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      <title>Michael Downing</title>
      <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/</link>
      <description></description>
      <language>en</language>
      <copyright>Copyright 2010</copyright>
      <lastBuildDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:45:59 -0500</lastBuildDate>
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            <item>
         <title>Health-Care Wars: Embedded Reporter</title>
         <description><![CDATA[I have a confession to make:  I sort of like my insurance company.  In the last five years, it has shelled out a lot of money to save my life, which has endeared it to me.
	Also, unlike a number of the other major players in the current health-care wars, my insurance company didn’t do anything to threaten my life. . . .
<em>You can read the rest of the post at</em> <a href="www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-downing/health-care-wars-embedded_b_509167.html">Huffington Post--Health-Care Wars.
</a>

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         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2010/03/healthcare_wars_embedded_repor.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:45:59 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>RACHEL MADDOW LOVES DAYLIGHT SAVING</title>
         <description><![CDATA[Who knew?  During <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/35846288#35846288">an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show </a>on MSNBC to unscramble some of the persistent myths about Daylight Saving, I found out that Rachel Maddow is a devoted fan of long, sunny evenings.  But the false claims about the clock change saving energy—well, not so much.  

And she’s not alone.  In <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-downing/daylight-saving-beat-the_b_497851.html">a blog I did for Huffington Post called Beat the Clock</a> on the topic, I stirred up a lot of comments from lovers of daylight saving—and even more confusion. 

Now, how to shed some light on the <a href="http://www.michaeldowningbooks.com/pdfs/life-excerpt.pdf">need for health-care reform</a>.
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         <pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:11:51 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Huffington Post Health Care Post</title>
         <description><![CDATA[The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/books/">Huffington Post book page</a> has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-benedict/memoirs-are-the-new-novel_b_390866.html">a great review of Life with Sudden Death</a> by the great writer <a href="http://www.elizabethbenedict.com/">Elizabeth Benedict</a>.  She is the editor of a terrific new collection of essays by contemporary writers, <a href=" http://www.amazon.com/Mentors-Muses-Monsters-Writers-Changed/dp/1439108617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260841933&sr=1-1">Mentors, Muses, and Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed their Lives</a>.   


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         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2009/12/huffington_post_health_care_po.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:57:54 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Porter Square Books Reading</title>
         <description><![CDATA[I will be reading from <em>Life with Sudden Death</em> at <a href="http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/michael-downing-life-sudden-death">Porter Square Books</a> in Cambridge on Thursday, 29 October, at 7 p.m.]]></description>
         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2009/10/porter_square_books_reading.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:39:21 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Shelf Awareness </title>
         <description><![CDATA[An interview I did for the <a href="http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ar/theshelf/2009-10-07/book_brahmin_michael_downing.html">Book Brahmin </a>feature of the great book site<a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/index.html"> Shelf Awareness</a> was posted this week.   
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         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2009/10/shelf_awareness_1.html</link>
         <guid>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2009/10/shelf_awareness_1.html</guid>
        
        
         <pubDate>Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:55:46 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Signs of Life</title>
         <description><![CDATA[An essay I wrote for the “Lives”column—the last page of <em>The New York Times Magazine</em>—is in this week’s Sunday <em>Times</em> (4 October 2009).  If you missed the Sunday paper, you can click here for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/magazine/04lives-t.html">“Sudden Death, or Breeze.”</a>  It’s the story of my return to teaching after the first life-saving defibrillator implanted in my chest had nearly killed me.  ]]></description>
         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2009/10/signs_of_life.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:35:24 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>MOVIE NEWS</title>
         <description><![CDATA[If it has been reported in <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988644.html?categoryid=13&cs=1">Variety</a> and the <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i28e0d4f799101072d1e55328b36336d7">Hollywood Reporter</a>, then it must be true.   The movie of my novel <em>Breakfast with Scot </em>will be playing in a theater near you in October—this fall.  The U.S. distributors for the movie have an updated web site at <a href="http://breakfastwithscotmovie.com/">BreakfastwithScotMovie.com</a>, and you can also download press material and updates from the <a href="http://regentreleasing.com/index.html">Regent Releasing site</a>.  This news broke as the movie opened the ongoing 2008 <a href="http://http://www.gaywired.com/Article.cfm?ID=19570">Outfest in Los Angeles </a>and a few days after it closed the <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/07/dispatch_from_s_16.html">Frameline festival in San Francisco</a>.  

I've been having way too much fun reading other blogs written by people who have seen the movie at one of the many festivals where it has played since it premiered at the <a href="http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/08/i-b.htm">Toronto International Film Festival</a>--which means it is time I started saying more here, I know.  

So, more later.]]></description>
         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2008/07/movie_news.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:54:19 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Toothpaste + Snake Oil = Daylight Saving</title>
         <description><![CDATA[This year, the absurd history of Congress's attempt to squeeze an energy savings out of our clocks is more pertinent than ever. The <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120406767043794825-UOLcfJA8x9Gw9ozbCz77MiLmtaE_20080327.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top">recent Indiana study</a>, which proves that daylight saving wastes energy, might occasion another costly round of confusion.  We could be in for a repeat of the 2007 unilateral time change that messed up everyone’s PDA and computer clock—not to mention the schedule of every American airline.  Congress is late with its promised analysis and (by its own mandate) could decide to change the dates for daylight saving again next year.  

In a new essay, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-downing/toothpaste-plus-snake-oil_b_90451.html">Toothpaste Plus Snake Oil Equals Daylight Saving</a>, which I’ve put up on the Huffington Post, I'm proposing we ask Congress not to write a new report.  Instead, I’m hoping somebody in Congress will read the record of its own 1919 Hearings.  It features a genuinely dazzling performance by the toothpaste magnate Sidney Colgate, which I excerpt in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-downing/toothpaste-plus-snake-oil_b_90451.html">my essay </a>for your reading pleasure.
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         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2008/03/toothpaste_snake_oil_daylight_1.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:04:35 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Help Wanted</title>
         <description>First thought:  I have a blog.

Second thought:  I have a blog?

Vague recollection:  André Gide:   “Everything has already been said, but since no one listens, it is always necessary to begin again.”

Resolve:  To begin.  Coming soon—a blog.

Invitation:  Tell me anything.  This is a genuine request.  Send reading and movie tips, recipes (I’m omnivorous), and advice (I believe everything).   

Nagging worry:  A blog is a dog you have to write.</description>
         <link>http://michaeldowningbooks.com/blog/2007/04/help_wanted.html</link>
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         <pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:48:42 -0500</pubDate>
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