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Our newest status symbols. And all everybody is talking about.

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Forty years ago today, and just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Reagan survived, and explained to his wife Nancy, "Honey, I forgot to duck," quoting the line boxer Jack Dempsey said to his wife after being defeated by Gene Tunney in 1926.

Is that ship still stuck?

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Lego Set ~ van Gogh's Starry Night

Does the van Gogh figure have a detachable left ear?

The Matrix

Everybody has dreams

Why do you want to be president?

With that seven-word question, CBS correspondent Roger Mudd derailed the wobbly presidential aspirations of Senator Ted Kennedy in 1979. Mudd died this week at 93.

The New York Times made no bones about it in Mudd's obituary.

Pee Wees: Confessions of a Youth Hockey Parent

Pee Wees: Confessions of a Youth Hockey Parent, by Rich Cohen, is an insider's look at the Darwinian forces at work in metro New York youth hockey. Published in January, Cohen's book recounts how he and other parents brood and obsess over their kids' success on the ice, usually more than the kids themselves, as well as the ego-driven, intramural squabbling between parents and coaches.

"The Fairfield County Amateur Hockey Conference (FCAH) fields four travel teams. From highest to lowest, it goes AA, A, A1, B. The season is long, 50 games culminating in a state tournament. For the parents, this means waking up early, staying up late, and driving for hours. It means living like a long-haul trucker, making the same sort of calculations and drinking the same amounts of coffee. It means visiting each town in the state, coming to know every mascot and jersey as well as the net income, fashion preferences and pedagogical style of every sort of hockey parent."

This is nothing new. I played Pee Wee and Bantam youth hockey in the Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association in the late 60s and early 70s, and well remember the pre-dawn practices, long drives every weekend, and the one-upmanship between certain parents and players. I later coached a championship Squirt youth hockey team in Westchester County, New York. It was a blast.