Here's what we know: on Thursday night at 7pm, Walter Kirn (who we believe is a genius, but we cannot prove it), former U.S. Senator George McGovern, writer James Q. Wilson and editor extraordinaire Robert Vare will be in discussion at the Central Library. What will they discuss? How literary masters of the past have both interpreted and rebuked American society and culture, as documented in the new anthology The American Idea: The Best of......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

A Word or 22: Earl wasn't all that last night despite the Smellovision but the Office was satisfyingly uncomfortable. Tonight it's nothing but Jerry Lewis until Conan comes on. Tonight - Friday - May 4, 2007 Jerry Lewis Marathon (TCM, 5-??) Starting with the Nutty Professor, it just goes on and on and on White Sox @ Angels (FoxSports, 7:00 p.m.) Ghost Whisperer/Close to Home/NUMB3RS (CBS, 8-11:00 p.m.) Prophetic ghost foretells/Missing witness found dead/Water......

If happiness is a warm gun, there's a gentleman in Simi Valley who was chuckling like Buddha on a lotus blossom jag - until the LAPD pinched him for possession of 388 illegal firearms, more than the total number of guns seized citywide in 2003. After Wayne Wright was busted for selling a gun to an undercover officer (out in Porter Ranch, of all places), the police searched his home and discovered a cache......

The mainstream media is many things: hidebound, conservative, and often cowed by powerful political and financial forces. But when they smell blood in the water, when some enterprising news outlet has worried out a story that will sell papers and deliver eyeballs, they will attack with unexpected fury. Just ask President Bush. Scarcely a week after leaving NYC on the crest of a double-digit bounce in the polls, the press has turned on him,......