David Westheimer, author of the Von Ryan’s Express (1964), died yesterday in Los Angeles.

The former WWII POW and later editor of the former Houston Post newspaper, used his wartime experience to pen Von Ryan’s Express which was made into a movie by the same name a year later, and starred Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard. In 1980, Westheimer wrote the sequel, Van Ryan’s Return.

Westheimer also wrote My Sweet Charlie (1965), which became a Broadway play in 1966 and which netted Patty Duke an Emmy for the TV adaptation in 1970.

Vine Deloria, Jr., generally considered by historians and anthropologists to be the most important spokesperson for Native American issues for the last thirty-five years, died November 13, 2005.

Deloria exploded into the national consciousness in 1969 with his incendiary Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.

Several of his other writings – God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (1973), Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence (1974), and Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact (1995) – showcased his dual background training as both a student of theology and an attorney.

The first U.S. retrospective of acclaimed ceramic artist Ruth Duckworth, one of the world’s foremost ceramic sculptors will open at Cranbrook Art Museum November 18th.

This exhibition of approximately eighty vessels and sculptural artworks spanning six decades of Duckworth’s career will travel to the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City in January.

Ruth Duckworth: Modernist sculptor is part of a continuous gift of art books by the Ladies Library Association to the community since 1931.

On Confessions of a Dance Floor, Madonna returns unapologetically to her roots. A stunning blend of musical styles with one foot in early disco and the other pointed toward the future, Confessions On A Dance Floor "is all about having a good time straight through and non-stop," says the Material Mom, who co-wrote and co-produced every track. For Madonna and music fans everywhere, the all-dance, no-ballad Confessions on a Dance Floor is a welcome guilty pleasure. Now let's see if there is any truth to the rumors that she may play the halftime show during the Superbowl next February.

If it appears that life is imitating HBO - well, maybe it is. In a news item similar to the storyline of last seasons Entourage actors with "incredible swimmer's bod[ies]" are encouraged to apply. So goes a current casting notice for a possible WB series about underwater overachiever Aquaman, according to the fan site AquamanTV.com. Aquaman debuted in DC Comics in 1941--the adopted son (in some versions of the origin) of a lighthouse keeper who grows to learn his birthright lies in the submerged island of Atlantis. Befitting his name, Aquaman is at his best in the water, where he telepathically talks to fish, plays mind games with whales and spends time with a young charge called Aqualad. Smallville's Alfred Gough and Miles Millar will executive produce. Like their current WB series, the duo's Aquaman pilot will not be rife with capes, tights and codpiece accoutrements. Rather, the show will be a "grounded version of the Aquaman mythology," Gough told Daily Variety.

"The School is not White it's brown brick" is a statement spoken by Mae Bertha Carter to her children after their first day at an all white school. The eight Carter children suffered humiliation, prejudice and intimidation for five years in their attempt to integrate a Mississipi school. A good choice for teaching young children about civil rights and the courage of those who fought for equality.

How many of you can name 5 westerns written for teens in the past five years? 3 westerns?? 1 western??? Finally, there is someone brave enough to tackle this genre for a teenage audience, and do a pretty darn good job at the same time. David Ives writes about Scrib, a 16-year-old boy who ran away from home to the Wild West in order to write letters for people who can’t do it themselves. Sound a little far-fetched? Just wait, as Scrib’s chosen occupation leads to him nearly getting killed, being jailed as a criminal, joining up with the notorious Crazy James Kincaid, and delivering a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to a Paiute Indian.

Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale and Mrs. Cruise, is now available on DVD at the library. Could this be the best movie based off a comicbook ever made? Maybe, but here are some others that were pretty good too: Spider-man, Spider-man 2, The X-men, Hellboy, and The Crow. Of course, the best ever might be the man in blue tights, who'll return in 2006.

Jonathan Rowe, Ann Arbor native, two-time Hopwood award winner, lawyer (with a recent appearance before the Michigan Supreme Court), and city tennis tournament champion, has written a comic thriller involving a long-time SDS Weather Underground fugitive, sought for her part in an attempted fire bombing of the University law school and the attendant murder of an Ann Arbor policeman. Set in Ann Arbor with local buildings, alleys and parking structures featured in a chase scene, with local street people, and local restaurants. The main character is a tabloid journalist (and disbarred attorney), who breaks and enters, plants bugs and video cameras, misrepresents himself, and, reader please be forewarned, mutilates and steals Ann Arbor District Library materials.

November 11 is Veterans Day, a day set aside for remembering and honoring the sacrifices and contributions of our soldiers, sailors and airmen. November 11 is particularly memorable because it commemorates the Armistice which ended World War I, one of the bloodiest conflicts in hisory. To get an appreciation of the background to Veterans Day read the excellent book by Joseph E. Persico, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour which provides a comprehensive overview of the major campaigns of ‘The Great War’, as well as a poignant portrait of the last bloody hours which preceded the official end of the war at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918.