This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 WASHINGTON - "Is Twain gonna be there?" Adam Sandler wanted to know. That was, he said, his first question when the Kennedy Center told him he would be receiving the 24th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which he accepted Sunday night in the 2,465-seat Concert Hall. All jokes aside, it was an evening of heartfelt tributes from Sandler's movie co-stars and fellow comedians - including Jennifer Aniston, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Conan O'Brien, Dana Carvey and, for some reason, Pete Davidson. When Sandler, 56, walked onstage at the end of the nearly three-hour event, he offered a few jokes - "As I look at this goofy award I'm holding, I can't help but think that one day it might be the weapon used to bludgeon me in my sleep by a disgruntled intruder or possibly Mr. Rob Schneider" - but mostly focused on how much his friends and family made him the global … [Read more...] about At Twain tribute, Adam Sandler credits family for ‘weird confidence’
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Adam Sandler doesn’t need your respect. He just wants to make you laugh.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 EDITORS: EMBARGOED UNTIL SUNDAY, MARCH 19 - - - PITTSBURGH - During every Adam Sandler stand-up show, he straps on his electric guitar and sings a song. Unlike the bite-size ditties he's peppered through the set about selfies or baggy shorts, this one concerns his late, great "Saturday Night Live" buddy, Chris Farley. It is a perfect tribute. Sandler, singing softly as he strums in G, captures the complicated beauty of Farley as clips of his most memorable high jinks play on a giant screen behind him. The crowd roars as he references Farley's electrifying SNL turns as a Chippendales dancer and a motivational speaker "living in a van down by the river." There is a hush as Sandler slips into the bridge, a peek into his friend's vulnerability. "I saw him in the office, crying with his headphones on "Listening to a KC and the Sunshine Band song "I said, 'Buddy, how the hell is … [Read more...] about Adam Sandler doesn’t need your respect. He just wants to make you laugh.
Inside the movement to remake America’s city streets
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 The automobile has been a fixture of urban life for more than a century. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. Congested streets turned into pedestrian safe havens. Now many want to make those changes permanent - but it won't happen without a fight. Golden Gate Park is pretty serene, as far as battlefields go. On a recent, unusually sunny afternoon, the emerald of this city's green space was alive with people moving about its main thoroughfare. Cyclists buzzed past roller skaters, who shimmied around joggers, who lapped the many pedestrians. One runner paused to play a roadside piano. A father and son rallied on a ping pong table. Dogs abounded. The one constituency not present: cars. For some, this fact explained the peace. For others, it signaled defeat. Despite its bucolic environs, Golden Gate Park has emerged as one of the most high-profile fronts in a … [Read more...] about Inside the movement to remake America’s city streets
War forces thousands of disabled Ukrainians into institutions
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 11 DNIPRO, Ukraine - When a Russian shell slammed into Taya Berkova's apartment building in Kharkiv last March, her neighbors did something she could not: They ran. The 43-year-old, who uses a wheelchair because she has cerebral palsy, was trapped as the floors above her burned. When her elderly parents and other residents finally wrangled her and her chair down six flights of stairs, she became trapped again, in a basement with no ramp and no toilet that she could use without help. Conditions have not been much better in the string of makeshift shelters she has lived in since, including one where she shared a bathroom with 35 others. At times during her year-long odyssey as a disabled refugee, Berkova simply "stopped eating so I wouldn't have to go," she said. After several temporary shelter stays, Berkova now lives in a nursing home in … [Read more...] about War forces thousands of disabled Ukrainians into institutions
DeSantis’s pivotal service at Guantánamo during a violent year
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 Ron DeSantis was a 27-year-old Navy lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, amid an escalating crisis at the U.S. military base. Hundreds of "enemy combatants," held without charges, had gone on hunger strikes. As pressure grew to end the protests, DeSantis later said, he was part of a team of military lawyers asked what could be done. "How do I combat this?" a commanding officer asked in 2006, as DeSantis recalled in an interview he gave years later to a local CBS television station. "Hey, you actually can force-feed," DeSantis said he responded in his role as a legal adviser. "Here's what you can do. Here's kind of the rules for that." Ultimately, it was the Pentagon's decision to authorize force feeding. Detainees were strapped into a chair and a lubricated tube was stuffed down their nose so a nurse could pour down two cans of a … [Read more...] about DeSantis’s pivotal service at Guantánamo during a violent year