The Week: Most Recent :

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:23:33 -0600

Crappy Valentine’s Day presents, after Minnesota farmer Bruce Andersland created a half-mile-wide heart out of cow manure as a Valentine&rsquo...

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:59:27 -0600

Listen in as John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, co-hosts of "The Takeaway," bring you an audio version of The Week's "Good Week, Bad Week.” You can call in with Good Week, Bad Week nominations of your own at 877-8-MY TAKE, or e-mail them to mytake@thetakeaway.org. See more from "The Takeaway."

Good week for:

Overtime, after it was revealed that the highest-paid city employee in Madison, Wisc., was bus driver John E. Nelson, who earned $159,258 in 2009, including...

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:04:35 -0600

Punxsutawney Phil, who was pulled out of his burrow on a cold day to look for his shadow, despite pleas by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals...

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:03:11 -0600

Director James Cameron, whose Avatar broke the world box office record he’d set with a previous film, Titanic. The 3-D science-fiction film has...

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:22:11 -0600

Listen in as John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, hosts of Public Radio International's "The Takeaway," discuss the new installment of The Week's "Good Week, Bad Week"—and invite listeners to call in with opinions of their own. See more from "The Takeaway."

Good week for:

Getting divorced, after British department store chain Debenhams launched a gift registry for couples that are calling it quits, so that family and friends can help them “begin their...

Good Week, Bad Week

The Week — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:58:48 -0600

Good week for:

Sarah Palin, who signed on as a regular commentator with Fox News, a network that’s particularly popular with the conservative Republicans she’ll need for any presidential...

George W. Bush's favorite pistol, A gambler's wishful thinking

The Week — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:13:51 -0500

Good day for: Gun rights, as one of former president George W. Bush's most treasured possessions -- Saddam Hussein's pistol -- will be displayed at Bush's presidential libarary when it opens at Southern Methodist University in 2013. The 9 millimeter Glock 18C pistol was found in the spider hole in Iraq where Hussein was captured in December 2003 by Delta Force soldiers, who later presented the weapon to Bush. (The New York Times)

Bad day for: Admitting mistakes, when a former South Korean company boss who allegedly lost $23.5 million dollars gambling sued a casino, accusing it of fueling his addiction...

Lively campaigns, and more

The Week — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:22:29 -0500

Good week for:

Lively campaigns, after porn star Stormy Daniels formed a committee to explore a run for the U.S. Senate representing Louisiana. Daniels hopes to challenge incumbent “family values” Republican David Vitter, who was named last year as a customer of a Washington prostitution ring.

Residents of Butt Hole Road, in South Yorkshire, U.K., who finally tired of the jokes and the busloads of American tourists snapping photos of the street sign, and changed the street’s name to the more respectable Archers Way.

Breaking away, with the news that 200 French prisoners will...

'Heteropaternal superfecundation,’ and more

The Week — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:34:57 -0500

Good week for:

'Heteropaternal superfecundation,’ after Mia Washington of Texas entered the biology textbooks because a DNA test revealed that her 11-month-old twins have different fathers. She admitted to have been sleeping with two men when they were conceived.

Internships, after a small Spokane, Wash., distillery developed a small army of volunteers to bottle and package its vodka and gin for no pay, as long as they get free shots of the products at the end of their shift. “It’s grown popular entirely by word-of-mouth,” said Don Poffenroth of Dry Fly Distilling.

Miracles...

Consequences, and more

The Week — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:13:34 -0500

Good week for:

Consequences, with hospitals in the Houston area preparing for a 25 percent surge in births nine months after Hurricane Ike knocked out power for days. “You can only do so much when there’s no television, nothing open, and there’s nowhere to go,” said obstetrician Rakhi Dimino, who is eight months pregnant.

Nuance, after a six-year, $12 million scientific study identified the flavors in New Zealand’s signature Sauvignon Blanc as a combination of passion fruit, asparagus, and cat’s pee. “If you had a whole lot of cat’s pee it obviously...

Saudi Arabian children, and more

The Week — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:32:25 -0500

Good week for:

Saudi Arabian children, after that nation’s embarrassed government said it would consider banning marriage for girls under 18. The possible policy change follows an international outcry over news that an 8-year-old Saudi girl had been married to, and granted a divorce from, a man in his 50s.

Stereotypes, after a survey found that the French spend more time sleeping and eating than do people in any other developed nation. The average Frenchman sleeps nine hours a day, and whiles away two hours a day over his meals.

Alpo, after researchers presented volunteers with five types...

Doing what I say, not what I do, and more

The Week — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:09:36 -0500

Good week for:

Doing what I say, not what I do, with the news that the leader of one Mexican drug cartel called “the Family” has insisted that when gang members are not selling cocaine and murdering rivals, they attend gang-run classes in ethics, values, and personal improvement, and abstain from drugs and alcohol.

Total makeovers, after Andrea Wachner of Los Angeles hired a stripper to attend her 10-year high school reunion in her place. Wachner, a self-conscious geek in school, used a hidden earpiece to coach her stand-in, who wore, and then shed, a slinky dress and fishnet stockings...

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, and more

The Week — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:17:09 -0500

Good week for:

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, after Massachusetts officials admitted that some road signs for the popular fishing spot in Webster, Mass., were misspelled as Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg. The signs will be corrected.

Order in the court, after an Idaho judge had bailiffs use duct tape to cover the mouth of an unruly defendant.

Riding sidesaddle, after a Florida man applied for a permit to open a nude dude ranch.

Bad week for:

Forever holding your peace, after a New York woman sued a guest at her wedding for loudly announcing that she&rsquo...

Making lemonade out of lemons, and more

The Week — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:12:52 -0500

Good week for:

Making lemonade out of lemons, after a British woman started a popular blog recommending that fellow gardeners get rid of their garden snails by eating them. “They’re perfectly good meat,” says Oriole Parker-Rhodes, 59, who recommends baking the snails with wild sorrel, watercress, and butter.

Going on a diet, after United Airlines began demanding that overweight passengers whose buttocks spill out of their seats buy a second seat.

Artyom Sidorkin of Russia, who went into surgery this week for what doctors believed was a large, malignant lung tumor. Doctors found...

Gay tourists, and more

The Week — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:30:46 -0500

Good week for:

Gay tourists, after recession-battered New York City launched an ad campaign aimed at convincing gays and lesbians that a visit to the city is the equivalent of a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The new “Rainbow Pilgrimage” campaign, timed to the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, describes a visit to the city as “a rite of passage.”

Futuristic rickshaws, after General Motors and Segway unveiled a new concept vehicle called PUMA, a two-wheel minicar that runs on lithium-ion batteries.

Storming the Bastille, after a poll found that 45 percent...

Visualizing world peace, and more

The Week — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:06:32 -0500

Good week for:

Visualizing world peace, after Miss Universe paid a visit to the Guantánamo Bay military base and declared it “a loooot of fun!” After seeing the detainee camps and recreation areas, Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela said, “I didn’t want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.”

Quick thinking, after a woman caught driving 103 mph on an Oregon road with her 10-year-old grandson in the car explained to police that she was only trying to teach the boy never to drive that fast.

Parochialism, after American reporters traveling to Europe...