apparently the new copies

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At the end of the night every single audience member was

given a copy of The Casual Vacancy, which Rowling signed. I

already had a copy, which I’d read, but the staff wouldn’t

let me give Rowling my old, beat-up, dog-eared copy to sign

— apparently the new copies we were given had shiny anti-

piracy stickers on them, which I don’t fully understand, but

I guess they ensure that Rowling’s signature is genuine,

which is of course a good thing. (On balance I would have

preferred a copy of The Little White Horse, but none were on

offer.)

Rowling is a pro—she signed, I would guess, about one book

very five seconds, but she gave good eye contact, and she

managed to communicate a lot of warmth in that very brief

interaction. “It’s like communion,” Patchett ad-libbed,

and she was right. It was one of those debates where both

sides won. If Rowling/Patchett were running in 2012, and I

wish they were, they would have my vote.

Where did you catch the debate Tuesday night? Broadcast

television? Cable news channel? Public broadcast system?

Streaming online?

How about Xbox LIVE?

If you don’t have an Xbox 360 or didn’t watch the first

debate streaming on Xbox LIVE, where Microsoft and YouGov

have been hosting both the presidential and vice-presidential

debates, you may be surprised to learn that on Tuesday night,

over 100,000 Xbox LIVE members tuned in via their video game

consoles to watch President Obama and Governor Romney square

off.

(MORE: What Happened at the Second Presidential Debate)

And that’s not all these viewers did: Microsoft’s been up

to something unusual and arguably groundbreaking as each

debate airs — allowing viewers to interact through real-time

polling.

Behind this successful woman was a man

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"I had to do a double take as at first I didn't recognize

them. They looked like any other young couple in love. They

were just waiting in line like regular people, holding hands

and at one point Jamie leaned over and kissed Evan - they

certainly looked excited and happy!" the source said.

The 26-year-old Billy Elliot star- who dated the 25-year-old

actress back in 2006 - rekindled their romance following a

split five years.
Behind this successful woman was a man. And it wasn't Dr

Sriram Nene. The man to have stood by former superstar

Madhuri Dixit since 1985, handling her publicity, managing

the accounts, even accompanying her to and from the airport

each time she landed in Mumbai from her home in Denver where

she was based since 1999 after marrying Dr Nene, was her

manager Rakeshnath.

After 27 years of what Rikku, as he's fondly called by the

industry, has often referred to as "taking care of Madhuri",

there is news of a split. If sources close to the actress are

to be believed, the two have parted ways.

And the reason, we hear, is Dixit's husband, a UCLA-trained

cardiovascular surgeon, who holds the opinion that his wife

should sign up with a professional career management firm

that can lend an effective boost to her second acting stint.

"Madhuri has done well for herself in the last one year after

having moved with her family to Mumbai. He feels she will

land more work if a professional agency handles her

assignments," says the source. 

The last wild bird had been shot by a boy some years

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In September 1914, Martha, the last passenger pigeon--a bird that, in Audubon's day, was the most populous bird on earth--died at the Cincinnati Zoo. The last wild bird had been shot by a boy some years earlier in Ohio. Martha's death made national news, and, when she died, her body was frozen into a 300- pound block of ice by the Cincinnati Ice Company, stopping time when it was already too late. The bird was sent by train to Washington, D.C., to take up posthumous residence at the Smithsonian where it became a sort of stuffed celebrity, lent out from time to time for fund-raisers in Cincinnati or celebrations in San Diego.
Four years later, the last Carolina parakeet died in the same zoo. The news was more muted, and the bird itself far less well known. I imagine that, after the slaughter of World War I, the death of a bird, even an entire species, could hardly register in the same way on the national consciousness. Our own world, certainly, has its share of human horror and political distractions.
But our technology, which of course plays a role in extinction, also can play an opposite role, in the same way that the Florida Everglades are essentially maintained by pumps and sluices built by the Army Corps of Engineers that, 100 years ago, all but destroyed the Everglades. Recently, I published a tribute in the Los Angeles Times to the Carolina parakeet on the ninetieth anniversary of its extinction--only to receive an e-mail from a scientist at the San Diego Zoo, telling me about the po'ouli, a Hawaiian bird I had never heard of. The last po'ouli died at the Maui Bird Conservation Center at 11:45 p.m. on November 26, 2004. Needless to say, the disappearance of the bird was not national news. Audubon never painted the bird; it was only discovered 35 years ago.