http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents RSS Feed for Inq Currents en-us Sun, 27 May 2012 14:58:17 GMT http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Tina_Fey__the_arts__and_big_dreams.html Tina Fey was Frenchie, I was Rizzo. But the real star of our sold-out performances of Grease in high school was the Upper Darby School District — a place where kids like us from humble homes were taught not just English and algebra, but how to dream big, think big, and make big things happen. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Egyptian_voters_send_clear_message.html CAIRO, Egypt — Last week, Egyptian voters delivered a stunning setback to the Islamist candidate for president, who had anticipated an electoral triumph so great that it would catapult his movement to power throughout the Middle East. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Greece_could_decide_fate_of_U_S__economy.html Will Greece exit the eurozone? Hard to believe, but the answer to this question could determine the fate of the U.S. economy this year. Global investors have been driving stock prices down, as odds rise that Greece will quit the European currency union. Greece is at loggerheads with Germany, the dominant European economy that dominates policy decisions for the continent. German leaders want the Greeks to get their financial house in order; i.e, to stop borrowing money and ultimately to repay the hundreds of billions of euros they owe. Most of those euros are owed to Germany. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Colin_Powell_rsquo_s_mea_culpa.html It’s sobering, on this Memorial Day weekend, to read the chapters on Iraq in Colin Powell’s new book, to ponder the waste of soldiers’ lives that resulted from the peremptory decision to wage war on the basis of specious intelligence. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Cutting_spending_isn_rsquo_t_enough_for_schools.html More than 1,000 people took to the streets Wednesday in Center City to protest a School Reform Commission proposal to address an overwhelming budget deficit that includes drastic cuts, including possible layoffs for more than 2,700 blue-collar workers. Despite union leaders’ portrayal of the blueprint as a ruse just to privatize jobs, the SRC would be hard pressed to mount a credible defense of its plea for additional funds from the city if it didn’t show that it was ready to do whatever it takes to keep the district out of bankruptcy. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Disco_nights_at_the_Jersey_Shore.html Don­na Summer died too soon at age 63. The mo­ment I heard of the dis­co diva’s pass­ing, I im­me­di­ate­ly thought of a recurring scene at the An­chor­age in Som­ers Point, N.J., at the height of her pop­u­lar­i­ty. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Pop_Quiz.html For Memorial Day weekend, let’s take a tour of Arlington National Cemetery. 1. John F. Kennedy’s grave is one of the cemetery’s most-visited spots. But one other president is buried in Arlington. Who is it? http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Mind_Menu.html Events are free unless otherwise indicated. Special Event http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Memory_Stream.html Cas­par Wis­tar was once one of the pre­mier physicians in Phila­del­phia. Born in the city in 1761, Wis­tar was the son of Richard and Sa­rah Wyatt Wis­tar, a Quak­er fam­i­ly. As a teen­ag­er, Wis­tar assisted the wound­ed from the Bat­tle of Germantown in 1777, and this ex­pe­ri­ence re­port­ed­ly inspired him to go into med­i­cine. He studied at the University of Penn­syl­van­ia and the University of Edin­burgh, Scot­land, and received his doc­tor­ate in 1786. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20120527_Quiz_Answers.html 1. c. William Howard Taft. 2. a. Robert Todd Lincoln. 3. b. John Marshall. 4. d. Thurgood Marshall. 5. c. Medgar Evers. 6. b. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. 7. a. Anita Newcomb McGee. 8. c. Edward H. White. 9. d. Walter Reed. 10. d. 1900.