Train Wreck

MEMOIR OF A DEBULKED WOMAN: Enduring Ovarian Cancer By Susan Gubar Norton, 320 pp., $24.95 There's a kind of cancer book that insists illness is a teacher, and "treatment is a journey with a spiritual pot of gold at its end. " Feminist literary scholar Susan Gubar, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008, did not want to write that kind of book, and she has not. Instead of triumph or transcendence, she...

MEMOIR OF A DEBULKED WOMAN: Enduring Ovarian Cancer By Susan Gubar Norton, 320 pp., $24.95 There's a kind of cancer book that insists illness is a teacher, and "treatment is a journey with a spiritual pot of gold at its end. " Feminist literary scholar Susan Gubar, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008, did not want to write that kind of book, and she has not. Instead of triumph or transcendence, she...

LOS ANGELES - Federal investigators yesterday combed railroad tracks and crushed wreckage looking for evidence to explain the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years and said a dispatcher tried to warn the engineer before the crash. An official with the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators will seek the cellphone records of two teenagers and the train's engineer as they probe whether text messages factored into the fiery crash, which killed 25 people and injured 135 more in Southern California.

Q. I'm a 27-year-old woman trapped in a loveless marriage. My husband is younger than I am by a few years, and he's very co-dependent. Before he started dating me, he had never had a girlfriend or a sexual encounter. I, on the other hand, came to the relationship with a child from a failed relationship and a whole lot of trust and fear issues from an abusive ex. Since we've been married, my husband has become verbally, sexually, and, to a lesser degree, physically abusive, to the point of laying a hand on my 5-year-old-son.

MOSCOW - Russians mourned at religious services and soccer stadiums yesterday after a deadly train wreck that authorities blamed on a terrorist bomb. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church urged the nation not to give in to fear. Relatives identified loved ones killed in the wreck of the express train. If confirmed as caused by a bombing, the wreck would be Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack outside the violence-plagued North Caucasus provinces in five years. Television networks took entertainment programs off the air and moments of silence were observed before matches on the final...

GLENDALE, Calif. -- A suicidal man who allegedly parked his SUV in the path of a commuter train and triggered a horrific wreck that killed 11 people was charged with murder and could face the death penalty, authorities said yesterday. The criminal case moved forward against Juan Manuel Alvarez as police and forensics experts worked to gather evidence from the crime scene, and coroner's investigators searched the tangled wreckage for any remaining body parts. Prosecutors have not decided if they will seek the death penalty against Alvarez, 25, who had been ordered by a court...

EVER SINCE outgoing Middle East envoy George Mitchell used the phrase "train wreck" with Charlie Rose in May, it has become jargon for what will happen in September when the Palestinian leadership goes to the United Nations seeking "full membership for the state of Palestine. " The Netanyahu government is so gravely threatened that it has made opposition to the UN affirmation of Palestinian independence a litmus test of loyalty to Israel. A catastrophe looms. The Obama administration has announced its intention to use its Security Council veto to derail any such resolution,...

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. -- A freight train carrying chlorine gas struck a parked train early yesterday, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 200 others, most of whom were sickened by the toxic cloud that persisted over this small textile town at nightfall. Authorities ordered all 5,400 people within a mile of the crash to evacuate in the afternoon because chlorine was continuing to leak and the gas was settling near the ground as temperatures dropped. State Senator Tommy Moore said officials at Avondale Mill, the textile plant where the crash happened, told him...

thinks the Red Sox organization is a train wreck right now.

UNBREAKABLE (Encore on Comcast) M. Night Shyamalan reunites with his “Sixth Sense’’ star, Bruce Willis, but to less effect than the first time around. Like the first film, this one is set in Philadelphia and has lots of moody atmosphere. But the story about a man (Willis) who walks away from a train wreck unharmed and meets a brittle-boned stranger (Samuel L. Jackson) with a far-out theory turns into its own train wreck. (PG-13; runs through July 30) THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (Comcast Free Movies)

REZ LIFE: An Indian"s Journey Through Reservation Life By David Treuer Atlantic Monthly, 330 pp., illustrated, $26 "Indian reservations, and those of us who live on them, are as American as apple pie, baseball, and muscle cars," writes David Treuer, an Ojibwe writer who divides his time between his childhood home on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota and Los Angeles, where he teaches at USC. He blends memoir and history to...

CATFISH ★★ ½ (HBO on Comcast) An entertaining but highly problematic documentary (quotes optional) about three New York hipsters who venture into the Midwestern heart of darkness when they Facebook-friend a family that - but we can say no more. Is it real? A hoax? Are the filmmakers shallow naifs or just pretending to be? See it for the excellent arguments you'll have on the ride home. (PG-13; runs through Jan. 31) TY BURR THE GREEN HORNET ★★ (Starz on Comcast)

IT WAS THE KIND OF YEAR that made a person look back fondly on the Gulf oil spill. Granted, the oil spill was bad. But it did not result in a high-decibel, weeks-long national conversation about a bulge in a congressman's underpants. Which is exactly what we had in the Festival of Sleaze that was 2011. Remember? There were days when you could not escape The Bulge. At dinnertime, parents of young children had to be constantly ready to hurl themselves in front of their TV screens, for fear that it would suddenly appear on the news in high definition.

Historians are usually able to look back and pinpoint the factors that caused the greatest of nations to fall into decline. If it ever comes time to dissect what happened to the United States, they will likely boil it down to one word: WINNING. Yes, folks — when a Charlie Sheen manic outburst becomes an inspirational motto for a nation, it's the beginning of the end. Sadly, historians will likely have other moments to illustrate our cultural collapse, including Kim Kardashian's blink-and-you-missed-it marriage, which generated more money than some cities' annual...

Tony Mitchell scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead No. 16 Alabama to a 62-42 win over Maryland on Thursday night in the opening round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Mitchell was 7 of 12 from the field, including 3 for 4 from 3-point range, and Trevor Releford scored 10 points for the Crimson Tide (3-0), who grabbed a double-digit lead early in the first half that they would not relinquish. Alabama cruised despite senior forward JaMychal Green heading to the bench early in the game with two quick...

thinks the Red Sox organization is a train wreck right now.

THE GREEN HORNET ** (Starz on Comcast) What if a masked crime fighter was an obnoxious lout? Star Seth Rogen and director Michel Gondry undermine every promise a superhero movie is supposed to make with subversive comic verve, but the parody becomes a train wreck in the final hour. Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou plays Kato, who turns out to have more talent than his boss. (PG-13; runs through Aug. 16) TY BURR THE MAN WHO CRIED ** (Starz on Comcast)

EVER SINCE outgoing Middle East envoy George Mitchell used the phrase "train wreck" with Charlie Rose in May, it has become jargon for what will happen in September when the Palestinian leadership goes to the United Nations seeking "full membership for the state of Palestine. " The Netanyahu government is so gravely threatened that it has made opposition to the UN affirmation of Palestinian independence a litmus test of loyalty to Israel. A catastrophe looms. The Obama administration has announced its intention to use its Security Council veto to derail any such resolution, and both houses...