There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom: Knowledge is seeing a one-way street; wisdom is still looking both ways before you cross.

RICHMOND "I'm a writer, I want to know where you're going with this," Jim Webb says suspiciously at the beginning of our chat. He has been so many things: tough guy, for sure; Ollie North's college boxing opponent, Vietnam War hero, Navy secretary, senator, Republican . . . Democrat.

Few would quarrel with the notion of Oprah Winfrey as the most influential television host, with Bill O'Reilly coming in second.

CASTLETON, Va., July 5 -- When Lorin Maazel, 79, built his home theater here, about 60 miles from Washington, he probably didn't envision that he would be inviting quite so many people over to watch performances. A "home theater" for Maazel denotes not a private movie screen but an...

I stand, topless and self-consciously hunched over in the dressing room, avoiding at all costs any eye contact with either of the two full-length mirrors, edged in gold and black. I feel exposed and a little silly and ready to just leave.

Unless you've got pyrotechnics at your disposal, playing in the Washington area on the Fourth of July is kind of a bad idea. At Chuck Mead's Iota gig, barstools outnumbered patrons even though the performance's start time was pushed back an hour to accommodate fireworks watchers. However, the 20 or...

Rupert Grint has come down with a "mild" case of swine flu, the Associated Press reports. The actor, who plays Ron Weasley in the "Harry Potter" movies, took a few days off from filming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in Britain to recover at his home, but his spokeswoman confirms that Grint...

Here are the top movie ticket sales Friday through Sunday, with estimated weekend receipts, and total receipts since the movie opened. The number of weeks opened is in parentheses.

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL By Greg Iles Scribner. 580 pp. $26.99 There is a lot going on in Greg Iles's third novel featuring Penn Cage, the mayor of Natchez, Miss., but finally it's a story about evil. Cage, a lawyer and successful novelist, has run for mayor of his home town to save it from troubles...

Adapted from a recent online discussion: Dear Carolyn:

The four remaining contestants on "The Bachelorette" (ABC at 8 p.m.) try to remain on their best behavior when Jillian takes them on a romantic trip to Spain, because after the rose ceremony, the final three will head to Hawaii.

If Michael Jackson had married me, none of this would have happened.

NEW YORK, July 5 -- NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise the Michael Jackson memorial service live on Tuesday.

Take KidsPost with you on vacation this summer. This kid did and now she's famous! Whether you're going camping or cruising, to the ocean or the mountains, have someone take your picture holding KidsPost and send it to us. We'll be printing pictures of KidsPost readers on vacation every Monday for...

MAKE A DATE July is National Hot Dog Month. According to the Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans ate about 150 million hot dogs on Independence Day, enough to stretch from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles more than five times.