"his aides let it be known that mr. bush sneers at the way reporters sculpt their hair and apply makeup for their prime-time appearances, a disdain that shows. "he�ll laugh at your questions," said a white house newspaper correspondent who has suffered that fate"

mr. blair took one blunt question after another, including this killer: what he would say to a mother who has just waved her young son goodbye, knowing he may never return from iraq? yet rather than retreat into dogma, the prime minister spoke like a real�yet intelligent�person. "i understand, of course, my people think it�s a very remote threat, and it�s far away, and why does it bother us�. now i simply say to you, it is a matter of time, unless we act and take a stand, before terrorism and weapons of mass destruction come together. and i regard them as two sides of the same coin." mr. blair was so intellectually honest that he even raised the complicating question of north korea unprompted. mr. bush probably would have insulted the reporter.

r�mur were regarded as a performance art; a good r�mur chanter would engage his listeners with his clever rhyming schemes and catchy melodies. r�mur were performed on winter nights when inhabitants sat occupied by their work (making clothing from wool, wreathing horsehairs into ropes, cutting tools from wood, etc.) for seven centuries, this was icelanders' only branch of entertainment and it's only recently that this tradition has dissolved.