.

Throughout the Decemberists' career, they've fit each record into a series of sailors' tales -- stories featuring gloomy memories of mariners' travels. For the Portland, OR, band's fourth LP (its first on a major label), the U.S.S., or should I say, "Her Majesty's Decemberists" returns from the Pacific Rim to share the tale of the Crane Wife.

'Cha cha feminist' shares life experiences, insights, art

By IDS staff · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:58 p.m.

What do you get when you have a Mexican girl from a strict Catholic upbringing with a need to, explore? For Maria Elena Fernández, the answer is a "cha cha feminist."

WIUX offers tickets to sold-out show

By Ariel Ivas · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:57 p.m.

Even though Regina Spektor's weekend concert at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater sold-out Tuesday, student-run radio station WIUX will offer one last chance to win tickets during its "Evening Hour" program at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Steady diet of rock

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:56 p.m.

I'll put it plainly: The Hold Steady are one of the great underground bands of the noughties, and you should get to know their music immediately. Now, many of you probably aren't familiar with The Hold Steady yet and, since Boys And Girls In America is their third album, the effort might seem somewhat daunting -- especially when you learn that songwriter Craig Finn has populated their albums with recurring characters, themes and locations.

Eclectic Beck back again

By C. Warner Sills and Josh Millrod · Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006 10:54 p.m.

This summer at Bonnaroo, in front of a crowd of roughly 80,000 people, a mellow Beck was joined by a troupe of puppeteers and marionette likenesses of him and his band. He was shy, soft-spoken and unemotional, barely moving at all. Meanwhile, the jumbo screens flanking the stage exploded with psychedelic videos of a puppet Beck and his puppet band.